The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-03-06
TORRENT TANNING IN SOUTHERN
FRANCE.

In the year 1901 france began upon
new and successful plan, "a fight with
certain lawless torrents, many of them
tributary to the Rhone.
The cond ton of aft lirs which made
necessary such Il course, the progress
of the struggle, and It's successful issue,
are well worthy our attention here in
America at this time.
For more than three hundred years
the improvident 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 Ia 'ins had been
robbed by their short-sighted owners Of
their protectin. forests Next, as the
income from woodland became less, the
impoverished peasants were tempted
to overstock the higher and more level
upland pa ,tures with sheep and gCas.
The sharp hoofs of these animals, and
their close bite when pressed by hum
ger soon weakened the turf, 50 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 CT less of the thin
sol underneath, STATED down hill.
Arriving AZ the sleeper slopcS
protected by trees with Their fallen
leaves, roots and underground the
water found nothing to che * 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 sudlenly to the stream bed; but
carrying with it tha scanty soil of these
denuded slopes, every yard of desc mt
would adj to its volume, velocity and
eroding power. BY the time the steam
was reached ca h drop would contain
some grains of the precious soil to be
waShcd down to the sea. or on its way
there to be deposited where it would
spoil river, channels and harbors. Be
sides this wash 'ng Of soil, rocks and
boulders imbedded in it would be loos-
cned, tumble down into the channels.
and in flood-time ground up into gravel
and spread over fertile ground in the
valley. In one province, Adreche, 1O,-
600 aero, one eighth its total area, were
thus rendered almost worthless by flood
deposits Marsh: Earth as Modified by
Human Action, p. 257, no.e(. In I'D
dtion, costly roads, bridges, aqucducts
and buildings were undermined and
washed away. Large regions, formerly
populols, be ame solitudes, across
which it was hard and o.ten 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 toyders of streams, and at
right angles to these walls of pebbles
and row of trees, and many other ex-
pedients, none of which cured tie evil;
S24, 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.
re Gular; floods and droughts al'erna.ed;
the rapid heating and cooling of the
are slopes cause violent winds; and
these. with the sudden changes of tenn
pe~ature, wrenched, 50 to speak, the
mo sture from the clouds, causing local
floods of terrible fury, c. g., ''in a single
day of flood the Ardeche, y river too
insignificant to be known except in the
local topography of France. contributed
to the RhOne once and half. and for
three conse :utive days once and one
third as much as the average delivery
If the Nile. although the basin
of the latter river contains 100000
square miles. ormore than 900
times as much as the former Marsh,
PIP. 2j8-9.) ''The water of the Beaume,
a tributary of the Ardeche, rose in
1927 tEirty-five feet above low water,
but the stream was again fordable on
the evening of the same day" Gd. p.
2J8)
The most serious results OF denuding
the steep slopes of the mountains We're
seen when the warm wind called the
Foehn, coming probably from Sahara,
and when crossing the Mediterranean
loading iself with moisture, struck the
snow line on the higher parts of the
mountains. 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 to do serious damage,
even if the hillsides had their full pro
lection of turf, bush and tree. But
when no such barr ers checked the rush
the results were frightful.
AT last, after many costly efforts to
cure an evil which grew worse and
"oIse, llInlu Step was ldhen to"alu
prevention. Many far-seeing men. and
especially Surell-who gave a life-work
to 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
reaching the channel all at once. They
must be arrested as long as possible
where they first fell, as many as possi-
BILE must be enabled to find the crevices
leading to springs, and all the way
down to the stream bed the progress of
the remainder must be delayed. Be-
sides, if, in addition to terracing and
horizontal burrows, the steep hillsides
were covered with growing trees,
bushes and fallen leaves, much of the
descending water would be taken up
into these plants, to be gradually given
back into the air in drier weather, thus
equali1ing temperature.
At first the Corps Legislatif could only
be induced to vote 1000, 600 frs, TO be
expended at the rate of 100000 frs. a
year. It was clear that the State must