296 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 



DESTRUCTION OF WOLVES. 



The destruction of wolves, boars, and other animals which are considered dangerous or 

 harmful, is intrusted to a corps of 410 lieutenants de louveterie (wolf-hunters). These officers 

 who aie unpaid, but have the right to wear a handsome uniform, are under the control of the 

 conservator of forests, and are appointed by the prefect on his recommendation. They are, 

 as a rule, landed proprietors, who accept their appointment for the sake of the sport it affords 

 them. They are obliged to keep blood hounds and packs of dogs, and are charged to organize 

 and direct, in communication with the local forest officers, the battues which are, from time to time, 

 ordered to take place in the forests. But as this system has not been found a very efficient one, 

 a law has recently .been passed under which a reward, varying from £\, 12s. to £•], is payable 

 to any one who kills a wolf; and the mayors are authorized, when the snow is on the ground, 

 to organize battues for the destruction of wolves, boars, and other animals, anywhere within 

 the limits of their respective communes, on condition only that they give due notice to the 

 proprietors of the land on which the beat is to take place. The rewards paid for killing 

 wolves amount to about £i„0(X> a year. 



CHAPTER III. 



AFFORESTATION WORKS — WORKS UNDERTAKEN FOR THE CONSOLIDATION AND PROTECTION 

 OF UNSTABLE MOUNTAIN SLOPES. 



Excessive grazing, both by local herds and flocks, principally of sheep and goats, as well 

 as by vast numbers of these animals which are annually driven up from the plains to the hill 

 pastures, have produced complete denudation over very large areas ; and have thus caused 

 incalculable dam^e in the great mountain regions of France, principally in the southern Alps, 

 and in the level country below them. They eat down the grass to the level of the ground^ 

 and then tear out the very roots, breaking up the surface of the soil, and rendering it liable to 

 be washed down by the rain. These hills are of a loose formation, the strata being contorted 

 and dislocated to a remarkable degree, and as soon as the soil is deprived of its protective 

 covering of trees, shrubs, and herbs, whose roots hold it together, the slipping and falling 

 of the mountain .sides are produced with a constantly increasing intensity. The rain water, no 

 longer interrupted in its fall, retained by the spongy, vegetable mould, nor hindered in its 

 downward flow by the thousands of obstacles which a living covering would oppose to its 

 progress, flows off the surface of the ground with extraordinary rapidity, and, carrying with 

 it large quantities of loose soil, suddenly fills up the torrent beds. These latter, scoured out 

 by the rush of water, charged with mud, stones, and rocks, cut their way deeper and deeper 

 into the mountains ; and their banks, deprived of their support at the base, fall inward, the 

 dibris being borne onward to the level ground below. The cracks and slips occasioned in 

 this manner extend to a great distance on either side of the torrent, especially on the side on 

 which the strata slopes toward it, and the effect is much increased when the upper layer of 

 rock is loose, and lies upon an impermeable bed; the water then saturates the loose rock, 

 and, penetrating through it, and through the cracks and fissures, flows over the hard surface, 

 the superincumbent mass being precipitated, either suddenly or by slow degrees, into the val- 

 ley below. The same effect is produced in the whole net-work of water courses, both prin- 

 cipal and tributary, which traverse the mountain sides ; the upper strata over enormous areas, 

 with fields, houses, and even entire villages, being carried down into the valleys, and the whole 

 region, which presents little to the eye but a series of unstable slopes of black marl, has an 

 indescribably desolate appearance. It may be added that when the hillsides are covered with 

 trees, the snow, which has accumulated during the winter months, disappears gradually under 

 the influence of the milder temperature which accompanies the advancing spring ; but when tlie 

 trees have been removed, and the masses of snow are consequently exposed to the full force of 

 the sun's rays, they melt rapidly, and produce results on the mountain sides similar to those 

 which follow the occurrence of heavy storms of rain. 



