THE FOREST AS A PROTECTION AGAINST INUNDATIONS. 395 
traffic and travel—thus severing as it were all Southwestern 
France from the rest of the empire—and finally threatened to 
produce great and permanent geographical changes. The 
well-being of the whole commonwealth was seen to he in¬ 
volved in preventing the recurrence, and in limiting the range 
of such devastations. The Government encouraged scientific 
investigation of the phenomena and their laws. Their causes, 
their history, their immediate and remote consequences, and 
the possible safeguards to be employed against them, have 
been carefully studied by the most eminent physicists, as well 
as by the ablest theoretical and practical engineers of France. 
Many hitherto unobserved facts have been collected, many 
new hypotheses suggested, and many plans, more or less origi¬ 
nal in character, have been devised for combating the evil; 
but thus far, the most competent judges are not well agreed as 
to the mode, or even the possibility, of applying a remedy. 
e. Remedies against Inundations. 
Perhaps no one point has been more prominent in the dis¬ 
cussions than the influence of the forest in equalizing and 
regulating the flow of the water of precipitation. As we have 
already seen, opinion is still somewhat divided on this subject, 
but the conservative action of the woods in this respect has 
been generally recognized by the public of France, and the 
Government of the empire has made this principle the basis of 
important legislation for the protection of existing forests, and 
for the formation of new. The clearing of woodland, and the 
organization and functions of a police for its protection, are 
regulated by a law bearing date June 18th, 1859, and pro¬ 
vision was made for promoting the restoration of private 
woods by a statute adopted on the 28th of July, 1860. The 
former of these laws passed the legislative body by a vote of 
246 against 4, the latter with but a single negative voice. 
The influence of the government, in a country where the throne 
is so potent as in France, would account for a large majority, 
but when it is considered that both laws, the former especially, 
