TEE ECONOMIC LIFE OF FRANCE. 289 



The French slopes are, therefore, forest-covered, while in Alsace the 

 lower hills are devoted to the vine, and the upper to grain. 



North of the Vosges the boundary line across the plateau of Lor- 

 raine before plunging into the rugged forests of the Ardennes. From 

 the latter it finally emerges upon the coast plains to form the Belgian 

 frontier. Between Belgium and France the political boundary is 

 purely arbitrary. There is not an economic boundary, but rather a 

 hive of industry between the two peoples. The political grouping does 

 not correspond with that of race or language. 



This hasty review of the land boundaries of France has embraced 

 the consideration of five distinct mountain regions. The general re- 

 lief of France is less uniform than that of Prussia or Russia, but more 

 uniform than that of Spain or Italy. Forty-six per cent, of French 

 territory is classed as mountainous. Nevertheless, variations in alti- 

 tude are softened, and there is in France a great deal of what might 

 be called transitional country. The highest mountains are fortunately 

 upon the borders, and but two other regions of broken country need to 

 be considered. 



Let us, then, turn from the boundaries to the internal geography of 

 France, and first of all complete our enumeration of mountain areas 

 by considering the Central Highlands and Brittany. 



In the south central part of the country there exists an extensive 

 semi-barren plateau of highly fractured, crystalline, eruptive and vol- 

 canic rocks. It slopes sharply to the Rhone on the east, more gently 

 to the Garonne River on the southwest, and to the Loire River on the 

 north. The rocks of this region are so fractured that the rains which 

 fall upon them sink almost immediately out of sight. The country is 

 graced by no transparent mountain lakes or sparkling rivulets. Water 

 must be carefully collected in cisterns or laboriously transported from 

 lower levels. Lack of moisture and the forbidding character of the 

 rock make the pastures so meagre that only sheep and goats can be 

 supported. From them is won the wool which supports a household 

 industry, and from their milk cheese is made. In the eleventh cen- 

 tury the cheese of the little village of Roquefort was put away in a 

 rock cave to 'ripen'. It was soon found that this cheese possessed re- 

 markable excellence of flavor. Its fame spread widely, and a new use 

 was from that time found for the caverns which abound in the Cevennes 

 Mountains. The demand was so great that 'bastard caverns' were 

 excavated in the hope of securing the coveted flavor, but the cheese in 

 them has never acquired the properties of real Roquefort. The west- 

 ern slopes of the Central Highlands receive a greater rainfall and 

 possess a more durable pasturage and a more dense population than 

 the eastern. Auvergne is celebrated as the home of sharp cattle mer- 

 chants, as well as of the peddlers of France. The central plateau has 



VOL. LVIII.— 19 



