32 r:S8Tjm4 op surbll's study of 



are now tlireatened made their appearance ; for, on the one hand, these 

 towns are very ancient — Chorges, for instance, dates certainly from before 

 the commencement of the Christian eraj on the other hand, the two torrents 

 which now severally threaten these towns cannot have acted long with the 

 energy which they at present manifest. Their slope is abruptly broken at 

 the issue of the gorge ; their bed of dejection is not yet regularly formed, 

 and that of Chorges has risen 6 mfetres, or 20 feet, in the course of the last 

 fifteen years. 



" If this process had been going on at the same rate for only a thousand 

 years the market-town would have been buried long ago under a mountain 

 of deposit. That of Crottes, again, is a large ravine, which has only within 

 the last few years given occasion for disquietude. There are cases yet more 

 conclusive in regard to the comparatively recent formation of some torrents 

 which can be adduced. A church in the valley of D6voluy is threatened 

 by a torrent which flows directly towards the building, and is only kept in 

 check by an embankment constructed about twenty years ago ; and we 

 cannot suppose such an edifice, the construction of which seems to have 

 been attended to with all care, to have been erected in the very mouth of 

 the torrent ! The style of its ornamentation is that of the beginning of the 

 thirteenth century. We know well with what precautions Christian archi- 

 tects have surrounded their edifices, and we infer that this torrent did not 

 exist when this church was built in the thirteenth century, and if so there 

 have been torrents formed in historic times. And, without quitting this 

 same district of the D6voluy, we can cite examples of formations of a still 

 more recent time. In this district completely organized torrents have been 

 developed under the eyes of the population of the present day. Several 

 have not yet even received names, and they commit already fearful ravages. 



" In travelling through other localities like observations may be made. 

 Recent torrents are ploughing out for themselves their courses on all hands. 

 Everywhere new cases are surging up, which prove the abundance and the 

 rapidity of these formations ; and one is soon brought to a stand in con- 

 sternation before this accumulation of facts, which present a bad omen for 

 the future of the country." 



In a note it is added, — " Immediately in front of the esplanade of 

 Embrun is seen a mountain cut by a number of torrents of the third kind. 

 They grow, so to speak, under the very eyes of the town. One of them, 

 called Piolet (petit lit), which was only a little ravine about thirty years 

 ago, when it received this name, has become a large and perfect torrent. 

 The mountain, which extends from Orciferes to the valley of Champol6on, 

 on the right bank of the Drac, is being ravaged by such a number of 

 torrents that it seems as if it must be swallowed up in a mass by the river. 

 These torrents are for the most part recent, and the old men of the country 

 have seen them born, and seen them develope themselves to their present 

 magnitude." 



" Thus does it appear that torrents may be formed in our own day ; several 

 are of an age quite recent, and besides these, as if not to leave a single link 

 in the chain of ages awanting, there are torrents existing which, judging by 

 their form, their appearance, and their effects, may be placed as inter- 

 mediate in age between the extinct torrents, and the torrents still in full 

 activity. These are not yet confined within a stable course in the middle 

 of the deposits ; but they ovei-flow -only a small part of their bed. The rest 

 is covered with cultivated spots, woods, and houses, and seems to have been 



