y
ended at nine o'clock, after which the company withdrew. This peaceful
life had no other events to mark it than the success of the various
parts of the great enterprise.

In June the torrent of the Gabou went dry, and Gerard established his
headquarters in the keeper's house. Farrabesche had already built his
farmhouse, which he called Le Gabou. Fifty masons, brought from Paris,
joined the two mountains by a wall twenty feet thick, with a foundation
twelve feet deep and heavily cemented. The wall, or dam, rose nearly
sixty feet and tapered in until it was not more than ten feet thick at
the summit. Gerard backed this wall on the valley side with a cemented
slope, about twelve feet wide at its base. On the side toward the
commons a similar slope, covered with several feet of arable earth,
still further supported this great work, which no rush of water could
possibly damage. The engineer provided in case of unusual rains an
overflow at a proper height. The masonry was inserted into the flank of
each mountain until the granite or the hard-pan was reached, so that the
water had absolutely no outlet at the sides.

This dam was finished by the middle of August. At the same time Gerard
was preparing three canals in the principal valleys, and none of these
works came up to his estimated costs. The chateau farm could now be
finished. The irrigation channels through the plain, superintended by
Fresquin, started from the canal made by nature along the base of the
mountains on the plain side, through which culverts were cut to the
irrigating channels. Water-gates were fitted into those channels, the
sides of which the abundance of rock had enabled them to stone up, so as
to keep the flow of water at an even height along the plain.

Every Sunday after mass, Veronique, the engineer, the rector, the
doctor, and the mayor walked down through the park to see the course of
the waters. The winter of 1832 and 1833 was extremely rainy. The water
of the three streams which had been directed to the torrent, swollen
by the water of the rains, now formed three ponds in the valley of the
Gabou, carefully placed at different levels so as to create a steady
reserve in case of a severe drought. At certain places where the valley
widened Gerard had taken advantage of a few hillocks to make islands
and plant them with trees of varied foliage. These vast operations
completely changed the face of the country; but five or six years were
of course n