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FRANCE.

RANCE, the most westerly portion of Central Europe, occupies a geographical position highly favourable to political and commercial interests, possessing a large and nearly co-extensive amount of maritime and land frontier. The entire circuit of the country is estimated at 5000 kilometres, or nearly 3100 miles. It is directly connected with three sea-basins, the Atlantic on the west, the English Channel on the north-west, and the Mediterranean on the south-east, by means of which intercourse is conveniently commanded with the countries of Western and Southern Europe, the shores of Africa, Transatlantic regions, and all the coast lands of the eastern hemisphere. The Pyrenees form

the boundary from Spain on the south-west. The Alps and Jura mountains rise on the frontier towards Italy and Switzerland. Only on the north-east, towards Belgium and Germany, is there no natural feature to constitute a well-marked division. In that direction a very irregular artificial line, running north-west from Basle to Dunkirk, is adopted, which is under the protection of a chain of fortresses, as those of Sedan, Mezières, Givet, Valenciennes, and Lille, with a European guarantee to Belgium. The coast on the north is generally irregular, has the Channel Islands of Great Britain near its most prominent peninsula, and acquires a bold rocky character towards its western extremity, the peninsula of Bretagne. From this point, southward to the Pyrenees, it curves inland, forms one side of the Bay of Biscay, becomes low and dreary, extensively fringed with salt-marshes and sandy downs. Here in succession, from north to south, occur the small islands of Ushant, Belleisle, Noirmoutier, D'Yeu, Ré, and Oléron. The Mediterranean shores form the Gulf of Lyon, Golfe du Lion, so called from its violent storms; and, except towards the Italian border, are monotonous flats, characterised by lagoons. The only islands are the Hyères group, six in number, immediately eastward of Toulon. The larger island of Corsica, geographically related to Italy, belongs to France, and forms one of the departments.

The general outline of the country resembles an irregular hexagon, three sides of which are land and three water. Its greatest extent, due north and south, amounts to about 620 miles, between Dunkirk and the Col de Falguères, in the Pyrenees; and due east and west, the distance from the German frontier to the coast of Bretagne is 540 miles. The area, allowing for recent cessions of territory, but including the Corsican island, is computed at 201,657 square miles. The mainland lies between latitude 42° 20′ and 51° 5' north, and between 4° 50′ west and 7° 5' east longitude.

'La belle France !'-a current native expression in relation to it—is not justified through a vast range of the surface, if understood with reference to scenical appearances, though it may be appropriate if considered to intimate the favourable character of the soil and climate. Englishmen have specially taken exception to the phrase-Captain Basil Hall, Mr Laing, and Mr Inglis among others-whose knowledge was not confined to the path so beaten by their countrymen, the uninteresting route from Calais or Boulogne to the capital. Beautiful, in many parts, are the river-valleys of the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne, the Rhone, and the Moselle; scenery of the grandest description appears on approaching the Alps and Pyrenees; and wild and striking are portions of the interior and coast region of Bretagne. But these districts are collectively of small extent in comparison with the general face of the country, a very large proportion of which has no pleasant diversity, no picturesque or even cheerful features. For league after league the landscape is tame, and frequently becomes tiresome from spreading out as an unenclosed expanse, wanting not only the green net-work of hedges, but the old trees, single or in groups, and the thriving plantations, which relieve the natural monotony of the level tracts of England. Over an extensive space, stretching nearly 200 miles from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Adour, and running 70 miles inland from the coast, the country is a wilderness of white sand, black pine-woods, and vast plains of furze and heather, interspersed with shallow sombre pools and marshes bearing giant rushes and water-weeds, with here and there the rude huts of a scanty peasantry. This is the region of the Landes, which surprises by its strangeness, and awakens an interest in the mind of the traveller, which the unhedged levels submitted to cultivation fail to excite.

The highest mountains of France are near or on the borders. Before the recent acquisition of Savoy, the most elevated was the Grand Pelvoux, 13,440 feet, to the

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south-west of Briançon, in the department of the High Alps. Its loftiest peak was for the first time scaled by Mr E. Whymper in 1862. But Mont Blanc, the culminatingpoint of Europe, now lies on the frontier, along with two of the principal passes of the Alps, the Little St Bernard and Mont Cenis. The Jura range, upon the Swiss border, an outlier of the Alpine system, has only a comparatively moderate elevation, and belongs chiefly to Switzerland. Of the Pyrenean heights, within French limits, the loftiest, Mont Perdu, attains to 10,994 feet. Among the mountains proper to France, from having an interior position, the most important are the Cevenno-Vosgian, a long chain stretching from the north-east far to the southward, with which westerly ranges are connected. The Vosges run parallel to the Rhine, separate its valley from that of the Moselle, and have vine-clad slopes, round-shaped forms, to which the prefix ballon attached to the names of several refers. The range is now only French in its extreme southerly extension, but connects itself by a plateau tract with the Cevennes, which extend generally from north to south, divide the basin of the Loire from that of the Rhone, and reach the height of 5794 feet in Mont Mezen, near the source of the former river. During the invasion of Gaul by Julius Cæsar he crossed this narrow ridge in winter, with the snow lying in places six feet deep on the ground. It abounds with natural strongholds-defiles, gorges, caves, and woods-which were bravely held by the persecuted Protestants against the armies of Louis XIV., upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Connected with the southern portion of the Cevennes, the mountains of Auvergne follow a divergent course to the north-west, separate the river system of the Loire from that of the Garonne, and ramify over the central departments in a series of detached groups. These are the loftiest highlands of France apart from the borders, rising to the height of 6180 feet in the Puy de Sancy, one of the group of Mont Dor. They constitute also its most remarkable natural curiosity, as having the true volcanic character, scathed craters, lava streams, and tracts of ashes, referring to a period of igneous eruption long prior to the age of history. This region of extinct fiery action occupies a considerable area, and has been repeatedly subject to careful geological examination. Primary rocks form the skeleton of the frontier mountains, and appear in the outlying districts of Bretagne, Normandy, and the Ardennes. The space intervening between them and the central volcanic nucleus is occupied with secondary and tertiary formations, among which an extensive area around the capital, known as the tertiary Paris basin, is remarkable for its remains of extinct quadrupeds, and celebrated as the field in which Cuvier made his palæontological discoveries.

Twenty-one considerable rivers are enumerated, which furnish an extent of navigation amounting to 5000 miles, while ninety-nine large canals diffuse further the benefits of water-communication. The Meuse, Scheldt, and Moselle flow beyond the limits of the country into adjoining districts. On the other hand, the Rhone is received from Switzerland, bringing with it the efflux of the Lake of Geneva. Upon crossing the frontier, rocks contract the channel, till the stream altogether disappears beneath them, and flows for a short distance through a caverned bed, which it has probably worn through the limestone This happens when the water is low. Under different circumstances, it occupies the natural tunnel, and passes over the roof as well, open to the daylight. After a westerly course to Lyon, where it is joined by the Saone, the river proceeds impetuously southward to the Mediterranean, into which it discharges by several mouths, through a wilderness of salt swamps, dead flats, and huge bulrushes. The Rhone frequently overflows its banks, and spreads out in destructive inundations. In the south-west, the Garonne is likewise cradled beyond the frontier, or on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and has similarly a subterranean pathway. Its principal source is fed by the snows of Mount Maladetta, at

mass.

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