86 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 



the extent of fertile land lost irretrievably by being covered 

 up with the dShris. And what chiefly concerns our pre- 

 sent argument is the connection of forest destruction with 

 these, as the cause or occasion of the evils occurrent. 



In the localities affected the consequences are only 

 second, if indeed they be second, to the consequences of 

 floods and inundations on the lower lying plains. The 

 area of land immediately affected may be smaller; but 

 the loss is absolute and permanent. The proofs, or indi- 

 cations, of these having been in many cases occasioned by 

 the destruction of forests, and being in all, attributable to 

 the treeless condition of the ground upon which the rain 

 had fallen, are such as I have stated. 



It is to M. Alexandre Surell, Ingenieur des ponts et chaus- 

 sies, now Director of the Ghemin de Fer du Midi, that we are 

 indebted for the discovery, study, and exposition of the 

 phenomena in question. He has been followed by the late 

 Ernest Cdzanne, Ingenieur des ponts et chausees, and Repre- 

 sentative of the High Alps in the National Assembly, and 

 by others. The volumes cited being charged hard with 

 details of facts, and their reasonings upon them, I consider 

 it unnecessary to refer further to this. Since that volume 

 was published, voluminous reports of works of reboisement 

 in the mountains of France, with a view to arrest and 

 prevent such evils, which have been executed, have been 

 issued by the Government ; and similar works have been 

 executed elsewhere, as in Switzerland and in Spain. But 

 I content myself with citing the following testimony, 

 which corresponds fully with many occurring in the 

 volume to which I have referred. 



M. Hdrecart de Thary, in his Potamographie des Haute- 

 Alps, writes : — 



' In this magnificent basin (that of Embrun) nature has 

 done everything with prodigality. The inhabitants have 

 blindly enjoyed these favours : they have slept in the 

 midst of these gifts. Wretches that they are, they have 

 inconsiderately carried axe and fire into the forests, which 



