New Britain herald., 1930-03-21
BIG FRENCH FLOOD
 RUINS OLD LANDS
Historic Country in Southland
 Swept by Devastation

Washington, D. C., March 21.- Frances worst flood in century or more, which drowned scores of peo- pie, swept away villages and bridges many hundreds of years old, de- stroyed vineyards, and put hundreds of square miles of farming land un- der water, has been centered in the Gascony, Midi and Languedoc regions just north of the eastern Pyrenees mountains in southern France.
 This country and it's life under ordinary conditions is described in a bulletin from the Washington, D. C. headquarters of the National Geo. graphic Society based on a com- munication to the society from Mel vile Chatter who travelled across the region of the recent floods, through the Lateral and Midi canals, in a canoe.
 Moissac, Where Loss Was Heavy
 MT. Chatter writes thus of Moissac where a breaking dam caused the death of 150 persons and destroyed part of the town.
 We came to Moissac through a pretty countryside of hay-making scenes and red-roofed farm houses. Here the sinuous canal hardly per mitted even a canoe to squeeze be- tween the monster barges pyramided with wine tuns for Bordeaux, the u-i> NiIi'y p-;,,
 Surely it was by a sheer prodi- gality of the religious art impulse that Moissac, a mere rustic townlet, became lowered with twelfth cen tury cloisters which rival any in France. Their column capitals, graven with many a scene in which popes and cardinals figure, consti- tute a veritable church history in stone.
 Long before we gained the Canal du Midi at Toulouse we had learned how vividly the French for midday describes Pyrenean France. Ones abiding recollections of the Midi are of the midday-withering heat, whitish, fast-shuttered houses, whitish roads, dust-blanched fields and follage-all under a cloudless, turquoise sky whose fires light the peasants bedtime hour.
 At Toulouse we left the Lateral Canal and entered the much older Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi is not only an important commerce carrier it is among the most beaue tiful of French waterways. Jmmedi- ately beyond Toulouse we found our selves floating through 6 series of woodland yistas. a ceaseless inter- play of lights, shadows. and reflec- tons, that changed with each turn of this endlessly twisting stream. It is small wonder that these same vistas once intrigued Henry James into the cautious remark that a taste in canals was 'justifable'
 Ihe Midi canals picturesque character is due to the magnificent trees which line it's banks for more than 100 miles. Here are venerable oak glades, there alleys of plane trees. and wonder spear straight
 
 Often, indeed, ranks of these differ ent species parallel each other in a multiplied depth of sylvan shelter" Peaceful Land of Sudden Storms
 That there could also be sudden storms in the peaceful Midi, Mir. Chatter and his companion soon learned.
 You had better sleep ashore" barge skipper called to them one evening. ''Therell be a storm to- night.
 We agreed" writes Mir. Chatter, "that. with the prevalent settled dry weather, the old fellows prophecy was absurd. Nevertheless, we had hardly fallen asleep in the canoe when VIC were reused by a true Midi storm. It was terrific offensive of the elements, and ceased with an