INUNDATIONS IN FRANCE. 345 



This was in the end of June, and the autumn brought to the newspapers 

 numerous accounts of inundations in other parts of France, in various parts 

 of England, in America, in India, and elsewhere. It seemed as if the 

 torrential era were giving place to a new era of inundation, and by some it 

 was rashly alleged that evidence was thus supplied of the failure of reboise- 

 ment to accomplish the prevention of torrential floods. I say rashly alleged, 

 for all the official reports, issued with the sanction of the Government, of 

 which translations have been given in the preceding pages, with their 

 testimony in regard to facts accomplished, remain unafi'ected by any thing 

 which may have subsequently occurred ; and time ought to have been 

 allowed for reports to have reached us in regard to the results of the 

 surveys, and inspections, and reasonings by the professional men acting 

 under the Forest Administration of France. It is not for me, a foreigner, 

 led incidentally in the prosecution of other studies to give attention to the 

 subject, to rush into the field with my opinion, ere those who are profession- 

 ally engaged in the work, and those who are officially responsible for the 

 work, have reported, as I doubt not they will in due time, upon these 

 inundations in relation to the enterprise in which they are engaged. But 

 in the interests of those for whom I write I may again call attention to the 

 facts that 140 years were from the first reckoned necessary for the accom- 

 plishment of the work — vand of those only 14, or one-tenth of the period, 

 have elapsed — and, thaugh the most urgent cases were attended to first, it 

 may be assumed that not much more than a tithe of the work has been 

 completed, and much of that — by far the most of it — in regions in which it 

 could not afifeot in any way the river-courses by which the inundations in 

 question were produced. And in connection with this I would call attention 

 to the facts reported by M. Laydecker, when Director-General of the Forest 

 Administration, in regard to what was observed in connection with devas- 

 tating floods which occurred in 1866, and cited at length in a previous part 

 of this compilation (ante p.p. 224-229) from which it appears that few, if 

 any, of the works then executed had been carried away ; that the efifects 

 which had been produced by these works, in preventing disastrous conse- 

 quences from the floods, had been all that had been expected, and had been 

 more than was hoped or feared during the prevalence of the floods, or would 

 have been thought likely to have been the case had the coming of such 

 floods been foreseen, before they came, after the execution of the works was 

 completed. 



And a corresponding report I expect to follow the survey of the works 

 after th^se disastrous inundations. I anticipate that that report will bear 

 that wherever works of reboisement and gazonneTnent have been executed 

 properly, they have accomplished the object for which they were under- 

 taken ; that wherever nothing had been done, there the evil has been seen 

 in full force. Knowing what I do of the work, I consider it probable that, 

 had the works contemplated been executed in all the basins of reception 

 drained by the affluents of the inundating rivers, the inhabitants of 

 Toulouse and other places would have had timely warning to prepare for 

 the coming flood ; and this, instead of rushing headlong, tearing up and 

 carrying away all before it, might have taken fourteen days instead of four 

 to pass a given point in its course, prolonging the flood, but to a corres- 

 ponding extent reducing its depth or height and force. 



It may be felt as au objection that these are but conjectures ; let us then 



2g 



