MINES AND QUARRIES.
Of gold there are hardly any mines in France. Of silver there are several in the mountainous districts. A far more important metallic treasure is the iron ore found in a number of the moun tainous departments; in the east, in Lorraine and Champagne ; in the interior, in Auvergne and Languedoc; and in the south-west, in the Pyre. nees. Of copper also there are mines, not defi cient either in quality or quantity ; but it is, above all, in regard to these that France experiences the want of canals, to convey from one mine to an. other either the ore or the coal, which, by some of their writers, is aptly termed cetteforce live ea lisgists. To smelt one ton cf copper requires two, or two and a half tons of coal,—a rapidity of consumption which no forest can long supply. Coal has been discover ed in more than half the departments of the king. dom, and will, doubtless, be traced in others ; but the want of water communication limits its con sumption so much, that the whole value of coal an nually extracted from the mines in France is not above L. 2,000,000 Sterling ; nor is the quality in general so good as in England. At St Etienne, near Lyons, are excellent coal mines; but there being no iron mines in the vicinity, there are no iron works, and no consumption of fuel on a large scale: the coal is of use only for domestic fuel, and for the manufacture of hardware. Altoge ther, there are in France 500 metallic mines, great and small; the number of workmen employed on them is about 18,000. The mines, like other large undertakings in France, are under the direc tion of government ; being superintended by a board at Paris (Conseil General), and having an Emit Royale with public teachers, the whgle under the control of the minister of the home department. This,. however, does not prevent their machinery being in general very clumsy and antiquated.
Turf fit for fuel, as in Ireland, is found in various parts of France, and is likely to be used, as wood becomes progressively scarcer.
Salt is made in various parts of the kingdom. The works corresponding to the salt mines, or ra ther to the brine springs of Cheshire, are called, from their position, Salines de l' Est, and are situat ed at the small town of Salina in Franche Comte ; they are wrought by undertakers on lease, yield about 20,000 tons a-year, and afford a considerable revenue to government. The heat of the climate
on the south and south-west coast of France is fa vourable to the evaporation of salt water, and con sequently to the formation of bay salt ; the name given to salt made, not by the action of fire, but by the heat of the sun, operating on sea water, inclosed in a shallow bay (in French etang), so as to pro duce a saline deposit. The duty raised from salt in France is in all nearly L. 2,000,000, a sum of great importance to the Treasury, but attended with fully as much injury to the productive powers of France, as our salt-tax to those of England. The Revoltur tion began by abolishing entirely the odious Gabelle, and salt being soon after made in great quantities, and sold very cheap, became the object of a most extensive consumption, being given to cattle as food, mixed with manure on the fields, or scattered as a stimulant to vegetation at the foot of olive trees. But this extended use of salt was of short duration. No sooner was the power of Bonaparte consolidated, than he ventured to impose a tax on salt, less im politic and oppressive indeed than the ga belle, but which had the effect of limiting the use of this arti cle to such a degree, that the consumption of bay salt, instead of amounting to L. 1,000,000 Sterling, does not at present exceed L. 100,000. The con sumption is confined to domestic purposes, and to a trifling export ; yet the few cattle that still receive salt as a part of their food are visibly in better con dition than those that are deprived of it.
France is in general much better supplied with quarries than England. The vicinity of Paris abounds in quarries of freestone. The case is si milar in the mountainous districts, and even in seve ral, such as Lower Normandy, that are comparative ly level. The houses are consequently built of atone in those cities, which, like Paris or Caen, are in the vicinity of quarries. In other situations they ex hibit a mixture of stone and brick. Slates being com paratively rere, the roofs of the houses are generally of tile, and the annual value of this rude species of productive labour,—the manufacture of bricks and tiles, may be computed at nearly L. 1,000,000 Ster ling. There are marble quarries in several of the mountainous districts ; but not situated so as to ad mit of export.