DOUBS, a frontier department of eastern France, formed in I790 of the ancient principality of Montbeliard and of part of the province of Franche-Comte. It is bounded E. and S.E. by Switzerland, N. by the territory of Belfort and by Haute Saone, and W. and S.W. by Jura. Pop. (1931) 305,500. Area 2,o52 sq.m. The river Doubs traverses the department. Between the Ognon, which forms the north-western limit of the department, and the Doubs, runs a range of low hills known as "the plain." The rest of Doubs is mountainous, four parallel chains of the Jura crossing it from N.E. to S.W. The Lomont range, the lowest of these chains, dominates the left bank of the Doubs. The central region is occupied by hilly plateaux covered with pasturage and forests, while the rest of the department is traversed by the remaining three mountain ranges, the highest and most easterly of which contains the Mont d'Or (4,80o ft.). Besides the Doubs the chief rivers are its tributaries, the Dessoubre, watering the east of the department, and the Loue its south-western portion. The climate is in general cold and rainy, and the winters are severe. The soil is stony and loamy, and at the higher levels there are many peat bogs. In its agricultural aspect the department may be divided into three regions. The highest, on which the snow usually lies from six to eight months in the year, is in part barren, but on its less exposed slopes is occupied by forests of fir trees, and affords good pasturage for cattle. In the second or lower region the oak, beech, walnut and sycamore flourish; and the valleys are capable of cultivation. The region of the plain is the most fertile, and produces all kinds of cereals as well as hemp, vegetables, vines and fruit. Cattle-rearing and dairy-farming receive much atten tion; large quantities of cheese, of the nature of Gruyere, are pro duced, mainly by the co-operative cheese factories or f ruitieres. The rivers of the department abound in gorges and falls of great beauty. The most important manufactures are watches, made chiefly at Besancon and Morteau, hardware (Herimoncourt and Valentigney), and machinery. Large iron foundries are found at Audincourt (pop. 9,571) and other towns. Distilling and the man ufacture of cotton and woollen goods, automobiles and paper are also carried on. Exports include watches, live-stock, wine, vege tables, iron and hardware ; cattle, hides, timber, coal, wine and machinery are imported. Large quantities of goods, in transit be tween France and Switzerland, pass through the department. Among its mineral products are building stone, rock-salt and lime, and there are peat workings. Doubs is served by the Paris-Lyon railway, the line from Dole to Switzerland passing, via Pontarlier, through the south of the department. The canal from the Rhone to the Rhine traverses it for 84 miles.
The department is divided into the arrondissements of Besan con, Baume-les-Dames, Montbeliard and Pontarlier, with 27 cantons and 636 communes. It belongs to the academie (educa tional circumscription) and the diocese of Besancon, which is the capital, the seat of an archbishop and of a court of appeal, and headquarters of the VII. army corps. Besides Besancon the chief towns are Montbeliard and Pontarlier (qq.v.). Ornans, a town on the Loue, has a church of the i6th century and ruins of a feudal castle. Montbenoit on the Doubs near Pontarlier has the remains of an Augustine abbey (i3th to i6th centuries), the cloisters are of the i 5th century, and the church contains fine i6th century stalls. Morteau has the Maison Pertuisier, of the Renais sance period. Baume-les-Dames owes the affix of its name to a Benedictine convent founded in 763, to which only noble ladies were admitted. Numerous antiquities have been found at Man deure (near Montbeliard), on the site of the Roman town of Epomanduodurum.