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its highest summit 1751 toises above the level of the sea; the length about 212 miles. Mont Perdu is the highest elevation of the Pyrenees; Mont Canigou the chief of the Eastern Pyrenees: the hill is of difficult ascent, and is 1440 toises above the Mediterranean. The Pyrenean chain appears at a distance like a shaggy ridge, presenting the segment of a circle fronting France, and descending at each extremity. To the south and west they are sterile, but on the north and east, where the descent is more gradual, they afford frequent woods and excellent pasturage: near the summit of Mont Perdu is a large lake, upwards of 9000 feet above the level of the sea, which discharges its waters into Spain.

The forests of France constitute one of its principal geographical features. They are estimated to cover altogether a surface of 29,220 square miles, or upwards of 18,000,000 English acres; that is about an eighth of its territorial surface. Since the time of Cæsar, that of Ardennes has been the largest in France: it then extended from the Rhine to the Rhone, but is now much diminished at its extremities. The forest of Fontainbleau covers a space of about 25,000 acres. That of Orleans, including several plains and villages, is fifteen leagues in length, and from three to eight in breadth. It contains great variety of timber, such as oak, elm, fir, aspen, &c. Before the revolution the value of its timber annually was 100,000 livres: the profit being part of the appanage of the duke of Orleans.

M. Chaptal, in his treatise d'Industrie Francaise, estimates the woods which are

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The hectare is about two-fifths of the English acre. Under the old government, the national forests yielded about 12,000,000 francs to the royal treasury. By the revolution, all forests formerly held by the corporate bodies and the emigrants were annexed to those of the state, which were thus increased to upwards of 4,000,000 arpents, or about one-fourth. These, added to the forests in Belgium, and on the left bank of the Rhire, in the year 1806, yielded rather more than 70,000,000 francs, according to the budget for that year. All forests above 300 acres were also added to the national domains, and declared inalienable. In the year 1800 the national forests were exempted from the land-tax. But the revolution did not abolish the arbitrary laws to which the private proprietors of woodlands were subject. According to these laws, the government appoints persons, who are proper judges of ship timber, to examine all the woods, and to mark such trees as they deem fit for their purpose, after which the proprietor must not lay the axe to them.

The rivers of France are numerous, and intersect and beautify the country in every direction. The Rhine now only waters the eastern frontiers of two departments. The Rhone, Seine, Loire, and

Garonne, are the other great streams. The Rhone enters France from the lake of Geneva, and enters the Mediterranean by several mouths a few miles west of Marseilles. It passes in its course Lyons, Vienne, Valence, Montelimart, Avignon, Beaucaire, Tarascon, and Arles. The Seine, having a direction generally towards the north-west, rises in the department of Côte d'Or, and waters a series of beautiful valleys previous to its arriving at Paris; whence it follows a sinuous course to the English Channel, receiving a great number of tributary streams. The principal towns on its bauks are Troyes, Melun, Paris, and Rouen. The Loire has its source in the western side of the Cevennes, and flows towards the north for about half its way. It then turns to the west and falls into the Bay of Biscay after a course of more than 450 miles. It receives about forty of the central rivers of the country, and is navigable for nearly ninety miles. The principal places it passes are Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours, Saumur, and Nantes.

The Garonne, rising in the northern side of the Pyrenees, flows nearly north-west into the Bay of Biscay: having most of its course through a flat country. It is joined by the Dordogne before it reaches the sea, and after the junction is called the Gironde. It passes Toulouse, Agen, and Bourdeaux, below which it opens into a large estuary, having an entire course of above 200 miles.

Other rivers in the northern departments are the Somme, which falls into the British Channel below Abbeville; the Oise and the Marne which enter the Seine; the Aisne tributary to the Oise; and the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Scheldt (l'Escaut) watering the central departments. The Vilaine discharges its waters into the ocean below La Roche-Bernard. The Sarthe and the Loir unite above Angers, and, having joined the Mayenne at that town, they augment the Loire a little below. These collect their waters on the north of that river. The Creuse joins the Vienne, which with the Cher and the Indre enter the Loire from the south. The Yonne discharges itself into the Seine at Montereau. The Saone and the Doubs_unite and afterwards flow into the Rhone. Of the southern rivers the three which fall into the Garonne are the Dordogne, the Lot, and the Tarn. The Adour runs into the sea at Bayonne. The Allier discharges itself into the Loire at Nevers; while the Isere and the Durance are both tributary to the Rhone.

