FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 297 



But the damage does not stop here, for on reaching the comparatively level valleys which 

 form the main lines of drainage of the mountain range, the stones, gravel, and sand transported 

 by the numerous torrents are deposited. These valleys being usually very fertile are occupied 

 by fields, villages, and towns, which are connected by roads and sometimes by railways, con- 

 structed with many bridges, retaining walls, and other masonry- works; and as, by degrees, 

 enormous areas become covered with debris — sometimes this result is produced suddenly and 

 without warning — the buildings are either thrown down or overwhelmed, the railways and 

 roads are blocked, and the bridges are overthrown, while the fields are completely and irre- 

 trievably destroyed. The damage thus caused is most serious, both in its nature and extent ; 

 and to it must be added the great inconvenience and loss occasioned by the interruption of 

 traific on the roads and railways. But this is not all. If the dibris transported by the torrent 

 is carried into the river before it can be deposited, it is either borne on at once and thrown on 

 to the level country lower down or it remains and turns the course of the stream over the fields 

 and buildings on its opposite bank. Occasionally the deposit temporarily blocks up the valley 

 and causes the inundation of villages and fields on the upper side of the barrier; and when 

 this latter ultimately gives way, the most disastrous results ensue, both in the lower part of the 

 valley, and in the open country at the foot of the mountain range. It is to mitigate these ter- 

 rible evils that the vast enterprise of afforesting the mountains has been undertaken as the only 

 means of dealing with them. But, owing to the enormous cost of the works, it cannot be 

 hoped that the forests thus raised will ever prove directly remunerative, and their creation, 

 with a view to their ever becoming so, could not for a moment be justified. 



The works are of two classes, viz.: Firstly. The treatment of the torrent beds by a series 

 of weirs and other structures, destined to bring them gradually and by successive stages to a 

 normal slope, and thus not only prevent " scour," but, bythe filling up and widening of the beds 

 behind the weirs, to afford support to the unstable sloping sides, and thus gradually to consolidate 

 them with a view to their being ultimately planted up. Secondly. The immediate planting up 

 of all areas, the surface of which does not seem likely to be washed down within the period 

 occupied by the construction in that locality of the first class of works. A commencement 

 was made in i860; but the law passed in that year not having been found sufficient, a new 

 law came into force in 1882, which provides both for the works to be undertaken directly by 

 the state, and for those to be executed by the proprietors of the ground, with or without state 

 aid, as well as for simple measures of prevention. 



Works undertaken by the state. — The proposal to take up ground for this purpose emanates 

 from the forest department, and is followed by a formal inquiry, under the direction of the 

 prefect, into the circumstances of the case, regarding which a special commission, with a forest 

 officer as one of its members, makes a report. If the proposal is approved, a law is passed 

 declaring the work to be one of pubhc utiUty, and under it the ground with all existing rights, 

 either of the proprietor or other persons in it, is bought by the state, either by mutual E^ree- 

 ment or by expropriation. The area is then under the forest law, and the works are under- 

 taken at the public cost. 



Works undertaken by the proprietors. — If, however, the proprietors, who are for the most 

 part village communities, do not desire to part with the land, they must, before the expro- 

 priation has been ordered, agree to execute the specified works themselves, within a fixed time, 

 and to maintain them, under the control of the forest department. In some cases, but not 

 always, pecuniary aid is then afforded to them. If the proprietors of land outside the areas 

 which are taken up for treatment as works of public utility, desire to undertake measures for 

 the consolidation of the soil, or for the improvement of their pastures, they can obtain assist- 

 ance from the state in the way of money, seeds, plants, or of work done for them ; but 

 when any such aid is afforded, the operations are under the surveillance of the forest depart- 

 ment, and in certain cases the money so advanced has to be refunded. 



Preventive measures. — When the condition of the ground is not such as to warrant its being 

 dealt with in the above manner, it may, after the same preUminary formalities as before, be 



