274 DEVASTATIONS AND RESTORATIONS. 



francs. Thanks to these works, the p6rimfetre has completely changed its 

 aspect; 100 hectares are rewooded, and now require only the labour needed 

 for their maintenance. The remaining 13 hectares represent calcarious 

 precipices, on which one can scarcely dare to hope to fix some herbacious 

 plants by persevering efforts. Formerly, after the least storm of rain, the 

 torrent rolled away masses of mud, of stones, and of fragments of rocks, 

 which covered anew the imperial road as well as the lower-lying cultivated 

 fields. Now the waters, the current of which has been retarded, deposit all 

 such materials above the barrages, and the imperial road is no longer 

 flooded. If the Treasury have imposed on itself great sacrifices, it will not 

 be long in reaping the benefit of these ; for as soon as the vegetation shall 

 be completely fixed on the Labouret, the expense of the maintenance of the 

 road, which has already been reduced to a marked extent in consequence of 

 the works, will not exceed those of a mountain road of average conditions." 



A corresponding report was given of what had been done in the p6rimetre 

 of Seyne, in the same Arrondissement, ap6rimHre of 1,250 hectares, situated 

 at an altitude of from 1,400 to 2,400 metres, and formerly covered with 

 fjrests, but which in 1861 presented the desolate aspect of a vast desert 

 ravaged by torrents. These, five in number, are tributaries of the torrent 

 De la Blanche, which precipitates itself into the Durance. But adherence 

 to the principle adopted, of citing details of only one p6rimetre in each 

 locality, in illustration of what has been and is being done, forbids this 

 monograph being also translated. 



M. C6zanne intimates, that ia the Lower Alps there had been victories 

 gained which may be ciassed with those of M. Costa, already noticed. 

 " Previous to the law of 28th July 1860," says he, " slight barrages of 

 hurdles, combined with the reclamation of waste ground, had fixed the 

 lands of the MoUard, near Sist^ron, the detritus of which was covering the 

 site of the town. The torrent had been so completely extinguished, the 

 water so entirely absorbed, that a small aqueduct, constructed for the con- 

 veyance of them to the Durance, had become useless. But in this depart- 

 ment these most remarkable results had, he said, been brought about by a 

 simple communal guard, and the following citations from the Annales 

 Foreitih'es justify the statement ;- - 



" M. Jourdan has commenced his works in the forest of Salignac ; and in 

 commencing them he has had to overcome a pretty keen opposition on the 

 part of the inhabitants, as might have been anticipated. Until 1860 the 

 greater part of the barrages erected in the forest of Salignac have been made 

 by this guard alone ; and he was obliged to repair many of those which the 

 storms of rain or the malevolence of the people destroyed. From 1853 to 

 1861, the guard Jourdan has constructed and repaired by himself alone 

 three hundred barrages, and the more is he to be commended that 

 two-thirds of these are distant, upon an average, from 8 to 10 kilomtoes 

 from his place of residence." 



M. Labussi^re, conservator of forests at Aix, who was honoured with a 

 gold medal, decreed to him by the Central Society of Agriculture of the 

 Puy-de-D6me, for his beautiful works of reboisement in that department, 

 commends in these terms to the functionai-ies placed under his orders the 

 results obtained by Jourdan : — 



" A communal guard of the Lower Alps has had the happy idea to 



