CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



limestones and shales, and the chalk ; and not un- 

 frequently even the coal-measures are absent, and 

 the oolitic and chalk repose immediately on the 

 upper primaries. The tertiaries generally occupy 

 the great river-drainage of the centre, shewing 

 that at no very distant epoch a large portion of 

 France was a shallow sea or estuary of deposit 

 The chief minerals are coal, of which it possesses 

 several considerable beds, principally in the east 

 and north, the amount raised, however, being less 

 than one-twelfth of that raised in Great Britain ; 

 iron largely from ten or twelve districts ; gypsum, 

 or plaster of Paris, in unlimited quantities ; and 

 abundance of building-stone of various kinds, 

 granite, freestone, marble, slate, basalt, lava, &c. 

 With the exception of iron, the other metals are 

 of no great commercial importance. 



Geographers have divided the climate of France 

 into four regions namely, I. The most southerly, 

 in which the vine, olive, mulberry, and orange 

 flourish, bounded north and west by a line drawn 

 from Bagneres-de-Luchon, in the Pyrenees, to 

 Die in Drome ; 2. That through which the culti- 

 vation of the vine and maize extends, stretching 

 as far north as a line passing from the mouth 

 of the Garonne to the northern extremity of 

 Alsace ; 3. That region which terminates with 

 the culture of the vine, near a line drawn from the 

 mouth of the Loire to Mezieres in Ardennes ; and 

 4. The remaining portion of the country, having a 

 climate somewhat allied to that of England, and 

 yielding rich verdant pastures and forest growth. 

 Along the entire western coast the climate is dis- 

 tinguished by a greater degree of humidity than 

 in any other district ; the south and east have 

 about a third fewer rainy days than the north and 

 west ; winter is often pretty severely felt in the 

 north-east ; snow seldom lies in the central and 

 southern regions, yet the Mediterranean districts 

 in particular are exposed at times to the ravages 

 of the burning winds which have passed over the 

 deserts of Africa, and to the destructive north- j 

 west wind known as the mistral, which often does 

 great injury to the fields near the mouths of the 

 Rhone and Van 



Of grains and vegetables largely cultivated, we 

 may enumerate wheat, rye, oats, maize, millet, 

 buckwheat, kidney-beans, pease, carrot, beet, 

 melons, potatoes, flax, hemp, and tobacco ; and 

 madder, saffron, and hops on a smaller scale. Of 

 fruit-trees, the vine, olive, orange, pistachio, fig, 

 apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, and cherry, 

 with which we may also class the mulberry and 

 caper. Of forest-trees, the oak, beech, maple, 

 ash, chestnut, walnut, birch, poplar, larch, pine, 

 fir, box, cornel, acacia, and cork-tree. The forest- 

 growth of France is said to cover about one- 

 seventh of the entire surface, an amount which 

 is rendered necessary by the use of wood as the 

 chief domestic fuel. 



The -wild animals are fast diminishing from the 

 soil of France ; the lynx is rarely seen, even 

 among the higher Alpine regions ; but wolves are 

 still numerous in the mountainous districts of the 

 central departments ; while the chamois and wild- 

 goat, as well as the marmot, ermine, and hamster, 

 are found among the Pyrenees, Alps, and Vosges. 

 The wild-boar, roebuck, fox, squirrel, polecat, 

 and marten 'are to be met with in the woods. 

 The red and fallow deer are scarce ; hares and 

 rabbits abound, and game generally is plentiful 

 210 



The insects of any economical importance are 

 the bee, silkworm, gall-nut fly, and the blistering- 

 fly. Respecting the breeds of the domesticated 

 animals, if we except the merino sheep and 

 poultry, it may be safely asserted that they have 

 hitherto been inferior to those of Great Britain. 

 A spirit of improvement, however, has of late 

 sprung up. During the half-century, for example, 

 from 1812 to 1862, the number of horned cattle 

 was doubled in France. 



The fisheries are not on a great scale, in spite 

 of liberal help from the state. The coasts of 

 Normandy and Brittany, however, yield large 

 quantities of pilchards and mackerel The Bay 

 of Biscay has extensive oyster and mussel beds ; 

 while tunnies and anchovies are caught on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. 



The inhabitants may now be arranged under 

 four distinct heads or races : i. The French 

 proper, constituting nine-tenths of the population, 

 and consisting of the descendants of the ancient 

 Romanised inhabitants of Gaul, with a consider- 

 able admixture of Germanic blood infused at the 

 overthrow of the Roman dominion ; with these 

 may be classed the Italians of Corsica ; 2. The 

 Celtic or Cymric race (Bretons) of Bretagne, who 

 are simply the pure descendants of the ancient 

 Gauls (as the modern Welsh are of the ancient 

 Britons), their position and political fortune 

 securing them against much external influence ; 

 3. The Basques of the Low Pyrenees, a people 

 of uncertain origin ; and 4. The Jews, who are 

 found in all the principal towns. There are thus 

 four distinct languages spoken within the country 

 French and Italian (both of Latin origin), Celtic, 

 and Basque ; independent of several widely differ- 

 ing provincial dialects. In 1881, the population of 

 France was 37,672,048. 



The Roman Catholic faith is the predominant 

 religion, the adherents of all the other denomina- 

 tions being under 2,000,000. Though it is thus 

 the national religion, it is not exclusively associ- 

 ated with the state ; for Catholic and Protestant, 

 Jewish and Mussulman clergy, are paid out of the 

 public revenue. The Roman Catholic Church 

 has about 54,000 clergy of all ranks ; while the 

 Protestant ministers number scarce 800, and the 

 rabbis less than 70. Public education is entirely 

 managed by the government. Thefacu/t/s, practi- 

 cally universities, are fifteen in number. There 

 is in every department an Acade'mie, or board of 

 education, consisting of a rector and council, of 

 which the bishop or bishops of the department 

 and a Protestant clergyman are members. The 

 direction of the educational matters of the depart- 

 ment is in the hands of this board, subject to 

 the control of the Minister of Public Instruction. 

 Nearly every commune has one or more primary 

 schools, the larger communes have also secondary 

 schools, and the more important centres have 

 institutions of a higher grade, called colleges and 

 lyceums, which serve as preparatory to the uni- 

 versities. There is in general a ' normal school ' 

 or seminary for training elementary teachers in 

 every department ; while the superior Normal 

 School of Paris trains professors for the lyceums. 

 It is allowed on all hands that education has 

 made great progress in France within the last 

 generation ; yet there must have been something 

 very unsatisfactory in the methods of instruction, 

 for in 1870-80, there were nearly eight millions of 



