TORRENTS IN FRANCE. 
239 
sequence of the gradual abandonment of the wasted soil by its 
starving occupants. The growth of the large towns on and 
near the Rhone and the coast, their advance in commerce and 
industry, and the consequently enlarged demand for agricul¬ 
tural products, ought naturally to have increased the rural 
population and the value of their lands; but the physical 
decay of the uplands was such that considerable tracts were 
deserted altogether, and in Upper Provence, the fires which in 
1471 counted 897, were reduced to 747 in 1699, to 728 in 
1733, and to 635 in 1776. 
These facts I take from the La Provence au point de vue 
des Bois , des Torrents et des Inondations , of Charles de Ribbe, 
one of the highest authorities, and I add further details from 
the same source. 
“ Commune of Barles, 1707: Two hills have become con¬ 
nected by land slides, and have formed a lake which covers 
the best part of the soil. 1746 : New slides buried twenty 
houses composing a village, no trace of which is left; more 
than one third of the land had disappeared. 
“ Monans, 1724: Deserted by its inhabitants and no longer 
cultivated. 
“ Gueydan, 1760 : It appears by records that the best 
grounds have been swept off since 1756, and that ravines 
occupy their place. 
“ Digne, 1762 : The river Bleone has destroyed the most 
valuable part of the territory. 
“ Malmaison, 1768 : The inhabitants have emigrated, all 
their fields having been lost.” 
In the case of the commune of St. Laurent du Yar, it 
appears that, after clearings in the Alps, succeeded by others 
in the common woods of the town, the floods of the torrent 
Yar became more formidable, and had already carried off 
much land as early as 1708. “ The clearing continued, and 
more soil was swept away in 1761. In 1762, after another 
destructive inundation, many of the inhabitants emigrated, 
and in 1765, one half of the territory had been laid waste. 
“ In 1766, the assessor Serraire said to the Assembly: ‘As 
