DEPARTMENT OF THE PYEBNEE3. 303 



show a lofty growth ; but in any case the object aimed at will be constantly 

 attained : an end will be put to the scourges of ravines ; the occurrence of 

 avalanches from the quarters rewooded will be stopped ; and, in fine, 

 Bar6ges will be delivered from the dangers which threaten it. 



" At the present moment, guarding against optimist estimates which may 

 not be fully warranted, it is difficult to determine exactly the results 

 obtained, or to determine to what extent the first works, and to what 

 extent the works of the military engineering corps, have . contributed to 

 securing these results. As a matter -of fact, while the last two winters 

 have witnessed the fall of a considerable quantity of snow, no serious accident 

 has occurred. Instead of formidable avalanches, the ravine Theil has only 

 given some successive smooth snow-slips, which have slid into the bed of the 

 Basan, and have come to lie on the north fagade of the military hospital 

 without occasioning the least' damage. One of these snow-slips, more 

 considerable than the others, temporarily obstructed the bed of the torrent, 

 the waters of which cleared for themselves a passage across the only street 

 in Bar6ges, inundating some cellars, and some rooms on the ground-floor, 

 but only occasioning altogether trifling damages. 



" A fact to be noted is the action on the regime of the waters exercised 

 by the prohibition of pasturage on the p6rim6tres. From the time that the 

 flocks ceased to come on these there has been developed naturally a mass of 

 herbaceous and of ligneous plants, which constitute a true natural gazonne- 

 ment. These plants supply to the soil a precious covering ; they arrest a 

 portion of the snow which the winds blow towards the ravine ; their roots 

 envelope the vegetable soil in a powerful net-work which keeps it in its 

 place; in fine, at the time of the melting of the snow, and at the time of 

 great storms of rain, they divide the waters, and by so doing retard their 

 flow. Perhaps we ought to see, in this prohibition of parcours, one of the 

 causes why Bareges had no avalanches in 1867 and 1868. In any case, it 

 would be a grave error to cramp the vegetation by uprooting, and by incon- 

 siderate clearings. Such like operations should be limited to suppressing 

 plants, the shade or the immediate contact of which might be adverse to the 

 growth of the young plants. 



" II. — There is to the south, in front of Bardges, a small communal 

 forest stocked with beeches and silver fir, which is situated on the base of 

 the mountain of Ayr6. It is at the summit of this wood that the ravine 

 Rieulet takes its birth, and in about a straight line it makes for the imperial 

 road, near the entrance to the town. 



" The formation of this ravine is of recent date ; according to the local 

 tradition, the origin of it does not date further back than sixty years ago at 

 most ; it is, moreover, within half-a^century that the Rieulet must have 

 taken such a development as to occasion disquietude. 



" It is composed of an open abyss, in the form of a funnel, in magnitude 

 about 100 metres at its orifice, the precipitous walls of which show exposed 

 the rocks which constitute the mineral basis of the mountain. On leaving 

 this funnel, the waters, in making for themselves a way, have opened up a 

 large and deep bed of exceedingly steep fall, cut up in different directions 

 by precipitous perpendicular falls. The slopes of this ravine have a height 

 exceeding 25 metres in some places ; they are formed of transported earth 

 successively subdivided, in which are lodged enormous blocks of granite. 

 In summer, when the drought is continuous, these earths acquire a con- 