The canals of France are few, and the general management of them very far behind that of our own internal navigation. The principal existing canals are:-1. The Canal de Briare, which unites the Loire near Briare, with the Loing at Cepoix; where also it receives the canal d'Or leans. From this place the canal of Montargis continues the navigation to the Seine. By means of these, and the connecting rivers, France may be traversed from north to south. This canal contains forty-two locks, and is about fifty-five miles in length.-2. The Canal du Centre, also called the Canal of Charollois, and the Canal of the Three Seas, or of Digoin, is about twenty French leagues in length, and by means of the

Rhone, the Loire, and the Seine, unites the Mediterranean, the Ocean, and the Channel.-3. The Canal de la Côte d'Or, likewise called the Canal de Bourgogne, connects the Saone and the Yonne, at a short distance from Joigny; and two other intermediate rivers. Its whole length is about 140 miles.-4. The Canal de Montargis, constructed as early as 1720, to continue the navigation of the Canal de Briare to the Seine.5. The Canal d'Orleans which joins the Loire and the Loing. It commences at the former river, two leagues above Orleans, and unites with the latter near Montargis. It has thirty locks in a length of about fifty miles.-6. The Canal du Midi or Canal of Languedoc, the most noted and extensive in France. It was constructed under the auspices of Colbert, during the reign of Louis XIV.; and employed a great number of men for fifteen years, among whom nearly half a million of money was distributed. This canal commences at the bay of Languedoc, and enters the Garonne near the city of Toulouse, after a course of 126 miles. Its breadth, including the towing paths, is 144 feet, and its depth about six. The French government has recently formed many plans for improving the internal navigation. A Report drawn up by the Administration des Ponts et Chaussées, for the information of the French ministry, enumerates all the canals which are finished-all those on which they are at work, and all those which they recommend to be undertaken.

Of the canals which are in progress the most important are- -Canal de Monsieur, parallel with the Rhine, which will facilitate the exportation of the Alsace manufactures both to Paris and Marseilles-Canal de Bourgogne, joining the Canal de Monsieur with the Seine by way of Dijon-Canal lateral de la Loire-Canal du Duc de Berry, striking off from the Loire near Tours and passing by Bourges and joining the Loire again near Nevers-Canal de Bretagne-Canal du Nivernois, to intersect the Nivernois, and give some means of communication to a district in which hitherto all goods have been carried on horseback.

France contains no lakes of importance, and the sea-coast is singularly deficient in harbours considering its extent. In thirty leagues of coast Languedoc has not one good harbour; and while Provence abounds in inlets arising from the sand and other accretions, which the Rhone brings down, being driven to the westward, these render the coast extremely shelving, and full of shoals. The coast of Provence, is on the contrary steep and rocky, and inclines gradually to the southward, from the mouths of the Rhone to near Toulon. But here all the harbours want depth as roadsteads for shipping. Going round the coast from the north-east we have, at Dunkirk, a small harbour in the interior of the town, approached on the Dutch plan by a canal leading from the sea. Boulogne is a shallow roadstead, giving protection by land batteries near its entrance to small craft. The port of Dieppe is much exposed in winter; that of St. Malo is less so, and, on doubling the projecting part of Brittany, we find, in the south-west of that province, L'Orient, a port of tolerable security for large

merchantmen. Farther to the south, we find at La Rochelle a small, but secure harbour, and at Bourdeaux, a river nearly equal in width to the Thames at London. From this there is no seaport, until reaching Bayoune, a place of no easy access. On the Mediterranean, the ports are the Cette and Marseilles, the latter considered spacious and secure. At Brest and Toulon, are the great dock yards and naval stations, both having excellent harbours; Rochefort is nearly equal to them, situated on the river Charente near its mouth. At Cherburg the labor and expense that have been bestowed on the public works have been, as we have seen, immense. See CHERBURG Its roadstead, is extensive and open, but it has a sea-wall, which, affords considerable protection from the swell of the sea; and its spaciousdock is capable of containing fifty sail of the line. Havre de Grace, the best mercantile harbour perhaps in France, has also been formed at a great expense.

