Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1910-02-10

Of the City.
Paris has had so many floods tina
the scientists and expert watchers o
the Seine have classified them and di
vided them into three groups, accord
| ing to the height of the water regis
! tered on the gauges. 1t was on thi
river at Paris that the worlds frs
| system for forecasting floods wa
worked out, in 1854, and it has beer
in use ever since, so the city authori
ties Of Paris knew two weeks or NOR
ago of the calamity that was in stor
for them.
Since the daily readings Of the flov
of the Seine at Paris and other point
were begun in 1872, there have beer
forty-six floods counting the presen
one. According to the classification b!
height, thirty-One of these were 'ordi
nary" twelve extraordinary" anI
three exceptional" the exceptiona
ones being those Of 1740, 1902 and 1910
In the century preceding 1892 Their,
were five devastating foundations o.
the city, that of 1868 being the wors
on record until the present time.
There is no record of what the Sein,
did previous to 1852, but the natura
conditions have been the same since
long before the history Of France be
gan, SO the little lie de la Cite, which
was the beginning of Paris and or
which the Cathedral of Notre Dame
was consecrated in 1882, must have
been many times submerged. When
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in 1851
Il. &. the PARISH were small tribe
settled on the island in the middle OF
the Seine, and they called 1t Lutetia
Constantius Chorus, Roman emper
or, VINO had his residence there In the
year 293, called IL "his dear Lutetia, '
which may have been the beginning OF
that dear Paris" But there were nc
Quays and retaining walls then, so the
future lie de la Cite must have been
flooded after every torrential rain in
the valleys Of the Seine and it's chief
tributaries above Paris, the Marine and
the Yonne.
Famous Buildings In Floods Course.
Most of the famous structures dam.
aged or threatened by the present
flood antedate the beginning of the
flood records Of Paris in 1919 by many
years. in some cases centuries. The
To I'm,
institution TO feel the effects of the
present rising, Is on the lower. left
bank Of the Seine, near the entrance of
the river within the city limits Al
though a botanical garden, ii includes
a museum of natural history and a
geological collection. The Jardin des
Plantes' was founded in 1886 by Guy
de la Brosse, physician TO Louis MIL,
and was originally nothing more than
a collection of medicinal herbs. The
celebrated Button was appointed di-
rector Of the Jardin du Roi, as It came
to be called in 1889, and he extended
Its sphere by founding collections in
every department of natural history.
In 1893 the royal menagerie was trans
ferred to IT, and In 1894 the library.
Notre Dame, on the lie de In Cite,
the famous walls of which have been
washed by many floods, was founded
In 1853 on the site Of church Of the
fourth century and was consecrated I'm
1852, but the nave was not completed
until the thirteenth century. The
foundation stone was laid by Pope
Alexander III, at that time a refugee
In France. In 1893 Notre Dame was
converted into the temple OF reason.
The sculptures were mutilated and the
statue Of the Virgin replaced by one
Of Liberty. The orgies of which the
church became the scene led to its
being closed the following year. In
1895 II was restored to the Catholics.
Rendezvous Of Wolf Hunters.
The Louvre, the basement Of which
Ne flooded, Is supposed to derive its
name from an ancient rendezvous Of
wolf hunters, known as the LOuverie.
The beginning of building on this site
was In the time of Philip Augustus,
who lived I'm the latter part Of the
twelfth century. But the present
structure was not begun until the
reign Of Francis l., 1515-47.
The occurrence of high foods at
Paris IL due, as a rule, to the concen-
tration Of the rainfall at certain peri
DDS Of the year and not to a high aver
age for the whole year, so most of the
foundations have come in the winter,
helped along by the melting snow.
Floods of the Seine present a mixed
character owing to the torrential ma
ture Of its tributaries, the Yonne and
the Marine, which, with their high
floods, exercise a predominating in
fluence on the floods of Paris. AS the
torrents from the farthest parts Of the
basin take only three or four days to
reach Paris, whereas the floods Of the
tranquil afIiuents only arrive four or
five days later. great food at Paris
is rarely the result Of single fall
Of rain. Generally a high food II
caused by the arrival OF second tor