EVILS FOLLOWING DESl'RUCtlOK OF FORESTS. 93 



of the Labdoux, of the Rabioux, of the Boscodon, of the 

 Ruisseauioux (Lauterat), &c. And he goes on to say, — 

 ' There are whole villages built in bassins de rScepUons which 

 are threatened to be engulfed in this manner by the torrents. 

 Every year the torrent acquires more of the ground, and 

 the village abandons to it several cottages. These facts 

 demonstrate the encroaching marchof these water-courses. 

 Little threatening at first, they increase in size, they 

 extend themselves, and soon they reach the habitations 

 built without mistrust at a great distance from their banks. 

 There were, before the thirteenth century, on the borders 

 of the Ralio'ux, near to Chdteaureux, a monastery inhabited 

 by the Benedictines. At a later period the monks deserted 

 it through fear of its being engulfed, and now one sees the 

 ruins suspended in the midst of the river's banks. 



' There are threatened with a similar fate the village of 

 Lacluse, by the Labeoux (D^voluy) ; that of the Hiferes, by 

 the Mauriand ; that of the Arvieux, by the Moulettes j 

 the hamlet of the Marches, and the hamlet of the Maison- 

 nasses, by the torrent Rousensasse, on the right bank of 

 the Drac (Charapsam).' 



Having specified these as villages or hamlets exposed to 

 a fate similar to that of the Benedictine Monastery, whose 

 history is given, he goes on to say, — ' Most frequently the 

 undermining of the soil is donef gradually, and this action 

 is the more slow and the more regular in proportion to 

 the extent of the region. The great mass of ground 

 deadens the movements, and impresses them, with a kind 

 of continuity. But at other times also the soil detaches 

 itself suddenly, as if through the effect of a blow. It is 

 thus that in the valleys of the Ddvoluy, some years ago, a 

 fragment of the mountain Auroux, covered with cultivated 

 fields, precipitated itself, in one block, into the gorge of 

 the torrent Labeoux. The commotion occasioned by this 

 frightful fall was felt at a considerable distance, in the 

 village Lacluse, and the inhabitants attributed it to an 

 earthquake. The cause was no other than erosion by the 

 torrent, whieh had sapped the base of the ground. 



