RBPOET ON FLOODS OF 1865-1866. 235: 



taneously into furious torrents, and raised in less than twenty-foiir hours, 

 first the Lot, then the Aveyron, the Tarn, the river Arc, the AUier, and the 

 Loire to a height which the greater part of these water-courses had," never 

 reached, even at the time of the floods of 1856. 



" It may easily be conceived, that in such circumstances the works of 

 reboisement, undertaken within a few years before on the brows and slopes 

 of the mountains, could scarcely have any effect on the enormous masses of 

 water, the impetuosity of which only the oldest woods could be of use in 

 moderating. But if they have opposed no obstacle to the inundations, they 

 have sustained perfectly the shock, and it may be affirmed that they have 

 throughout exercised a happy influence. 



" Thus in the Lozfere, where the bridges carried away or damaged are 

 reckoned by hundreds, where the valleys have been half-filled with sand 

 and rocks, the reboisements and gazonnements executed on about 1700 

 hectares have perfectly maintained the soil on which they are situated, and 

 protected the lower-lying grounds. 



"In the p^rimfetre of Chadenet, situated above the valley of the Crouzet, 

 of 566 larrages which have been constructed, 2 only have been carried 

 away, and the volume of earth and stones retained by the 564 barrages 

 remaining standing is estimated at no less than 2000 cubic mfetres, while, 

 on the other hand, all the slopes rendered mobile by cultivation or by 

 excessive depasturage have been cut up into ravines, and yielded up to the 

 water-courses dejections which have increased considerably the disasters 

 experienced. 



" These results have been established by the prefect of Lozfere in a 

 discourse addressed to the Agricultural Society of his department. 



"In the Cantal corresponding effects have been produced. On the 

 slopes, stripped of woods, there are traces of torrential ravines to, be met with 

 at rrery step ; at the base of these the meadows are covered with gravel 

 and detached rooks ; and the rocks and highways are cut up. But where- 

 ever the temporary prohibition of passage and pasturage has permitted 

 vegetation to develope itself, and on spots on which reboisement has been 

 carried out by the State, by communes, and by private proprietors — reboise- 

 ments which cover a thousand hectares, there is no formation of ravines ; 

 and the lands and the lower-lying roads are untouched. 



" The works executed in the Haute-Loire are much more important than 

 those carried out in the Cantal. Besides the sanctioned reboisement, re- 

 boisement facioltatifs, the p6rim6tres, the reboisement of which was decreed of 

 public utility, embraced in 1866 an area of nearly 5000 hectares, on 1650 

 hectares of which the reboisement has been effected. In the high moun- 

 tains of M6zenc and of M6gal, where most of these p6rim6tres are situated, 

 none of the portions reboised or regazonned have suffered from the violence 

 of the rains, whilst a contiguous mountain, that of Chaulet, which is 

 being constantly traversed and broken up by the feet of sheep, has been 

 ploughed up into deep ravines. Those good results estabhshed in the 

 M^zenc and M6gal are due not to the action of the vegetation drawn 

 over the denuded lands alone, but also to the restraining power of the 

 barrages. Of 407 of these, constructed on the steep slopes of the Holme, 

 nine only have given way before the impetuosity of the torrent of Ponteils. 



" The department of the Ardfeche has scarcely been affected by the 

 storms of rain and the inundations, excepting in the north-west portions, 

 and more particularly in the canton of Saint-Etienne-de-Lugdar6s. This 



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