MANCHE, a department of north-western France, made up chiefly of the Cotentin and the Avranchin districts of Normandy, and bounded west, north and north-east by the English Channel (Fr. La Manche), from which it derives its name, east by the department of Calvados, south-east by Orne, south by Mayenne and Ille-et-Vilaine. Pop. (1931) 433,473. Area, 2,475 sq. miles.
The department south of Coutances and St. LO is composed of folded Palaeozoic rocks of the Armorican system, with east and west zones of granite, rising in the south-east to 1,200 feet. There are younger and softer deposits on the east. The west coast is an ancient structural line from north to south and is marked by cliffs up to 420 f t. alternating with bays, at the south end the great bay of Mont Saint Michel, with its famed abbey surmounting a rock 400 ft. high. Reefs off the coast make navigation perilous, the chief forming Les Iles Chausey. The north coast also seems to be a structural line and is marked by the great roadstead of Cherbourg. The greater part of the department may be de scribed as a dissected plateau with deeply-cut valleys. The chief streams are the Vire running northwards past St. LO and the Sienne running north-westward just south of Coutances.
The climate of Manche is mild and humid ; myrtles flourish in the open air.
The characteristic industry of the department is horse and cattle rearing, carried on especially in eastern Cotentin ; sheep are raised in the west. Wheat, buckwheat, barley and oats are culti vated. Manche is a foremost department for the production of cider-apples and pears; plums and figs are also largely grown.
Butter, poultry and eggs are important sources of profit. Flour ishing market-gardens are in the west. The department contains valuable granite quarries in the Cherbourg arrondissement and the Chausey islands ; building and other stone is quarried.
There are metal industries, and the weaving of osiers is a local feature. Oyster-beds are on the coast (St. Vaast, etc.) ; and the maritime population, besides fishing in home and distant waters, collects seaweed for manure. Coutances is the seat of a bishopric of the province of Rouen. The north of the department forms part of the region of the III. (Rouen), and the south of the X. (Ren nes) army corps and of the circumscriptions of the academie (edu cational division) and appeal-court of Caen. Cherbourg (q.v.), with its important port, arsenal and shipbuilding yards, is the chief centre of population. St. LO (q.v.) is the capital; there are four arrondissements (St. Lo, Avranches, Cherbourg and Cou tances), comprising 48 cantons and 647 communes. Valognes, Mortain, Coutances, Granville and Mont Saint Michel are also important. At Lessay and St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte there are the remains of ancient Benedictine abbeys, and Torigni-sur Vire and Tourlaville (close to Cherbourg) have interesting châ teaux of the 16th century. Valognes, which in the 17th and 18th centuries was a provincial centre of culture, has a church re markable for its dome, the only one of Gothic architecture in France.