The climate of France has been divided into that of the North, the Central, and the Southern regions. The north, comprising Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, Brittany, and, in general, all that part of France that would be bounded on the south by a diagonal line from lat. 47° on the west to lat. 49° on the east frontier, bears a great resemblance in temperature and produce, to the south of England; and the chief culture is in wheat, barley, oats, rye; apples, pears, and cherries; hemp, flax, and 'rapeseed. Here also, and here only in France, is pasturage rich and extensive; while the timber is also remarkably like our own. The central region comprising the country to the south of the Loire, or of the diagonal line we have mentioned, until reaching a similar line in lat. 45° on the west and 47° on the east frontier, has its winters, except in the highest parts, sensibly shorter and milder. Wheat, barley, oats, and rye, are here mingled with maize in the culture, and vines are general. The weather in this great inland tract is also more steady than northward. In the summer it has little rain, and few storms: but when they occur they are frequently accompanied with hail. This is altogether perhaps the most pleasant part of France'; it is certainly generally preferred by English visitors and residents. The southern region comprehending the whole breadth of France, from lat. 45° and 46° to lat. 42° 30′, approaches in climate to the warmth of Italy; it being necessary, in the summer months, to suspend all active exertions in the middle of the day. Wheat is here but partially grown barley, oats, and rye, on the high grounds; and maize very generally. The vines supply in their rich produce and cultivation the main article of export. The common fruits are olives, mulberries, and in warm parts oranges and lemons. The pasturage is good only on mountainous or well watered tracts.

The quantity of rain that annually falls in Paris is very nearly the same as in London; the average in both places being between twenty-one and twenty-two inches. The mean quantity for the whole of France is about twenty-one inches. At Marseilles it is 22.5 inches; at Bourdeaux twenty-six; and at Montpelier nearly thirty

inches. Brittany is considered as rainy as Cornwall. In the interior the rains are less frequent, but more heavy; so that there is much less difference in the quantity of rain that falls in the course of the year than in the number of rainy days. The atmosphere of this country is much less cloudy than ours: but the most frequent wind in the north and central part of France is, as in Britain and Ireland, the south-west. In the south of France the winds are commonly from the north. Nor is the difference of temperature between London and Paris considerable: the degree of heat indeed, along the west coast of France, is not felt to be intense until passing Poitou. In the interior it is more perceptible, being strongly felt at Lyons, and still more in the latitude of Nismes, Aix, Marseilles, and Tou

lon. The variations of climate are considerably greater on the whole between the north and south of France than between the north and south of Britain, where the difference of latitude is so much modified by the vicinity of the sea.

France has a most diversified and abundant soil, speaking generally. Arthur Young considers it much freer from poor lands than that of England. It consists chiefly of different kinds of loam, varying from the deepest and richest to the calcareous and gravelly. This author gives the following estimate of the proportion of the different soils. But his numbers it is to be observed include the whole surface of the kingdom, making no deductions for roads, rivers, ponds, &c. Necker estimated the roads of France alone at 9000 square leagues.

Rich district of the north-east, containing the provinces of Flanders, Artois,
Picardy, Normandy, the Isle of France, &c.

Plain of Garonne

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18,179,590

7,654,564

Plain of Alsace

637,880

Lower Poitou, &c.

1,913,641

Rich loam

28,385,675

The heath district of Brittany, Anjou, and parts of Normandy, &c.
The heath district of Guyenne and Gascony

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Heath

25,513,213

The mountainous district of Auvergne, Dauphiny, Provence, Languedoc, &c. The chalky district of Champagne, Sologne, Touraine, Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois, &c.

