SEINE, the metropolitan department of France, is surrounded by the department of Seine-et-Oise. It lies between 48° 43' and 48° 58' N. lat., 2' 30' and 2' 33' E. long., and is nearly circular in form. Its greatest length is 18 miles, its breadth 16 miles ; its area is 184 square miles. The population in 1841 was 1,194,603; in 1851 it amounted to 1,422,065, giving 772811 to a square mile. Although the smallest of the French departments, it exceeds them all in amount and density of population. Of the area, 1031 square miles are inclosed by the great bastioned wall lately erected around Paris. [Pants.] The surface of the department is tolerably level; some heights, as those of Montmartre and Chaumont on the north side of Paris, rise to the height of 270 or 300 feet above the valley of the Seine. Mout Valerian in the west of the department, the highest bill in the neigh bourhood, is not more thau 446 feet above the sea-level. The depart ment is occupied by the tertiary formations inclosed within the chalk basin of Paris. These formations include limestone, gypsum, and marl. They yield excellent building-stone, of which there are immense quarries in the plain of 3lontrouge, and excellent plaster. Vice clays for porcelain and pottery are raised at Srres and venous other points of the depart ment; also sand for glaas-foundriee. There are mineral waters at Auteuil and Pansy; the latter, which are chalybeate,.and valued for their astrin gent and tonic qnalitiee, are the only ones which are frequeuted.
The department belongs altogether to the basin of the Seine. That river traverses it from southeast to north-cast in a very winding course. The Marne enters the department on the east aide, and has a winding course of fifteen miles before it joins the Seine. Both these rivers are navigable throughout The Ourcq Canal enters the depart ment on the north-east aide, and runs about six miles to the basin of La-Villette, from which the canals of St:Daubs and St-Martin com municate with the Seine. The St-Maur Canal shortens the navigation of the Marne, above Charms ton, by avoiding one of its longest reaches.
All the great French railways cross the department converging on Paris, where they are connected by a circular railroad. [Fitazzez, vol. H., coL 1077.] Fifteen imperial highways concentrate on the metropolis ; many of them, planted near the city with double rows of lofty trees, form noble avenues to Paris. The department is traversed also by 81 departmental and several communal roads.
The department contains about 120,000 acres, a largo portion of which is laid out in gardens for the growth of vegetables, fruits, and flowers for the supply of the capital. The quantity of corn produced in the department, when its limited area is taken into account, is very far above the average of the departments in every species of grain winch is cultivated in it; and in potatoes it exceeds the average of the departments, even without taking its limited area into the account But little wine is made, and that little is bad. A great number of horses, asses, and dairy cows are kept. Montreuil, two or three miles east of Paris, is celebrated for its peaches; Grand-Charonne, close to Paris on the east, for its grapes; and Foutenay, four miles south-west of Paris, for its strawberries and roses, which latter are grown for the apothecary and the perfumer, and give to the place its designation of Footenay-eux-Roaes. Nanterre, in the north-west of the depart ment, is also celebrated for the growth of roses. Vitry-sur.Seiue, on the left bank of the Seine, above Paris, is surrounded with nursery grounds for rearing fruit-trees and ornamental trees.
The park of Vincennes, east of Paris; the forest of Bondy, on the north-east ; and the Bois-de-Boulogne, an the, west of the city, are crossed by fine drive. In various directions, and afford agreeable and inueinfrequented walks to the Parisians. The Bois-de-Bonlogne espe cially has been greatly embellished by the emperor Napoleon III. with fountains, jstsed'eau, de.