EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OP FOUESTS. 77 



to bank, seizing and carrying off rocks which had been 

 employed to form a road which was believed to be safe 

 against all contingencies, that of the Combe d'Yeuse and 

 all those traversing wooded lands remained dry, or gave 

 only an insignificant quantity of water. 



' On the slope opposite to that of which I have been 

 speaking, in the valley of the Peyne, a carriage-road newly 

 formed did not experience the least injury throughout the 

 whole of the portion of it passing through the forest of the 

 domain; but at its issue, on the lands of the Llbaude and 

 of the Roquette, it had been, so to say, destroyed. . A cart 

 loaded with faggots was upset and smashed by the waters, 

 which flowed from all the cultivated slopes, and tore along, 

 with the noise of thunder, at the bottom of the ravine. 



'My good fortune secured to me another subject of study 

 on the same ground. 



' On the 25th of October following I went to the sale of 

 the fellings of the Tarasoon, where there fell an abundant 

 rain. The next, day (the 26th) the weather was clouded. 

 I set off for the Luberon in the hope of arriving there at 

 the same time as would a storm of rain, which I saw 

 approaching. I arrived first ; the ravine of Saint-Phalez 

 was still moist, from the passage in small quantity of the 

 waters of the night before ; they had served, as appeared, 

 to saturate the lands of the domain; as had previously 

 happened on the 7th [3rd ?] September. 



' I had scarcely gone over two kilometres in the ravine 

 when the water began to rush with great violence ; ten 

 minutes later it precipitated itself in its ordinary canal 

 d'eeoulement, completing the work of destruction begun in 

 the month of September. The lands of Saint-Phalez 

 had absorbed but little or none of the water that day. 



' The storm was not of long duration— ^an hour at most. 

 The time was unfavourable for collecting on the ground 

 exact measurements, but I reckon that the torrent 

 delivered, at its maximum, somewhat less water, perhaps, 

 than on the 4th of September. The flood, however, was 



