84 MODERN POUEST ECONOMY. 



might have been prevented ; and it may be that had these 

 inundations been foreseen, operations which would have 

 to some extent modified or prevented them would have 

 been prosecuted with the vigour called forth by a race 

 against time, in preference to some others which have not 

 been ineffective, but the execution of which might without 

 series consequences have been postponed; or, at all 

 hazards, grants on a scale of magnitude equalling or 

 exceeding those made previous to the war would have 

 been made, and the difference between these and the 

 amounts actually granted spent exclusively on the 

 valleys and basins of reception drained by the upper 

 waters and affluents of the rivers by which such devasta- 

 tion has been wrought. The legitimate use now to be 

 made of such reasonings is, to prepare for the future in 

 accordance with the suggestions suggested by the past. 

 And this, I have no doubt, will be done. 



Section D. — Torrents, Avalanches, and Landslips. 



In connection with what has been said of floods and 

 inundations, mention has been made incidentally of land- 

 slips, and torrents, and alluvial deposits, which are also 

 attributable to the clearing away of forests. In proceeding 

 to supply details in regard to these, I deem it proper to 

 premise that it is not alleged that all such accidents are 

 attributable to this cause ; all that can be shown is that 

 some such have been thus occasioned. 



In the language of our countrymen the designation 

 torrent is appHed to the rushing body of water in a river 

 bed, in contradistinction to the inundation of the lands 

 beyond in such a form as has been referred to in the pre- 

 ceding chapter. But the term is applied in France to 

 another phenomenon, and in lack of an English term of 

 corresponding import to this, I so apply it here, namely, to 

 the mountain bed of the waters, along which they escape 

 from the basin of reception, rushing to the lower lying lands 



