124 Geographical Collections. 



Mr. de Fenissac, — the numerous special statistical details of our departments, — 

 and more especially the great statistical works on France and Russia, compared 

 to the other states of the world, by Mr. Balbi, are so many labours that tell of 

 the progressive march of statistics, and of the elevated and philosophical point 

 that it has attained. 



In a memoir on the comparative population of ancient and modern Egypt, 

 Mr. Jomard establishes, from unanswerable authorities, the population of that 

 country under its kings, the Arabs, and at the present day. He proves that, in 

 ancient times, it never could have fed as many as 0,000,000 inhabitants. He 

 tinds its population to be four millions and a half under the Arabs, and he con- 

 cludes that it can nourish, at the present day, valuing the inhabited or cultivated 

 superficies at 1500 leagues, about two millions and a half, or three millions of in- 

 habitants. 



Another work of the same author, the statistical description of Cairo, retraced 

 to the year 1800, presents a more extended work, and must have required more 

 numerous researches. 



Mr. Laurenaudiere terminated his address by a notice of the deplorable loss of 

 Mr. Pacho, whose melancholy end and labours we have before alluded to. He 

 also paid a handsome tribute to the memory of Admiral de Rossel, secretary of 

 the Society. 



Descriptive Notice of the Valley of Sales, (Department of Aveyron, Rouergue,) 

 South of France. 



The plains of tertiary formations at the northern foot of the Pyrenees, ter- 

 minate geographically with the cliiTs of Parisian limestone on the northern banks 

 of the river Garonne, and which are immediately succeeded by the underlying 

 molasses (plastic clay) and chalk. These cliffs extend in an easterly direction to 

 the Pointe St. Sulpice, in the department of Tarn, moving afterwards abruptly 

 northward in the direction of the river of that name. Beyond Alby the country 

 Is composed of old red sandstone, accompanied with limited coal basins, (Cram- 

 niose, &c.) : the Erica ciliaris still characterizes the uncultivated tracts. The 

 secondary formations are succeeded by mica slate and quartzose rock, forming 

 ranges of hiUs, which are associated with gneiss in the vicinity of Rhodes, and 

 with occasional basins of sedimentary deposits. To the north of this town old 

 red sandstone is met with, interspersed with irregular tracts of mountain lime- 

 stone, succeeded by argilophyrc (greywacke) at St. Cyprien, beyond which the 

 tributary streams of the Lot, Aveyron, and Dordogne, course through vast dis- 

 tricts of clay-slate, mica-slate, and gneiss. The scenery of these tracts is exceed- 

 ingly beautiful : the rugged acclivities of the mountains are clothed with dark 

 forests of chestnut trees, and the hamlets of the Rouergueois, cumulated on their 

 table-shaped summits, overlook one continued scene of mountain grandeur and of 

 savage beauty. 



In a small tract of mountain limestone, in the vicinity of Rhodes, and remov- 

 ed from any great thoroughfare, there exists an assemblage of natural curiosities, 

 that should tempt the traveller to leave the beaten tract ; and these are congre- 

 .tjated around the village of Sales, where he will find a comfortable inn, and ropes 

 and ladders for his excursions. This village is situated on a rocky platform, 

 with cliiFs above and below, and a powerful stream of the clearest water, issuing 

 from the foot of the first cliff, turning the wheels of no less than six different en- 

 gines in its short and rapid course over the platform, from which it is precipitated 

 in a beautiful little cataract into the vale below. 



The village is reached by a foot-path that terminates at the summit of the first 

 cliff, down which, notwithstanding its verticality, the stranger proceeds by a kind 

 of stair-case of jutting crags and steps hewn out by the villagers. The foot of 



