THE MISTRAL IN FRANCE-DETERIORATION OF CLIMATE. 153 
Dussard, as quoted by Bibbe,* maintains that even the 
mistral , or northwest wind, whose chilling blasts are so fatal 
to tender vegetation in the spring, “ is the child of man, the 
result of his devastations.” “ Under the reign of Augustus,” 
continues he, “ the forests which protected the Cevennes were 
felled, or destroyed by fire, in mass. A vast country, before 
covered with impenetrable woods—powerful obstacles to the 
movement and even to the formation of hurricanes—was sud¬ 
denly denuded, swept bare, stripped, and soon after, a scourge 
hitherto unknown struck terror over the land from Avignon 
to the Bouches du Bhone, thence to Marseilles, and then ex¬ 
tended its ravages, diminished indeed by a long career which 
had partially exhausted its force, over the whole maritime 
frontier. The people thought this wind a curse sent of God. 
They raised altars to it and offered sacrifices to appease its 
rage.” It seems, however, that this plague was less destruc¬ 
tive than at present, until the close of the sixteenth century, 
when further clearings had removed most of the remaining 
barriers to its course. Up to that time, the northwest wind 
appears not to have attained to the maximum of specific effect 
which now characterizes it as a local phenomenon. Extensive 
districts, from which the rigor of the seasons has now banished 
valuable crops, were not then exposed to the loss of their har¬ 
vests by tempests, cold, or drought. The deterioration was 
rapid in its progress. Under the Consulate, the clearings had 
exerted so injurious an effect upon the climate, that the culti¬ 
vation of the olive had retreated several leagues, and since the 
winters and springs of 1820 and 1836, this branch of rural 
industry has been abandoned in a great number of localities 
where it was advantageously pursued before. The orange now 
flourishes only at a few sheltered points of the coast, and it is 
threatened even at Hyeres, where the clearing of the hills near 
the town has proved very prejudicial to this valuable tree. 
Marschand informs us that, since the felling of the woods, 
late spring frosts are more frequent in many localities north 
* La Provence au point cle vue de« Torrents el dcs Inondations ) p. 19. 
