The Dry River-beds of the Riviera

Abstract

MR. R. E. BARTLETT (NATURE, vol. xiii. p. 406) asks for some theory to account for the existence of the broad stony river-beds of Piedmont. He instances the Paglione at Nice, which is indeed the merest rudiment of a river for the greater part of the year. But if Mr. Bartlett will wait, not so much for the snows on the Maritime Alps to be melted, as for the rainy weeks of autumn to come again.he will see that that now despicable river annually flows with a vehemence and a volume worthy of its size. Many a dry and insignificant torrent-bed in the neighbourhood of Nice swells during the rainy season to a torrent indeed; the thoroughness with which they then drain the adjacent slopes is amply sufficient to explain their existence and their appearance when their “occupation's gone.”