calcareous rocks can be observed in that lofty country, and the deposits left by the lakes, are still found on the granite. The waters appear to have passed from their basins in a northern direction, and by their rupture to have augmented other deposits, which were forming in the great northern basin. In the same deposits are contained a great many organic remains, some of the same sort as those on Montmartre, others of hippopotami and of the anthracotherion, an animal in some respects similar to the hippopotamos. In addition to these might be mentioned the remains of birds, different from any that now exist, and what is a new fact in the science, gallinaceous eggs perfectly entire. Lava and basalt rest above these fresh water basins; although the volcanoes from which they were vomited, are now extinguished, their height and their craters still excite admiration. While they were emitting flames, animals existed in that part of France, which at present are only found in the warmest climates. Among others, the rhinoceros, elephants, hyenas, lions and stags of an immense size, mastodontes or large quadrupeds that have Fossil disappeared from the surface of the earth, but of which the | animals. remains are still collected in the new world. The most of these animals succeeded those which have been described, and others that are found in marl and gypsum; in Auvergne, however, their remains are contained in alluvial lands that cover ancient streams of lava and basalt, from which it may be easy to prove the existence of volcanoes at different periods in that part of the country. It must not be imagined that these large animals, which now inhabit Africa and Asia, were confined to the banks of the Allier. On the alluvial lands that cover the caverns of Montpelier, are found tygers, lions, hyenas, panthers and hippopotami. The transi tion lands in the vallies throughout France contain the 'remains of the same quadrupeds, and very many have been collected in the country round Paris. It is certain, therefore, that the climate of France, and, in general, of all the temperate regions, was at the epoch in which these animals existed, much warmer than in the present day. Lands in The greatest part of Corsica belongs to the granite formation. Calcareous rocks similar to those on the Alps and Jura are observed in two different parts of the island, on the eastern coast towards the north of Porto Vecchio, and on the northern near the gulf of St. Florent. More recent calcareous rocks and calcareous sandstone, left by the ocean, the last time it covered the continent, can only be seen in the southern part of the island, in the neighbourhood of Bonifacio. The account that has been given of the different lands in France, in the order of their formation, may prepare the used in the reader to judge more readily of the mineral riches in the same country. From the variety of these lands, some notion may be inferred of the substances which are contained in them. Substances arts. We may commence with the rocks that are used in the arts, Granite and some of which serve to decorate edifices and monuments. porphyry. In the department of the High Alps are found gray, green, and rose coloured granite, and syenites of various colours, long confounded with granite, but more valuable from the fine polish of which they are susceptible. Besides these substances, there are brown and fine green porphyry, variolites with white and brown or black stains on a green or violet ground, gray, green or brown serpentine, and many jaspers of dif ferent shades. The same rocks are obtained in Corsica in greater varieties. Porphyry abounds in the Vosges, and granite is by no means uncommon in other departments, such as the Lower Loire, the Manche See the introduction to the work entitled Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles du department du Puy-de-Dome, by M. M. Croizet and Jobert, 4to. 1828. and the Sarthe. It was employed in paving the streets of different towns, but for some years past, the lava of Auvergne has been substituted in Paris for the same purpose. Marble. Frenchmen envied long the marble quarries of the Italians, 1 ignorant that others in their own country, might rival the most renowned in Italy. At present, different sorts of marble are worked in forty departments; the best kinds are situated in the Upper and Lower Pyrenees, the Upper Garonne and the Eastern Pyrenees, particularly the schistous marble in Campan, which is of a red, green and delicate rose colour, it was first brought into repute by Lewis the Fourteenth, who used it in decorating the castles of Trianon and Versailles. It might be tedious to enumerate all the different kinds of marble in France; several sorts are well adapted for statues, that of Sarancolin is very valuable. Those who have seen the eight pillars that support the triumphal arch on the place Carrousel, may form a correct notion of the red and white marbles in the department of Aude. The marbles in Arriege are of a dark blue or violet colour; the two sorts in the Bouches du Rhone have been incorrectly called Aleppo and Memphis marbles. Two different kinds in the department of Herault, the one of a white, and the other of a red colour, have served to adorn several edifices in the capital. Statuary, cipolin and other sorts are obtained in Corsica, and the varieties in the departments of Isere and Ardeche are not less numerous. The marbles in Jura and Lot are worked in these two departments; quarries of a finely grained and white colour are situated in the neighbourhood of Vienne. It would be almost endless to mention the departments in which