The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-04-12
TORRENT TANNING In SOUTHERN
FRANCE.

FRANCE.
In the year 1860 France began upon
a new and successful plan, fight with
certain lawless torrents, many of them
tributary to the Rhone.
The condition of affairs which made
necessary such course, the progress
OF the struggle, and its successful issue.
are well worthy our attention here in
America at this time.
For more than three hundred years
the improyident wood cutting has been
going on, which at last changed many
OF the streams of that region into tor
rents. The lower lying and generally
sleeper slopes of their BASINS had been
robbed by their short-sighted owners Of
their protecting forests. Next, as the
income from woodland became less. the
impoverished peasants were tempted
to overstock the higher and more level
upland pastures with sheep and goats.
The sharp hoofs of these animals, and
their close bite when pressed by hun
ger soon weakened the turf, SO that It
could not ho,d its place against the
washing action of the heavy rain.
During hard showers the fragments of
this turf, with more or less of the thin
soil underneath, started down hill.
Arriving at the sleeper slopes-formerly
protected by trees with their fallen
leaves, roots and UNDERGRADUATE
water found nothing to check it, till
part of it could find the crevices leading
to the springs, and there was nothing
else to keep the rest from rushing
too suddenly to the stream bed; but
carrying with it the scanty soil of these
denuded slopes, every yard of descent
would add to its volume, velocity and
eroding power. By the time the stream
was reached each drop would contain
some grains of the precious soil to be
washed down to the sea, or on its way
there to be deposited where it would
spoil river, channels and harbors. Be-
sides this washing of soil, rocks and
boulders imbedded in it would be loos-
ened, tumble down into the channels.
and in hood-time ground up into gravel
and spread over fertile ground in the
valley. In one province, Adreche, TO-
600 acres, one eighth its total area, were
thus rendered almost worthless by flood
deposits Marsh: Earth as Modified by
Human Action, p. PSF, note). In adj
dition, costly roads, bridges, aqueducts
and buildings were undermined and
washed away. Large regions, formerly
populous, became solitudes, across
which it was hard and often unsafe to
travel.
Great sums were spent in such works
as retaining dams built across the
mouth of gorges; rows of stone pillars
lining the borders of streams, and at
right angles to these walls of pebbles
and row of trees, and many other ex-
pedients, none of which cured the evil,
$24, 100000 was annually spent on
roads and bridges, and much of this
outlay was made necessary by the gull
lying, undermining and covering with |
debris done by torrents.
Meantime rainfall was becoming ir-
regular; floods and droughts alternated;
the rapid heating and cooling of the |
bare slopes caused violent winds; and |
these. with the sudden changes of tenn
perature, wrenched, 50 to speak, the
mo sture from the clouds, causing local
floods of terrible fury, e. g., ''in a single
day of flood the Ardeche, river too /
insignificant to be known except in the
local topography of France. contributed
to the Rhone once and half. and for /
three consecutive days once and one
third as much as the average delivery
of the Nile. although the basin
Of the latter river contains 1000 900 |
square miles. ormore than /. 600 |
times as much as the former" Marsh.
PIP. 258-9.) ''The water of the Beaume.
a tributary of the Ardeche, rose Fin
1921 thirty-fve feet above low water. |
but the stream was again fordable on
the evening of the same day" id p.
1851
The most serious results OF denudino
the steep slopes of the mountains were
seen when the warm wind called the
Foehn, coming probably from Sahara.
and when crossing the Mediterranean
loading Itself with moisture, struck the
snow line on the higher parts of the
This wind, ACCORDING TO
Guyot, sometimes has power to melt
six feet OF snow in twenty-four hours!
The melted snow, together with the
rain. dashed down from the Foehn,
would be likely 10 do serious damage,
even if the hillsides had their full pro-
action of turf, bush and tree. But
when no such barriers checked the rush
he results were frightful,
At last, after many costly efforts to
cure an evil which grew worse and
worse, a timid step was taken toward
Many far-seeing men, and
specially Surell-who gave life-work
% the cause-had long been urging this.
As the torrent was the accumulation of
many drops which, when brought to-
gether at one time, were irresistible. the
point aimed at was to prevent their
the channel all at once. They
must be arrested as long as possible
Vhere they first fell, IS many as posi-. L