The New York herald., 1872-12-17
The Late French Ymundatioas-ThS
Prevlston or Cateclvsms.

The Late French Ymundatioas-ThS
Provision OF Cataciysms.
The tidings Of the great inundst;ons in
France can hardly convey an adequate idea al
tho havoc they have procipitated over her
beautiful and populous plains Tho re-
cent great storms and aerial waves Of
the Atlantic. bearing the evaporation Of
an ocean, have penetrated the elevated
watersheds of Southern and Southwestern
France and poured down their accumulated
torrents The Pyrenean chain of mountains
is continued from the Spanish frontier bE
minor chains and table lands far to the north
eastward and rcappear in the Cevennes. the
Montagnes Noires and the great plateau Of
Auvergne, which act as condenssrs for tho
moist and vapor-laden winds which come from
the warm, tropical Atlantic, and dash against
these now chilly and icy submits.
These cataclysms which have desolated the
fair Valley of the Loire have probably
descended, with varying force, through most
of the valleys which trend westward and dis
charge their waters into the English Channel
and the Bay of Biscay Like the similar
visitations which have this year marked the
watercourses of the Po, spreading ruin over
Lombardy, they have SO far de6ed the power
of scientific provision of forewaming, It is
not impossible. but highly probable. that tho
recurrence of great inundations is ascribable
to the abnormal or cyclical activity of the
solar radiation, evaporating unusual and
enormous quantities of tropical ocean water.
which, in the course of few weeks after their
formation, are borne to the great Continent by.
the upper currents of the atmosphere. Tho
past year, according to the observations Of
the Italian scientists, has been distinguished
by an extraordinary emission of dark solar
radiations and by remarkably high
temperatures. That such periodic returns Of
copious and torrential rains are referrible to
some natural law within the power of science
to discover and define can hardly be doubted.
1t is also highly probable that the late foods
of Italy and France are manifestations Of sstho
great atmospheric wave," which. as our
weather Office has recently shown, is a con-
tinuous hiemal phenomenon. The inunda-
tions of the Nile have for ages been SO pune
tual that they are reckoned upon with perfect
certainty, and computed, both as to their
beginning and end, to within q day. In the
year 1887 so high food existed in England
that Westminster Hall was sailed in with boats:-
and the same visitation occurred in England
in 1856 and 1887, in nearly eleven-year or sun
spot periods. The greatest food of the Middle
Ages was that which overfowed the banks Of
the Severn in October, 1888, and brought with
it 'the sweating sickness" The classic Tiber
comes in for its share Of historic foods. as
that which Immediately preceded the death ct
Caesar, in the year A. The Seine deluged
Paris in 1859, and, according to the testimony
of the Emperor Julian, more than fifteen hun-
dred years ago, it then showed difference
between high and low water levels-whic4 il
still maintains-of about thirty-three feet.'
The Garonne one Of the French systems Of
rivers now devastated by the foaming torrent:
in April, Ito, attained the enormous food
level of forty-two and half feet above low
water mark, and almost buried the town OF
Castets.
1t is certainly a subject worthy of accurate
scientific investigation to determine, if possi-
BILE, the years and times of the year in which
these dreadful distinctions may be looked for.
The great strides Of modern physical research
inspire the hope that such inquiry may not be
without its reward.