the same substance is found; suffice it to say that it is obtained in Puy de Dome, Lower Charente, Saone and Loire, Cote d'Or and Aube, Maineet-Loire, Sarthe and Pas de Calais. Slate stones Other rocks, less ornamental, but more useful than marble, for building. are worked in different parts of France. Many workmen are employed in the extensive slate quarries at the base of the Pyrenees, in Maine-et-Loire, Meuse, and Ardennes. Limestone, admirably adapted for building, is worked in the departments of Dordogne, Herault, Loire, Cote d'Or, Yonne, Meuse, Moselle, Oise, and Seine. Other sorts, not inferior to the last, are common in Seine-et-Marne, Seine-et-Oise, the departments of Calvados and Manche. Excellent lithographic stones are exported from the neighbourhood of Mulhouse, Belay, Dijon, and Cha teauroux. Argil, por The ancient provinces of Burgundy, Champagne, Flanders, celain. I and the isle of France, abound in argil, which the inhabitants convert into bricks and tiles. The decomposed feldspath contained in the granite rocks near Limoges and St. Yrieux, furnishes kaolin, a very useful substance in the manufactory of china. Pipe clay, not inferior to any other in the continent, has been long worked at Forge-les-Eaux in the department of Lower Seine; another sort near Elbeuf, is much used in claying sugar. The argil in the neighbourhood of Beauvais and Montereau is changed into the finest porcelain. The departments Flint, chalk. | of Yonne, Cher, and Lower Charente, abound in flint; and the small town of La Ferte-sous-Jouare exports millstones of the same substance, into different countries, even into America. The soft chalk in the departments of Marne, Seine, and Oise, is fashioned into different shapes, and sold as an article of commerce; lastly, the gypsum obtained in the neighbourhood of Paris, furnishes the plaster so much used in the capital. An increase has of late years been perceptible in the products that form the mineral riches of France; they may still be greatly augmented. The following is a list of the different metals obtained from French mines in Metals. Lead ore is more common in France than in many other countries; it was from the mines of argentiferous lead in the departments of Finistere, Lozere, and Vosges, that the above quantity of silver was obtained. Mines of the same sort, at present unworked, are situated in other departments, in Arriege, Puy-de-Dome, Upper Vienne, the two Sevres, Manche, and Lower Rhine. The mountaineers in Isere sell frequently pieces of silver ore to the jewellers in Grenoble, from which it might be inferred that the mines of Chalance, and perhaps others at no great distance, are very valuable. Manganese abounds so much in France, that it contains more than sufficient to supply the whole of Europe. Gold may be found in the alluvial deposits that are borne by several rivers. Many individuals formerly employed themselves in collecting particles of gold on the Salat, which issues from the Pyrenees, on the Seixe and the Gardon that rise in the Cevennes, on the Arriege and Garonne near Toulouse, on the Rhone near the frontiers of the department of Ain, and on the Rhine below Strasburgh. At present, however, the trade of a goldsearcher is not very profitable; for on the banks of the Rhine, which are supposed to contain the greatest quantity, the value of the gold collected from Bale to the neighbourhood of Mayence, does not exceed in ordinary years six hundred and twenty-five pounds. Mineral sub stances, not metallic. The other mineral substances, worked in France, make up a considerable part of the territorial wealth. Coal is found in thirty-two departments; others possess lignites, a different combustible, sulphate, alum, mineral pitch, and petroleum. Salt springs and a mine of rock salt, discovered in 1819, are situated in the department of Meurthe; the mine, it has been calculated, extends over a surface of thirty square leagues, its thickness exceeds five hundred and twenty feet; it appears from the same calculation, that it might yield annually one million hundred weights, during a period of ninety-six thousand years; but the annual quantity has been limited to one hundred and fifty thousand hundred weights. The products of these works are stated in the report, published in the beginning of 1827. Sulphate of iron, Coal, 12,758,906 cwts. 98,414 25,941 Rock salt, 851 110,000 The value of the metallic and other mineral substances in France, estimated according to their average price, amounts to more than four million twenty-nine thousand two hundred pounds. Value of the mineral products. See the Report on the products of French industry in the year 1827, by M. A. Heron de Villefort, Inspecteur des Mines, et Membre de l'Academie des Sciences. A fossil vegetable that retains its ligneous texture, and of a later formation than coal. * A mineral substance, which differs little from bitumen and petroleum. Mineral springs. I There are not fewer than two hundred and forty mineral springs in different parts of the country; inns have been built near a hundred and fifty-one, nine are visited by foreigners, and ten are frequented by the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts. According to approximate calculations, the money brought from different parts of the kingdom and circulated in these places, cannot be less than three hundred thousand pounds." Atmospheric Having thus given a short account of the mineral substances phenomena. | in France, it remains for us to examine certain atmospheric phenomena, not uncommon in the country, a department of physics, by no means uninteresting, and one leading