MITIGATION OF FLOODS IN THE HUNTER RIVER. 129 



I must dismiss it with these cursory and wholly inadequate 

 references. 



"The Alps and the Pyrenees, exposed to the same treat- 

 ment, have been similarly affected. The deforestation 

 paralyses the development of the pastoral industries in 

 these regions by lowering the limits of forest vegetation. 

 The valleys are ravaged by a devastating erosion. Entire 

 mountains slide dow/i slowly, carrying with them the pas- 

 toral villages which they bear on their surface, accumula- 

 ting ruin and disaster." 1 



" These processes do not affect the mountain alone. For, 

 by the very fact of this deforestation, the rich plains of 

 the Garonne and the Loire are subjected to disastrous 

 floods which make the fate of agriculture in these regions 

 very precarious. This state of things has not failed to 

 arouse apprehension among the inhabitants. Researches 

 with regard to the question have shown that the devasta- 

 ting character of these inundations is due to the destruc- 

 tion of the forests which formerly covered the Central 

 Plateau and the Pyrenees. The waters, no longer absorbed 

 and regulated by the forest vegetation, flow away on the 

 surface in enormous and sudden waves. The debris thus 

 carried away in vast quantities contributes to the forma- 

 tion of barriers and gives to the waters their destructive 

 power. 



" But the danger does not cease there. The navigation 

 of the great rivers gradually silted up by this waste from 

 the mountains is rendered very difficult. So much is this 

 the case that even Russia, a country so uniformly flat, is 

 threatened in the use of its great water-way, the Volga. 

 The investigations ordered by the Russian Government 

 have demonstrated that this is the result of the drainage 



1 Demontez, " Traite pratique da reboisement etc." 2nd edition 1882. 

 Also J. Croumbie Brown, op. cit. 



I— Aug. 6, 1902. 



