86 SAINTE MARIE-AUX-MINES 



ST GALL 



There are huge glaciers and utterly impassable 

 precipices and yawning chasms; but in 1886 a 

 party comprising Schwatka, Wood, and Seton 

 Carr reached a height of 7200 feet on the mount, 

 nearly all above the snow-level. 

 Salute Marle-Aux-Mines. See Mut KIRCH. 

 Salntos. an old town of France, dept. Charente- 

 Inferieure, on the left bank of the Charent*, 28 

 miles by rail SE. of Rochefort, has manufactures 

 of iron and copper goods, machinery, und leather. 

 In ancient times this town, under the name of 

 Mediolanum, was the capital of the Santones, 

 from whom the subsequent province derived the 

 name of Saintonge (see ROLAND, Vol. VIII. \>. 

 766). Its interesting Roman remains include a 

 triumphal arch and the ruins of an amphitheatre. 

 It was a bishop's seat down to 1790 ; the cathe- 

 dral still stands. Palissy's home was at Saint*-- 

 during the lirst fifty years or so of his life. Pop. 

 (1881) 14,558; (1891) 16,229. 



M Kliciuic. one of the most important 

 industrial towns in France, stands (dept. Loire) 

 on a tributary of the Loire, 36 miles by rail 

 S\V. of Lyons and 312 SSE. of Paris. It is built 

 in the midst of the second largest coalfield of 

 France ( the largest is that of Valenciennes in the 

 north), in which some 17,000 men are employed. 

 and from which 3,000,000 tons of coal are extracted 

 annually. The town, which looks thoroughly 

 grimy, has few buildings of interest ; but a scliool 

 of mines (1816), a national small-arms factory 

 ( 1764 ), a gallery of art, an artillery and a commercial 

 museum may be mentioned. The chief industries 

 are in iron and steel and in ribbons. Ite hardware 

 workshops employ more than 20,000 workpeople, 

 and turn out steel and iron plates, gun-armour, iron 

 masts, large castings for machinery, firearms, locks, 

 cutlery, files, nails, tools, &c. The government 

 small-arms factory (4000 men) has since the period 

 of the Revolution supplied nearly all the muskets 

 and rifles and revolvers for the army. Some 40,000 

 persons, mostly hand-workers in their own homes, 

 are engaged in the town and its vicinity in making 

 ribbons, laces, fringes, and similar ornamental 

 work. The production of ribbons is valued at 

 3,760,000 for a single year, and of this some 

 2,740,000 worth is exported. Besides these 

 branches of industry, hate, pottery, and hemp 

 rabies are made. Pop. (1800) 16,000; (1851) 

 63,741: (1876) 126,019; (1891) 128,136. The coal 

 mines began to lie worked in the 14th century, hut 

 only on an extensive scale in the end of the 18th. 

 Tim town was twice captured by the Huguenots, in 

 1563 and 1570, and between this last date and 1629 

 it suffered terribly on three occasions from the 

 plague. The first railways in France were built 

 From St Ktienii'-. one in 1828 to Andrezieu, the 

 other in 1831 to Lyons. 



8t Eustatlus, a Dutch West Indian island 

 10 miles NW. of St Christopher. Area, 8 sq. m. 

 pop. 2286. 



Satnt-Evremond. CHARLES MAROCETEL DE 

 SAINT DKNIS, SKK;NK.I*R DE, a famous Frencl 

 writer and wit, was born at St Denis near Coutances 

 in Normandy, 1st April 1613. He was educatec 

 by the Jesuits at Clermont, at Caen, and at the 

 College d'Harcourt in Paris, next entered th< 

 service, and fought with distinction at Rocroi 

 Freiburg, and Nordlingen. He gave steady sup 

 tiort to the throne throughout the Fronde, hn 

 in 1661 had to flee first to Holland, finally to 

 England, on the discovery of his witty ami sar 

 castic Letter to Crequi on the Peace of the Pyre 

 nee*. He was warmly received by Charles II., am 

 here he spent the rest of his days, delighting tin 

 world with his wit, a fast friend of the beantifii 

 Hot-tense, Duciietw de Mazarin, whose strange 



ieath sorely troubled his old age. Here lie died, 

 flth September 1703, and was buried in West- 

 ninster. His writings were famous long before 

 hey were made public, ami in liis own day he 

 iijoyed an equal reputation on either side of I In' 

