138 LEaiSIjATION ON TOBBENTS, 



exclusively, of what may be designated herbs, in contradistinction to 

 grasses ; and the term is more convenient and less pedantic than any I 

 could devise. 



Though it is only of late that prominence has been given to reboisement 

 and gazonnement in the legislation of France, the evil they are employed to 

 arrest and remedy early commanded the attention of her legislators. 



In 1 669 was issued an Ordinance by Colbert, regulating woods and waters 

 in which diboisements, or the destruction of woods, is forbidden to com- 

 munities. There is evidence that a great part of the Alps had by that 

 time been completely dihoissee, or cleared of forests. 



This and similar deboisements the forest economists and students of 

 forest science in France sought to remedy by an extensive system of sylvi- 

 culture, — replanting trees where forests had been destroyed, and planting 

 trees where never tree had grown before. 



An edict, issued by Humbert Dauphin in the 14th century, forbids 

 clearings in the Briangonais, assigning, among other reasons for doing so, 

 the resistance presented by the woods to avalanches and other evils. 



The archives of the Benedictine Monastery of Boscodon, preserved in the 

 church Notre-Bame-d' Embrun, embody a record of a great many contentions, 

 or legal proceedings, relative to forest depredations. It is the most common 

 subject of these archives during a period extending over five centuries, and 

 one which provoked numerous formal excommunications. From these 

 archives it may be seen, by a host of facts, that the forests had then come 

 to be a rare and precious thing— the result of long-continued fellings, — and 

 in the fate of the monastery already referred to we see the consequence 

 of these. 



Latterly, previous to the employment of reboisement and gazonnement as 

 means of extinguishing torrents, dikes or embankments were what were 

 chiefly employed as means of arresting the ravages and devastations of 

 these. When a river-bank, throughout a considerable extent, was destroyed 

 by a torrent, the proprietors afi'ected thereby met and constituted a 

 syndicate or council. An application was made to the prefect ; he appointed 

 an engineer of roads and bridges to examine the locality, and if necessary to 

 prepare a specification of the works required for the defence of the river. 

 The work, when approved, was decreed. The engineer superintended the 

 execution of it, and sanctioned delivery. The expense was then apportioned 

 amongst those who were interested, conformably to a scheme prepared by 

 the syndics. 



The whole procedure is prescribed by a special decree, which subjects 

 torrents to a defined rigime, and places them under the immediate super- 

 intendence of the Administration. The following is a translation of this 

 decree : — 



"Decree of the 4.th thermidor, an XIIL, relative to ton-ents of the 

 department of the High Alps : — 



" Art. 1. In the communes of the High Alps, which are exposed to the 

 eruptions and inundations of rivers and torrents, the mayors, after having 

 submitted the matter for consideration to the municipal councils, shall make 

 application in the usual form_to the prefect of the department for authority 

 to execute repairs, or other 'necessary works. In urgent oases they may 

 summon the municipal councils for this purpose without a special permission. 



