IN REGARD TO REBOISEMEilT. 317 



tions of the localities affected by these, the population and the municipal 

 councils of the communes of Cervifers, of Briangon, and of Monetier, together 

 with the council of the arrondissement of Briangon, protested against the 

 approval of these new p6rimfetres." 



The Commission considered that the resistance was not justified, and the 

 Gonseil without hesitation approved the projected schemes, 



lu addition to the expression of such views and sentiments by the Gonseil 

 General des Hautes Alpes, many other General Conseils have given expres- 

 sion to views and sentiments of a corresponding character, and in the 

 Session of 1871 many of them gave expression to their sympathy with the 

 enterprise. 



In that year the General Gonseil of the High A Ips renewed the expres- 

 sion of its sympathy in the work of the regeneration of the m.ountains. 



In the General Gonseil of the Department of the Loire, at their sederunt 

 of the 27th October 1871, the Gommission reported : — 



" The rehoisement of our mountains, so necessary to prevent great in- 

 undations, and still more necessary to secure in the future valuable 

 resources to our great coal basin, is going on slowly but steadily. Already 

 2724 hectares have been replanted. The total expense of these rehoise- 

 ments has risen to 390,000 francs. 



"The department has contributed of this sum 29,000 francs ; proprietors, 

 114,000 francs ; the State, 245,000 francs. The sub-inspector of the forests 

 expects that numerous works of reboisement will be executed in 1872 ; he 

 earnestly prays the General Gonseil to continue in the budget the usual 

 allocation. Your Gommission shares the desires of that official. They pro- 

 pose that you should pass a vote in the following terms : — The General 

 Gonseil, recognising the fact that it is in the highest degree for the public 

 interest to encourage the rehoisement of the mountain, vote the credit of 

 3800 francs, as asked by the sub-inspector of the forests, for the service of 

 reboisement in the department of the Loire." 



In the General Gonseil of the department of the Lower Alps, at their 

 sederunt of the 3rd November 1871, it was reported : — 



" The rehoisement and the gazonnement of the mountains have received, 

 within the last few years, a lively impulse in our parts. With a view to 

 giving to this service, the importance of which cannot have escaped you, a 

 new impulse, and to obtain for our district that share to which her position 

 gives her a title of the credit opened in the budget of the State, which the 

 Assembly maintains at 1,500,000 francs, the Gommission desires to express 

 to you their satisfaction with the zeal and intelligence of the agents of all 

 grades with a view to their encouragement, and ask of you to adopt a 

 resolution in the following terms :-^ 



" Gonsidering (1) that the regeneration of the mountains by rehoisement axxA. 

 gazonnement is for the valleys of the department a vital question, affecting and 

 determining their very being ; and that this measure affects beyond this the 

 general interest, as seen from a point of view higher and vaster still than that, 

 which is already so important, of the inundations in the lower regions of 

 the rivers ; (2) that the works executed in the first decade, provided for 

 by the law of 28th July 1860, present at this moment results which one 

 could scarcely have dared to expect in regard to the protection of the roads, 

 as well as in regard to the extinction of torrents ; that these works, con- 

 centered very properly during the first period of trial on a surface which, 