 Channel for polished satire, Attic irony, and 

 irilliant style. Distinctively a iiinn of fashion, a 

 oinplete Epicurean in philosophy and life, a 

 irilliant conversationalist in an age when ron- 

 versation ranked among the fine arte, he has 

 written his name high amongst the masters of 

 French prose, although he lacked enthusiasm, ambi- 

 tion, motive, illusions, to produce anything adequate 

 :o his gifts. Still, it is a sovereign distinction_to 

 lave created a style so delicate, yet so effective 

 and so individual. His one mannerism is anti- 

 thesis, yet the art is so exquisite as never to 

 ittend. ' His influence was great it is praise 

 nough to say that lie helped to form the Chevalier 

 de Grammont. His satire, La Comedie da Acadt- 

 mistes (1644), is a masterpiece in its kind, and 

 liis dissertation on Racine's Alcxandre reveals the 

 true critic's insight. But so little was his curiosity 

 that though he lived nearly forty years in England 

 lie never learned English and never knew Shake- 

 speare. The letters betwixt him and his dear friend 

 Ninon de Lenclos are charming beyond most. His 

 writings, including essays, comedies, &c., were 

 first collected by Des Maizeaux with a Life ( Lond. 

 1705). There are good volumes of selections by 

 C. Giraud (1865) and Lescure (1881). 



See the studies by Gilbert and Gidel (1866), Merlet 

 (1870), Pastorello (Trieste, 1875); also Sainte-Beuve'a 

 Ifouvcaux Lundit, voL xiiL, and Cauteria du Lundi, 

 voL iv. 



St Flour, a town in the French department of 

 Cantal, finely situated on a steep basaltic plateau 

 (3000 feet) 50 miles S. of Clermont-Ferrand, has 

 a cathedral (Gothic; 1375 1466), and manufac- 

 tures pottery, cloth, &c. Pop. 5300. 



St Gall, a Swiss canton lying between the 

 Lake of Constance on the N. and the Crisons 

 on the S., with Zurich on the W. The country 

 is for the most part mountainous, rising to 10,660 

 feet in Ringelspitz, and to 8216 in Santis, and con- 

 sists of a series of valleys radiating outwards from 

 the high canton of Appenzell, which St Gall 

 entirely surrounds. The Rhine flows along the 

 eastern border. Portions of the lakes of Constance, 

 Zurich, and Wallen lie within its lioundaries. 

 Sandstone and slates are quarried. The mineral 

 springs of Pfaffers and Ragatz are well known. 

 But the chief source of wealth is the embroidery 

 of cottons, muslins, and jaconets, carried on prin- 

 cipally at St Gall and Waltwyl. Korschach, on 

 Lake Constance, is a port of some trade. Area 

 of canton, 779 sq. m. ; pop. (1888) 229,441, of 

 whom three-fifths are Roman Catholics, the rest 

 Protestants of the Reformed Church. They sj>eak 

 German. The canton is governed by a Great 

 Council, chosen by the communes for three years 

 (see SWITZERLAND). 



ST GALL, the capital of the above canton, 

 stands on the Steinach, 2196 feet above sea- 

 level (the highest town in Europe), 53 miles 

 by rail E. of Zurich, and 9 from Rorschach on the 

 Lake of Constance. The buildings of its famous 

 Benedictine monastery are now used as government 

 offices and schools, and for housing the monastic 

 library, founded in 830, of 41,700 volnmes and 1800 

 MSS., several of these last of great antiquity and 

 value. Other buildings are the old abbey church, 

 thoroughly restored in 1756-66, and made a 

 cathedral'in 1846; the Protestant church of St 

 Lawrence (restored 1851-53); the town library, 

 founded in 1536, and containing 60,400 volumes 

 and 500 MSS. ; and the museum with collections 



