DEPAETHENT OP l'aBDECHE. 275 



establish harraget of fascmei in the ravines formed in the clearings and 

 fellings of the forest in proportion as they were exploited. Some of these 

 ravines soon became veritable torrents, often dangerous, and they all caused 

 damage more or less considerable to the lower-lying properties. This 

 simple work, which required only some hours of work and a few fascines of 

 almost no value, has given excellent results in the communal woods of 

 Sist^ion, Salignac, Entropierre, and VUhose. I do not need to add that 

 the barrages ought to begin at the origin of the ravines, and that they 

 ought to be near to one another in proportion as the declivity is more 

 steep and the soil more friable. Experience has shown that the best result 

 is obtained by proceeding in the following manner : a first bed ot/aseities is 

 laid on the ground aeross the ravine; this is covered with othei/ageiTiet placed 

 perpendicularly with the point looking toward the summit of the mountain ; 

 and the structure is carried on in the same way to a height indicated by 

 the condition of the localities. The &rBt fascines laid in the direction of the 

 ravine may be kept in their place and consolidated by large stones, or by 

 turfs, if they can be found near. 



" If such works of so easy execution could be constructed one after 

 another, it would produce excellent results in a few years, if we may judge 

 from those obtained by Jourdan, who had no motive for his underteking 

 but a desire to do good, and to turn his spirit of observation to account for 

 the benefit of others." 



The Societie imph-iale et centrale d^agriadtare de France decreed to Jourdan 

 a gold medal with the effigy of Olivier de Serres. " Is it not touching," says 

 the report, " to see a whole city protected against the most terrible 

 scourges by the intelligent hand of a forest warder, one of the most modest 

 functionaries of the State. 



" While savants were writing treatises, a simple guard was solving the 

 problem. And to perpetuate the memory of this they have in the country 

 given to the form of barrage just described the name of Barrages Jomrdan." 



Sect. V. — Department of VArdeche. 



All of the operations which have been now detailed are in the region of 

 the Alps. In the region of the C6vennes, and the plateau of Central France, 

 operations have been carried on extensively in Ardtehe, Gard, Loz&re, 

 Herault, Puy-de-Ddme, Cantal, and the department of Hautes-Loire. And 

 again selection becomes necessary. 



In 1860 there was published a Memoire sur les Incmdaiions de» Riviirea de 

 VArdeche, by M. de Mardigny. Mr Marsh has given the following statement 

 of what is known in regard to that department, founded to some extent on 

 the statements made by M. Mardigny : — " The river Ard^che, in the French 

 department of that name, has a perennial current in a considerable part of 

 its course, and therefore is not, technically speaking, a torrent ; but the 

 peculiar character and violence of its floods is due to the action of the 

 torrents which discharge themselves into it in its upper valley, and to the 

 rapidity of the flow of the water of precipitation from the surface of a basin 

 now almost bared of its once luxm-iant woods." 



He says in a foot-note, — " The original forests in which the basin of the 

 Ard^che was rich have been rapidly disappearing for many years, and the 

 terrific violence of the inundations which are now laying in waste is 

 ascribed, by the ablest investigators, to that cause. In an article inserted 



