RHONE. The Rhone is perhaps the most commercial of the rivers of France. The river is navigable downwards, from near Seyssel to its mouth, a distance of 330 miles ; for some miles higher up it is available for floating timber. Steamers ply between Lyon and the Mediterranean ; owing however to the rapidity of the current, the sip navigation is very slow. The Rhone is a most important highway for the transfer of the produce of this part of France ; and it is connected by the Saone, which is navigable for steamers up to Chalon, and by canals with the Bay of Biscay, the Rhine, the Seine, and the Loire. Its basin includes the Swiss cantons of Valais, Vaud, and Geneva, the duchy of Savoy, and fourteen French departments, most of which are famous for their corn, wine, silk, and oil. In the lower part of its course its waters are turned to great advantage in fertilising the land near its banks by irrigation.
The Rhone gives name to one of the de partments of France, fruitful and commer cially important. In the extreme south of this department are the famous chestnut forests which yield the favourite large chest nuts sold in Paris by the name of marrons de Lyon. The valleys, plains, and accessible slopes are carefully cultivated, the products comprising almost everything that grows in France, except the orange and the olive. The mulberry is cultivated for the production of silk. The lower slopes of the hills are almost everywhere planted with vines; this is espe cially the case with the slopes along the Satine and the Rhone, from the neighbourhood of Belleville to Condrien. This region, which includes the Mont-dOr, so called from its rich wine products, contains some of the finest vineyards in France. The annual produce is
about 17,000,000 gallons; the best sorts are those called C6te-ROtie, Romaneche, Con drieu, and Sainte-Foy. The department con tains important copper-mines and works at St. Bel near Arbresle, and at Chessy, a small place on the Azergue. Coal mines are worked. Lead, gold, manganese, rock-crystal, porphyry, granite, marble, tale, asbestos, gypsum, fuller's earth, potter's-clay, excellent building-stone, and various other minerals are found. The Mont-d'Or contains excellent stone quarries, and is noted for the great number of fossils it contains.
The department is the most famous spot in Europe for all kinds of silk manufactures, in cluding satins, taffeta, lutestrings, velvets, gold and silver brocade, crape, gauze, shawls, ribands, hosiery, &c. This trade centres at LYON. There are also important manufac tures of plain-end figured muslins, handker chiefs, silk hats, calicoes, cotton yarn and twist, blankets, gold and silver lace, small wares, straw hats, mineral acids, machinery and mill work, and liqueurs. There are besides several dye houses, bleach-works, type-foundries and printing offices, breweries, paper-mills, glass works, potteries, and plaster-mills. The various products named or indicated, toge ther with corn, wool, brandy, raw silk, broad cloth, linen, lace, hardware, hides, bar and sheet iron, ironmongery, timber, planks, staves, &c., form items of an extensive corn. merce, which is still further increased by the important transit trade carried on by means of the navigable waters of the department, and by the railway to St. Etienne.