TORRENTS IN FRANCE. 
237 
southeastern portion of France, not because that territory lias 
suffered more severely than some others, but because its de¬ 
terioration is comparatively recent, and lias been watched and 
described by very competent and trustworthy observers, wdiose 
reports are more easily accessible than those published in other 
countries.* 
The provinces of Dauphiny, Avignon, and Provence com¬ 
prise a territory of fourteen or fifteen thousand square miles, 
bounded northwest by the Isere, northeast and east by the 
Alps, south by the Mediterranean, west by the Rhone, and 
extending from 42° to about 45° of north latitude. The sur¬ 
face is generally hilly and even mountainous, and several of 
the peaks in Dauphiny rise above the limit of perpetual snow. 
The climate, as compared with that of the United States in the 
same latitude, is extremely mild. Little snow falls, except 
upon the higher mountain ranges, the frosts are light, and the 
summers long, as might, indeed, be inferred from the vegeta¬ 
tion ; for in the cultivated districts, the vine and the fig every¬ 
where flourish, the olive thrives as far north as 43^°, and upon 
the coast, grow the orange, the lemon, and the date palm. The 
forest trees, too, are of southern type, umbrella pines, various 
species of evergreen oaks, and many other trees and shrubs of 
persistent broad-leaved foliage, characterizing the landscape. 
The rapid slope of the mountains naturally exposed these 
provinces to damage by torrents, and the Romans diminished 
their injurious effects by erecting, in the beds of ravines, bar¬ 
riers of rocks loosely piled up, which permitted a slow escape 
of the water, but compelled it to deposit above the dikes the 
* Strefflenr (JTeber die Natur und die Wirlcungen der Wildbdche , p. 8) 
maintains that all the observations and speculations of French authors 
on the nature of torrents had been anticipated by Austrian writers. In 
proof of this assertion he refers to the works of Franz von Zallinger, 1778, 
Yon Arretin, 1808, Franz Duile, 1826, all published at Innsbruck, and 
Hagen’s Beschreibung neuerer Wasserbauwerfce, Konigsberg, 1826, none of 
which works are known to me. It is evident, however, that the conclu¬ 
sions of Surell and other French writers whom I cite, are original results 
of personal investigation, and not borrowed opinions. 
