300 DEVASTATIONS AND BBSTORATIONS. 



" The entire length of this is about 1200 mfetres, the fall varies from 5 

 to 6 in 10 ; it is surmounted by a vast funnel, with precipitous walls, which 

 crowns the peak Midaou. Through the configuration of the valley the 

 north-west wind rushes into it with violence, heaps up the snow in a con- 

 siderable quantity in the funnel which terminates the ravine, and faci- 

 litates thus the formation of avalanches sufBoiently powerful to expose 

 to the most serious danger the hospital, the baths, and the neighbouring 

 erections. 



" It is the military engineers who have charge of the works to be exe- 

 cuted in the bed of the torrent, with a viewto the creation of an immediate and 

 permanent obstacle to the descent of the snow, in anticipation that the reboise- 

 ment will produce the results which we have a right to expect. For the 

 barrages constructed with hurdles, &o., — first tried, and broken down in the 

 first winter — there have been substituted high and strong stoocadoes in 

 solid masonry. 



" With regard to the forest agents, they, fia has just been stated, put hand 

 to work in the month of May 1861, and they sowed in the spring and in 

 the autumn 140 hectares of ground with seeds of the larch, the Norway fir, 

 the Corsican pine, and the Austrian pine. 



" The year 1862 was devoted entirely to works of maintenance. 



" The new works resumed in 1863 consisted of sowing acorns and seeds of 

 the Austrian pine on 38 hectares and 54 ares, so that at the close of the 

 year they had operated on 178 hectares 54 ares — that is to say, on the 

 whole of the portion of the p^rimfetre capable of cultivation, the remainder 

 being, only an agglomeration of bare rocks, entirely stripped of vegetable 

 earth. 



" In 1864, 1865, 1866, the reclothing of the ground, consisting in sowings 

 and plantings of the different kinds, were carried on on the Mountain Lac- 

 grand. Nothing was done in 1867, 1868, 1869, the available resources 

 having to be spent on other spots. 



" The area of the ground belonging to the canton Ayr6, if we deduct the 

 denuded rooks, is reduced to about 50 hectares, which overhang the orifice 

 of the ravine Eieulet, with a northern exposure, in front of the communal 

 wood of the Trouguet, the only block of forest which exists in the country. 

 The mean altitude of this canton is 1800 mfetres ; as is the case with 

 Laogrand, schist and chalk constitute the mineral basis of the soil, with 

 this difference, that the northern slope is characterised by blocks of granite, 

 sometimes scattered, sometimes lying together in considerable masses. 



"In 1862 and 1863 they had sown the whole canton with seeds of 

 Norway fir, the Austrian pine, the Corsican pine, the Mugho or dwarf pine, 

 the alder, and the birch. 



" In 1866 the work was resumed in the form of works of maintenance, 

 and this on a scale which showed the insuccess of the first experiment ; 

 they consisted of sowings of the Mugho or dwarf pine, and in the planting 

 of 274,000 plants of the Austrian pine, the Mugho, the beech, the birch, 

 and the acacia. Some replanting remained to be accomplished in 1867, 

 1868, and 1869. These works consisted almost entirely of plantings of 

 the Mugho. 



" If now it be asked, what have been the results definitely attained, it 

 will be found : — 



" On the mountain Laogrand 81 hectares have been completely rewooded 

 in seven distinct blocks, viz : — 