to important results, connected with vegetation. It may be admitted that France is placed in the temperate zone, not so much from the latitude, as from the moderate elevation of the soil; still, however, different parts of it are exposed to changes of temperature, that exhibit their influence on vegetation. The humid vapours that rise from the seas, which bound France on the west, and the mountainous chains that limit it on the east and the south, often occasion sudden modifications in the atmosphere. The winds, according to the different directions from which Winds. they proceed, are accompanied with hail, rain, and drought, in the different basins. As the north wind in the valley of Durance, does not pass over any great heights, it tempers the heat of the climate, and is favourable to the growth of plants; but the same wind is often attended with destructive effects on the basins of the Seine and the Loire. While the valley of the Durance is desolated by the east wind, that traverses the frozen summits of the Alps, it is the sign and harbinger of fair weather in the country watered by the Seine. The south winds that issue from the burning deserts of Africa, spread desolation on the coasts of the Mediterranean; cooled in their passage over the snowy summits of the Pyrenees, they are frequently accompanied with hail in the basin of the Garonne. The crops in the departments of Var and Bouches du Rhone are often laid waste by the mistral, a south-east wind known by the name of galerne, near the mouth of the Loire; in Brittany, on the contrary, it as well as the south-west wind, are often forerunners of rain. Lastly, the north-east wind is accompanied with cold and humid weather in the departments of Vosges and Ardennes. Rain. France is divided into two great regions by the forty-sixth parallel; and there is a sensible difference in the mean number of rainy days on the north and south of the same line, which passes along the northern declivities in the group of Mont Dor. On the south the mean number is equal to one hundred and thirty-four rainy days, and at the latitude of Paris, to one hundred and five. From the observations made in order to ascertain the mean quantity of rain that falls in different parts of France, the following results have been derived: • See the Statistical Tables at the end of the account of France. ? See the article Sources Minerales, Encyclopedie Methodique. It is in vain, in the present imperfect state of meteorology, to attempt an explanation of the atmospheric phenomena, | Temperature. connected with climate; it may be sufficient to quote the results of observations concerning the mean temperature of different places in France. During winter. 1.4 17.8 3.7 18.1 3.7 18.9 5.6 20.3 4.7 21.6 5.6 22.5 7.5 24.3 6.7 23.9 9.1 23.0 9.0 These different results prove that several local causes, such as the elevation of the soil, its exposure, the vicinity of seas and mountainous chains, have a considerable influence on the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere. by different plants are less liable to error, and the climate of France may thus be better determined. The olive, maize, and the vine, form the limits of four natural regions, into which the country is divided; these limits have been marked on different maps by straight and parallel lines, but in reality they are always curved or sinuous; they follow the declivities and windings occasioned by the inequalities in the soil, and cut obliquely the degrees of latitude. The region of olives extends from the shores of the Mediterranean, from the eastern declivities of the Pyrenees, the southern of the Cevennes, and the western of the Lower Alps. It is bounded on the north by a line which, commencing at Bagneres-de-Luchon, extends in a straight direction to Dié in the department of Drome, and winds to Embrun in the department of the High Alps. The region of maize does not extend beyond a second line, which begins at the mouth of the Gironde, and, passing to the north of Nevers, stretches to the northern extremity of Alsace. The vine occupies both these regions, but does not succeed beyond a line at some leagues northwards from the mouth of the Loire; the same line produced towards the north-east, passes to the south of the sources of the Eure, follows the contours of the heights which bound the right bank of the Oise, stretches on the north of the Aisne and Verdun, and terminates on the north-east at the Rhine. Beyond this boundary the vine gives place to the apple, but the limits must not be considered rigorously exact. Thus, maize might be cultivated in the country round Metz, for it thrives in the gardens; a considerable quantity is indeed cultivated in Brittany, on the southern declivities of the Aree heights. The neighbourhood of the sea, by rendering the climate Influence of milder, extends its influence to vegetation; the fig and the the sea. myrtle, which seem to require a warm climate, flourish in very different latitudes. The first needs no shelter, and yields excellent fruit in the neighbourhood of Havre and Cherburg, while the same plant not only requires a favourable exposure in the vicinity of Paris, but the fruits are later and never so good. The myrtle grows in the open air in Cotentin, at Brest, and Belle-Ile-en-Mer.. At a hundred leagues farther south, but at a greater distance from the sea, it does not resist the severity of the The above results are still considered doubtful. The degrees are those of the centigrade thermometer; to convert them into degrees of Fahrenheit, it is necessary to mul tiply them by 9-5, and then to add the number 32. |