28,707,037

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16,584,889

The district of gravel of the Bourbonnais and Nivernais

3,827,282

The district of stony soils in Lorraine, Burgundy, Franche Compté, &c.
The district of various loams in the Limousin, Berry, La Manche, &c.

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The agriculture of France is not equal to its advantages in point of soil and climate. Before the revolution it languished under the seigneurships and ecclesiastical tenures: and since that event the law which directs an equal division of landed property among the children of a family, in most cases, has greatly increased the evils of its minute subdivision. The parent of two children has the free disposal of only one-third of his property; the parent of three children of only one-fourth; the residue being shared equally among all. The claim of primogeniture is thus in a great degree annulled.

One-half of the population of France, it is considered, have from these provisions, and the extensive sales of land in modern times, become landed proprietors; and one-fourth agricultural laborers: consequently two-thirds of the whole are employed in agricultural pursuits; while, in Great Britain, those so occupied do not amount to more than one-third of the population. A recent statement of M. Chaptal (De l'Industrie François) reckons the surface of France at 52,000,000 hectares, which are thus distributed :

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According to the registered customs

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Average value per acre
According to the return of special commissioners

The mean of these three gives

if, to find the average result of all these statements, we take the mean of this last and of M. Chaptal's, we shall have 1,411,582,273 francs; which has been thought a near approximation to the truth. From the estimate of this author, it appears that the capital employed in agricultural pursuits in France is 37,522,061,476 francs; which, compared with the statement of profits, gives only three and a half per cent. upon the whole capital employed.

Buck-wheat is largely cultivated in Normandy and the south of France, both as green food for cattle, and for the diet of the peasantry: it is sown generally in the month of June, and harvested in the end of September. Rape-seed is also general here and in French Flanders; and supplies, as in several districts in England, oil for the market and food for the cattle, either green or in cake. Cole-seed is also raised in this part. Flax is very generally raised in Flanders, Alsace, and Normandy, as well as in the provinces of the west and south, where it is spun in the cottages. Hemp also is raised in many parts of France, particularly in the north. Tobacco flourishes in Alsace and Picardy, and would it is said be extensively reared throughout France but for the excise restrictions, which only license its growth in particular parts. We have often thought our own excise laws sufficiently intrusive upon all the works of man, but this is an interference with natural productions which we do not recollect that they equal. Maize is a culture of great importance, both for the food of man and cattle, in the warm parts of France; when intended to stand for harvest it is planted in rows with but little seed, and yields more than twice the quantity of wheat that would be produced on the same area. During its growth, the leaves are regularly stripped for the cattle; and in some districts it is sown thick and mown for that purpose only. Potatoes are little known, and as little approved, speaking generally.

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Chestnuts supply, in the central part of France, no inconsiderable portion of human food. In the south the fruits are almonds, olives, prunes, figs, and oranges.

The vine is cultivated over, perhaps, one-half of France, beginning, in a limited degree, in Champagne and Burgundy; in Provence and the lower part of Languedoc, the climate becoming much warmer, the culture of it is general; though it is no where managed with such skill as along the banks of the Garonne. The quality of French wines, it is well known, is very various. The entire amount produced is said to have been considerably increased since the revolution, as well from the division of the larger estates as from the quantity of waste land that has been brought under ulture: 5,000,000 acres of land are, we are told, planted with vines; and that the value of the annual produce is from £28,000,000 to £30,000,000 sterling, of which about a tenth or twelfth part only is exported. A farther quantity, equal to about a sixth of the above, is made into brandy.

The official calculations of the produce of France are no where else equalled in point of minuteness. They give the following as the value of articles produced annually in France :— Wine 20,000,000 9,600,000

Raw silk

Hemp
Flax
Madder

Wood for fuel and timber of all
kinds

1,200,000

800,000

200,000

5,600,000

Olive oil, rape-seed, and cole-seed 2,800,000
Tobacco
Chestnuts

300,000 300,000

40,800,000

Of the following articles also, produced in Great Britain, we extract not the value only, but the quantity and average price.

