2B8 DEVASTATIONS AND EBSTOEATIONS. 



•whole country, inundating all the valleys, and furrowing all the slopes, and 

 hence comes that air of desolation so peculiar to the country, which at once 

 strikes strangers on their crossing these mountains for the first time. 



" The multiplicity of torrents in this department is a fearful scourge, it 

 is like a leprosy which has seized upon the soil of the mountains. The 

 torrents eat into the sides of these, and, dejecting on the plains heaps of 

 debris, by a long-continued succession of accumulation they have created 

 enormous beds of dejections which are ever increasing and extending. They 

 threaten to overwhelm everything. They doom to perpetual sterility the 

 soil which they bury beneath their deposits. Every year they are 

 swallowing up some additional estates. They intercept communication 

 between different parts of the district, and hinder the establishment of a 

 good system of roads. And these ravages are to be deplored all the more 

 because they take place in a country which is very poor, and is devoid of 

 manufactures, and one in which arable ground, which is the only resource 

 of the iniiabitants, is rare. These, it often happens, succeed in creating a 

 small field, but only after prodigies of labour and perseverance, and then 

 comes the torrent unexpectedly and deprives them, it may be in one hour, 

 of the fruit of ten years of labour and toil. 



" The dread which these torrents inspire appears in the names which 

 have been given to them. Thus is it with the torrent I'Eperoir, the hawk, 

 and with the torrents Malaise, ill at ease, Malfosse, evil pit, and Malcombe, 

 Malpas, Malattret, — all names speaking of evil. Some bear the name of 

 Rdbioux, the enraged ; several others that of Bramafaim, howling hunger. 

 There are some which seem ready to swallow up entire villages and even 

 market towns ; and there a dark cloud hovering over the sources of the 

 torrent is sufficient to spread alarm over a whole community." 



From this statement some idea may be formed of what some thirty years 

 ago was the state of things there. The passage is cited in the official 

 report of works executed in 1867 and 1868, and with it the following 

 statement by M. Surell in regard to what influenced him in doing what he 

 did in the matter is given : — 



" There was yet another consideration which determined me to undertake 

 this study, and I must say that ' it is this which all along has given 

 direction to me in my work. ■ This wretched department going fast to ruin, 

 and the Administration, whose duty it is to look to the conservation of its 

 territory, not having yet tried to put forth the least effort to avert the 

 coming evil, it appears to be high time to call the attention of the Admini- 

 stration to the state of this country. It seems to be ignorant of the extent 

 of the evil, and it is my belief that in throwing liglit upon this plague, and 

 showing what might be done to cure it, I am discharging a sacred duty." 



" As may be imagined," writes M. Far6 in the report cited, " a state of 

 things such as this has commanded the most serious attention of the Forest 

 Administration from the time they were intrusted with the execution of 

 the law of 28th July 1860." 



A summary is then given of the extent to which rehoisement and gazonne- 

 rmnt had been effected, and the Director-General goes on to say,—" I have 

 cited above some of the statements made by M. Surell, which bring into 

 prominence the imminence of the danger with which the French Alps were 

 being threatened. In further reference to the sad picture thus presented, 

 and to make apparent the results already produced by the works of 

 Postoration executed by the Forest Administration, I shall confine myself to 



