years afterward, after it had been completed in an adjoining commune, and the people were conciliated by being employed in it. The upper valley of the torrent of Vachères, which was formerly considered one of the largest and most violent torrents of the Alps, once all cut up into ravines, is now covered with vegetation, and the torrent itself is described as extinct; once the terror of the country, it has been changed, at an expense of twenty-four thousand dollars, into an inoffensive river.
Like results have been obtained wherever works of the kind have been executed. M. Gentil, an engineer, reports of one district: "The aspect of the mountain has been changed all at once. The soil has acquired such stability that the violent storms of 1868, which caused great disasters in the high Alps, fell harmlessly on the regenerated perimeters. The mountain has at the same time become productive; where a few sheep could hardly live by destroying everything, may now be seen abundance of grass fit to mow. This method of improvement is remarkable for giving the people what they need most, and for giving it to them with only a brief delay. The pastoral inhabitants find food for their flocks in the grasses and hay of the planted areas and in the foliage of the trees; and the acacias that have been caused to grow there will soon furnish them the wood they will need in their vineyards. The torrential character of the stream has disappeared; the water is less turbid, even in time of rain, and is better adapted to purposes of irrigation. It is no longer loaded with solid matter when it reaches the lower valleys, and naturally keeps its bed. . . . Diversions from the regular course are less liable to occur and less dangerous, and the people on its banks can protect themselves with slight expense." M. Gentil relates several examples of torrents formerly very dangerous which have been fully and permanently subdued by means of such works as have been here described, giving protection to highways that were often interrupted before, and security to valleys that were often in danger, and adds: "Immense benefits have accrued to the lands situated in the lower valleys near the discharging basins of the streams. Not only are the inhabitants delivered from the expense of keeping up costly and precarious dikes; their property, also, being no longer in danger of being suddenly buried under a flood of gravel, has acquired a fixed value. They are able to till their land hopefully, and with the assurance that they will enjoy the crop. This certainty is a blessing of enormous value. The proprietor, able to rely upon the future, will no longer think of leaving the country."
So far as the work of restoration has been executed, its success—in respect to the processes employed and the results obtained—has been complete. The chief question concerning it which remains is as to the extent to which it shall be systematically carried out.—Revue des Deux Mondes.