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The pasturage is, as we have stated, chiefly confined to the north and west of France: and here clover and sainfoin abound; lucerne is much more general, being raised not merely in the north, but in the central and southern provinces, wherever irrigation is practicable and the soil and climate suitable.

The art of breeding cattle is little understood in France, nor is there much judgment shown in fattening them. The beef and mutton of the north and west are, however, very tolerable, and their price, though varying in different provinces, thirty per cent. less than in England. Butter is made and used extensively, but cheese much less than in England. In the south, however, olive oil, largely supplies the place of butter in cooking. The French horses are inferior, both in size, number, and general appearance, to those of our own country. In the performance of labor, however, they are found strong and tolerably expeditious. A French mail-coach performs only five instead of seven miles an hour, as with us; but this is owing less to inferiority in the horses, than to the state of the roads, and to general want of despatch at posthouses. More than one-half of the horses belong to the northern provinces, viz. Normandy, Brittany, Picardy, Alsace, and the Isle of France. In the central and southern departments the work is chiefly done by oxen. The total of horned cattle in France, in 1812, was reported officially as follows:-Chaptal, vol. i. p. 197.

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Sheep are reared almost every where, and the mutton is good. Merinos were first brought from Spain in 1787, and formed into a royal flock at Rambouillet. The quality has been progressively improved, and distributions of Merinos have been successively made to proprietors of sheep pastures in all parts of France. The consequence is that, in many districts, the weight of the fleece has been nearly doubled. The animals are not folded during night, but crowded into covered buildings (bergeries), and suffer, particularly in winter, much injury from sudden exposure. Mules, though little known in the north of France, are reared in the central and southern parts very generally. Poultry, in France, is both larger and more abundant than with us.

France has some considerable mines of silver in the mountainous districts; but is very

rich in iron. The Ardennes, Vosges, Jura, Puy de Dôme, Pyrenees, &c., &c., all abound with this mineral; and numerous forges, estimated in all at about 250, have been built, principally in the departments des Ardennes, du Cher, du Côte d'Or, de la Dordogne, de la Haute Maine, du Nievre, de la Haute Saône. There are besides 100 forges à la Catalane, and about 900 faux d'affinerie, for refining the metal, producing nearly 75,000,000 kilos per annum. But, with the exception of that found near Beffort (Bas Rhin), the quality is inferior. It is in general too brittle to be employed in machinery. Copper is only found, in any considerable quantities, at Baygorri (Basses Pyrenées), and at Chessy and St. Bel, near Lyons. A small supply is also derived from a few mines in the departments des Hautes Alpes and de Haut Rhin. Lead is found in the departments de l'Arriege, de la Haute Loire, and du Finisterre; and tin is found near St. Omer; but the whole product of these mines is quite insufficient to answer the demand in France, and zinc is frequently substituted for copper, especially for sheathing ships.

The fields of coal in France are inexhaustible, and the collieries very numerous. They are to be found in the north, near Valenciennes and Lisle, near the banks of the Allier, in the department du Puy de Dôme, de l'Aveyron, du Cantal, and in many other places. Many of them, however, are not worked, in great measure owing to the difficulty of carrying the coal away when brought to the surface. The whole value of coal annually extracted from the mines in France is not above £2,000,000 sterling; nor is the quality in general so good as in England.

Besides the mines that are actually worked, there are many others which exist, but which, owing to the impediments thrown in the way of speculators by the government, have not yet been opened. By the French law, all minerals of every kind belong to the crown, and the only advantage the proprietor of the soil enjoys, is the having the refusal of the mine at the rent fixed upon it by the crown surveyors. There is great difficulty sometimes in even obtaining the leave of the crown to sink a shaft upon the property of the individual, who is anxious to undertake the speculation, and to pay the rent usually demanded, a certain portion of the gross product. The comte Alexandre de B-, it is said, has been vainly seeking this permission for a lead mine on his estate in Brittany for upwards of ten years.

The imports of these metals, of course, are very considerable :

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