PYRENEES. The lofty chain of the Py renees gives name to three departments of France. In the mountains themselves iron, copper, and lead mines are worked, and fine statuary and other marble, including some of the most beautiful varieties, is quarried.
In the department of Basses Pyrenees the annual produce of wine is about 7,000,000 gallons, the best kinds being those of Sim-n eon and Gan. The high mountains are to a great extent covered with forests of pine, fir, and oak, which afford good ship timber. The growing of flax and hemp, the trade in hams with Pau and Bayonne, and the traffic in mules and cattle with Spain, are the most im portant sources of wealth to the agriculturist. Silver, copper, iron, lead, coal, salt, cobalt, and sulphur, are found. Slate, marble of all colours, granite, alabaster, rotten-stone, and marl, are quarried. The manufactures include linen, calico, coloured handkerchiefs, flannel, drugget, capes, hosiery, Bearnese caps, car pets, chocolate, liqueurs and common brandy, paper, leather, pottery, and some iron. Ships are built on the Adour and on the coast. The commerce is composed of the various products already named, and of wine, liquorice, rosin, prepared skins, wool, hides, deal planks, colo nial produce, salt, &c.
In the department of Hautes Pyrenees about 6,000,000 gallons of good white and red wines are made annually. Horned cattle and sheep are very numerous; good butter and cheese are made ; mules, asses, and horses are reared, and also pigs and large numbers of poultry, especially geese, the legs of which are salted for export. Bees are carefully tended, and honey and wax are abundant. Iron, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, and cobalt, are lound, but no mines are worked ; marble of different colours, building stone, slate, granite, amianth, kaolin, marl, fullers' earth, and pot ters' clay, are raised. The commerce of the
department is limited to cattle, corn, mules and horses for Spain, timber, oak staves, hoops, the agricultural products before named some linen, cotton and woollen stuffs, cutlery, nails, hides, &c.
In the third of these departments, Pyrenees Orientales, about 7,000,000 gallons of wine are made annually. The red wines of Roussillon are in general of excellent quality, agreeable taste, strong body, and well adapted for transport ; they are used for giving colour and body to the lighter growths of Cahors and Auvergne. The wines of Collioure and Port-Vendres have the highest repute ; they fine themselves and become of a golden hue with age ; in this state they take the name of Band° de Rousil. ion. The sweet wines of Rivesaltes hold the first rank among the dessert wines of France. The mountains of the department are in many parts clothed with fine forests of oak, beech, pine, and fir, and abound with aromatic and medicinal plants. The cork tree grows natu rally, and is also an object of careful cultiva tion. Bees and silkworms are carefully at tended. Many iron mines are worked, and the ore is smelted, and converted into malle able iron at about 180 forges and furnaces, by means of charcoal prepared on the spot. Cop per, lead, bismuth, and alum, are found. A coal mine is worked near Estavar; marble, alabaster, granite, and steatite, are quarried. Besides wine and iron, the industrial products include coarse woollen cloths, leather, corks, knit stockings and caps, brandy, whip-handles, common pottery, tiles and bricks. The fish eries on the coast are actively plied, and large quantities of sardines and anchovies are pre served. The coasting trade in the leading articles named, and in wool, oil, honey, &c., is active.