I. SITUATION AND EXTENT ; FACE OF THE TRY ; CLIMATE AND SOIL.
important part of continental Europe extends from the 43d to the 51st degree of N. lat. and long. 8.25 E. to long. 4.43 W. The greatest length of France, above 600 miles, is from E. to W. viz. from Alsace to Brittany, a province which pro jects into the Atlantic like a wedge, and without which France would approach in form to a square. Its breadth from N. to S. is about 560 miles ; its superficial extent, not yet exactly ascertained, is computed to exceed 200,000 square miles, or 128 millions of English acres.
Though in point of extent of coast and ready access from the interior to the sea, France is far inferior to Britain and Ireland, she is, on the other hand, more fortunate, in these respects, than the vast inland territories of Austria and Russia. She has she advantage of these countries likewise in strength of natural barrier, the Pyrenees forming a great bul wark on the south-west ; the Alps on the south-east ; the Jura and the Vosges mountains on the east. The Netherlands are the only open part of the frontier of France ; the only part where the desire of extend ing her territory is at all confirmed or justified by the circumstances of her physical position. It is there, accordingly, that her sovereigns have been tempted to aim at foreign conquest, and where, after repeatedly flattered by temporary triumphs, their armies have been overpowered by coalitions, and they, as well as their subjects, made to suffer dearly for the short-lived acquisition.
The surface of France exhibits, in general, an ad vantageous succession of high and low ground. Less level than Poland, the north of Germany, or the greater part of European Russia, it is, on the whole, leas mountainous than Spain or Italy, and may with great propriety be compare] to England, with this distinction, that, while in the latter the mountainous tracts are in the north and west, in France they are in the south and east. Passing over the lofty ridges which form the frontier line of France on the side of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, and confining our attention to the interior, we find throughout Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, and the countries to the north and south of the Loire, a level country, diversified occasionally by hills, either in sulated or in succession, but by none of the massy elevations entitled to the name of mountains. These we do not meet until reaching the south of Cham pagne and north of Burgundy, near the sources of the Meuse, the Moselle, the Saone, the Seine. From
this bleak quarter (lat. 47 and 48) a very lone range of mountains proceeds from north to south in a di rection parallel to the course first of the Saone and subsequently of the Rhone, until, on approaching the Mediterranean, they branch off to the south-west and join the Pyrenees. Their greatest height is in Auvergne, about lat. 45, where this chain, or more properly a lateral branch of it, attains, at the moun tains called Centel and Puy de Dame, an elevation of fully 6000 feet, and has its highest ridge covered with snow during a great part of the year. Another, but a much less lofty range, extends from Bordeaux to the southeast, a distance of 150 miles, until it reaches the Pyrenees. The smaller chains are nume rous in the east and south-east of the kingdom, viz. in Lorraine, the Nivernois, Dattphiny, Provence ; also in part of the interior, particularly the Limousin and Guienne. They are interspersed with exten sive plains, but, on the whole, the south and east of France are rugged and elevated tracts, and may be said to be to that country what Wales and Scotland are to Great Britain.
The course of the great rivers is easily connected with this view of the surface of the territory of France. The Moselle, the Meuse, the Marne, the Aube, the Seine, the Yonne, taking their rise on the aide of the mountain chain, between lat. 47 and 48, flow all to the north or north-west, until reaching the sea, or quitting the territory of France.- From the southern slope of the same range proceed the Saone, the Doubs, the Ain. These, along with many smaller strearos, are all received by the Rhone, which flows almost due south, with a full and rapid current, until it reaches the Mediterranean. ,The Loire-has by much the longest course of any river in France. It rises to the southward of lat. 45, flows in a northern di. rection above 200 miles ; turns, near Orleans, to the west, is joined by the Cher, Indre, and Vienne from the south, and, after receiving the Sarthe from the north, falls into the Atlantic below Nantes. The Garonne, a river of less length of course, but of a great volume of water, descends from the French side of the Pyrenees, flows northward, and, after receiving from these mountains a number of tributary streams, of which the chief is the Arriege, turns to the westward near Montauban (lat. 44) ; it falls into the Atlantic after being augmented by the waters of the Tarn, Aveyron, Lot, and finally the Dori dogne, all flowing from the western face of the mountains of Auvergne.