DEPARTMENT OF THE I8ERE. 287 



threatening his house and his person ; he sees at length the success crowning 

 his efforts, and every spring decking a new group oi combes until then naked 

 and desolate, while the torrent subdued clears for itself a channel in the 

 old dejections ; and in manifestation of his victory, M. Costa, as if in defiance 

 to ^ his enemy, has here and there thrown passereUes, or foot-bridges, at a 

 height scarcely exceeding a mfetre above the water, and takes pleasure in 

 showing that the torrent, Sainte-Marthe for example, which but lately rose 

 above its embankments and carried off high bridges, has respected for years 

 this feeble barrier. 



But if I should tell all that is told of what has been done in one of the 

 p^rimfetres in these, I should feel strongly disposed to tell with similar pro- 

 lixity of all that has been done in all : I should feel like a boy running 

 down a steep declivity unable to stop till he has reached the bottom. A 

 stand must be made somewhere — I make it here. In language suggested 

 by the Bible, I leave off before I begin, that I may report what has been 

 done elsewhere, and the changes which have been effected there by the 

 works executed, and their results. 



Sect. II. — Department of the Isire. 



Nowhere, perhaps, are torrents to be seen acting with such fury as they 

 have displayed in the department of the High Alps ; and it was in the 

 arrondissement of Embrun, more especially, that they were to be found in 

 greatest numbers, and in their most terrible forms. In proportion as we 

 recede from this district, which may be regarded as the centre of their 

 action, they are seen less and less violent, and are more and more rare, 

 until, at a great distance, their characteristic peculiarities finally disappear ; 

 but as is thus indicated, they do not all at once cease, nor are they confined 

 to the region of the High Alps alone. 



Throughout a great part of the former independent State of Dauphiny 

 they have committed ravages. 



The following account of Dauphiny and Provence is given by Mr Marsh, 

 the facts stated in which were supplied by the work by Charles de Ribbe 

 entitled La Provence au point de vue des Bois, des Torrents et des Inondations : 

 — " The provinces of Dauphiny and Provence comprise a territory of four- 

 teen or fifteen thousand square miles, bounded northwest by the Isfere, 

 northeast and east by the Alps, south by the Mediterranean, west by the 

 Rhone, and extending from 42° to about 45° of north latitude. The sur- 

 face is generally hilly and even mountainous, and several of the peaks in 

 Dauphiny rise above the limit of perpetual snow. Except upon the moun- 

 tain ridges, the climate, as compared with that of the United States in the 

 same latitude, is extremely mild. Little snow falls, except upon the higher 

 mountains, the frosts are light, and the summers long, as might indeed be 

 inferred from the vegetation, for in the cultivated districts the vine and the 

 fig everywhere flourish ; the olive thrives as far north as 43^°, and upon 

 the coast grow the orange, the lemon, and the date-palm. The forest trees, 

 too, are of southern type, umbrella pines, various species of evergreen oaks, 

 and many other trees and shrubs of persistent broad-leaved foliage, charac- 

 terising the landscape. 



" The rapid slope of the mountains naturally exposed these provinces to 

 damage by torrents, and the Romans diminished their injurious effects by 

 erecting, in the beds of ravines, barriers of rocks loosely piled up, which 



