Definition of "débris"

The gorge widens out slightly after leaving Pa-tung, giving room for piles of gigantic débris from the neighbouring mountains to obstruct the river and create numerous small rapids, which we surmount in the usual painful manner. The country is wild and desolate-looking in the extreme, and well explains the poverty of the Pa-tung district.

1898, Archibald John Little, Through the Yang-tse Gorges‎, 3rd edition, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, page 72