260 DEYASTAXIONS AND EBST0EAT10N9. 



be met in part by the State, and in part by the proprietors on the river 

 bank. But since the execution of the works of reboisement, in the basin of 

 Sainte-Marthe, by the Forest Administration, this water-course has lost its 

 torrential character, and has settled its bed in the cone de dejection, the 

 embankment has become useless, and the project which had been under 

 discussion has been entirely abandoned. 



" ' The torrent of Palps, in the commune of Risoul, was threatening both 

 the departmental road, No. 4, and the imperial road. No. 94. In 1865 the 

 draft proposal of work to be executed to cause the torrent to be con- 

 ducted directly into the Guil, and to settle the bed at the end of the depart- 

 mental road, had been discussed and presented for approval. The execution 

 would have entailed an expense of 30,000 francs. But the Forest 

 Administration has consolidated and covered with herbage the hassin de 

 reception of this torrent, and they have been able to leave the waters to flow 

 on in the course they have taken, and to construct a simple aqueduct under 

 the imperial road. No. 94. 



" ' The torrent of Riou-Bourdoux was noted as one of the formidable 

 torrents of the High Alps ; the quantity of material which the waters put 

 in movement at every flood, had, in some measure, led to the abandonment 

 of the construction of a bridge for the passage of the imperial road. No. 94 ; 

 the Forest Administration has enclosed, mis en defetis, the basin of reception, 

 and executed some works of consolidation and of gazonnement. The regime 

 of the torrent has been in consequence so far changed, that, at little 

 expense, the bed on the cone can be definitively settled, and a bridge 

 erected for the imperial road. 



" ' I might bring forward other examples of what has been efiected ; 

 those which have been given may sufiice to make appreciable how complete 

 and efficient are the results obtained.' " 



This testimony is endorsed by the Director-General, who says, — " I have 

 nothing to add to this report of the eminent engineer-in-chief of the depart- 

 ment of the High Alps, save to say, that I fully share his firm conviction 

 that it is practicable to arrest the dejections of the torrents, and to 

 re-establish vegetation on the most ravine-furrowed mountains." 



He subsequently, in another connection, cites the following statements 

 from a report which had been presented to the Council General of the High 

 Alps in 1868, by a Commission appointed by themselves : — 



" Our Forest Commission felicitates itself in having to present to you 

 a most satisfactory picture of the works of reboisement and gazonnement 

 undertaken in the High Alps. 



" The two distinguished engineers who were appointed along with us, 

 more competent in many respects than the members of our Commission, 

 have expressed with warmth the satisfaction afforded them by their visit 

 to these immense and interesting works ; and as for the Commissioners 

 themselves, the same who in 1866 had seen the works in an embryotic 

 state, they know not whether they should praise most the admirable 

 harmony which is characteristic of the works as a whole, or the wonderful 

 results already obtained. 



" Gazonnem£nt is substituted for reboisement wherever the boisement is 

 not indispensably requisite to consolidate the ground, and there have been 

 planted scarcely any but broad-leaved trees in active growth, which are 

 becoming speedily defensible in such a way as to permit of the early 

 xestoiatiou to the depasturing of sheep of the grounds thus reconquered. 



