Statisti 
District of 
gravel, 
District of 
stony soil. 
District of 
various 
loams. 
Mountain- 
ous district. 
682. 
1V. The district of gravel is chiefly in the Bourbonnois 
and Nivernois. The gravel in the latter is of little va~ 
lue, three-fourths of he. province being covered with 
heath, broom, or wood ; but notwithstanding the inferi- 
ority of the soil, these provinces are reckoned by Mr 
Young ationg the most improveable in France. 
form one vast plain, through which the Loire and Allier 
pass. The better parts of them consist of a sandy soil; 
and in some places the sub-soil is calcareous, In a few 
, good friable sandy loams are met with. 
V. The district of stony soils is chiefly in Lorraine, 
Burgundy, Franche Compté, &c. In Lorraine, there are 
commons of immense extent, which scarcely yield any 
thing. From St Menehould to the borders of Alsace, 
the soil is entirely stony, but of various kinds. Most of 
them are of the kind denominated stone-brash in Eng- 
land, ‘or the broken triturated surface of imperfect quar- 
ries, mixed by time, frost, and cultivation, with some loam 
and vegetable mould :” much is calcareous. © Districts of 
rich and even deep friable loams occur in Lorraine, but 
they are of inconsiderable extent. The soil of Burgundy 
varies much. The best part of it lies in the line from 
Franche Compté to the Bourbonnois by Dijon. . Here 
sandy and gravelly loams predominate ; but even in this 
part of it there are spots of poor granite soil. . The sub- 
division of the province called Bresse, is a most miser- 
able country. The grounds alone on a white clay or 
marl, amounting it is said to nearly 250,000 acres. The 
stony soil of Franche Compté is in general good. From 
Besancon to Orechamp, the country is rocky quite to 
the surface. The rocks are calcareous. A reddish 
brown loam rests on the rock. In the hilly parts, a red 
ferruginous loam, schistus, and gravel, predominate, Part 
of Alsace consists of soil of nearly the same character. 
VI. The district of various loams, mixed with sand, 
granite, a stone, &c. is chiefly in the Limosin, 
La Manche, Berry, &c. The loams of the two former 
are friable, and sandy ; e on granite, and others on 
a calcareous sub-soil. the granite, there are two 
kinds ; one hard, and full of micaceous particles, the 
grain coarse, with but little quartz, hardening in the air 
in masses, but becoming a powder when reduced to small 
pieces. This is very unfertile, as neither wheat, vines; 
or chesnuts will grow on it. The other sort is in hori- 
zontal strata, mixed with great quantities of spar. On 
it these plants thrive well. This kind of granite. and” 
chesnuts together, on entering Limosin ; but on 
the road to Toulouse, where there is about a league of 
hard this treé disappears, Berry has a poor soil, 
Chengde oa pon eaten ot Sologne. In some places 
it is sandy or ately in other places the loams are 
more tenacious, ying on quarries of stone or. lime. 
VII. The provinces of Auvergne, Dauphiny, Provence, 
the Lyonnois, Languedoc, and Rousillon, contain the 
mountainous district. The mountains that surround the 
vale of the Limagne of Auvergne are various. The white 
argillaceous stone in the hills, between Riom and Clermont, 
is calcareous. The volcanic mountains (as they are deem- 
ed) are more fertile than the others, except where they 
are composed of tufa, or cinders, which are so burnt as 
to be good for nothing. The calcareous and clayey 
mountains are 3 and the basaltic, when “spina eg 
sed, form excellent clay. The base is commonly 
considerable mountains, in the tract from fo'Puy 
ontelimart, are also what are deemed volcanic, pay 
shal are also extremely fertile. Provence and Dauphiny, 
FRANCE. 
bea pe exception vallies, are moun- 
Of Gen date the driest with respect 
to to soil in the sandy grayels abound ; 
and the course of the Durance is so ruined by sand and 
shingle, that, on a nyse ny above 130,000 
mountainous districts of Bain Pro yvence: 
is mountainous in many parts, > Ston, 
and rough, with much waste land. ig of z 
province of Languedoc are mountainous. The vale | 
are rich, Rousillon, is in general calcareous. Mu 
it flat and very stony, as well as dry and barren. 
Mr Young observes, “ that the proportion of poor 
in England to the total of the kingdom, is greater than 
the similar proportion in France; nor have they any 
where such tracts of wretched. blowi sr ee alg aay 
met with in Norfolk and Suffolk. 
and wastes, not mountainous, which a 
and which are so frequent in Brittany, deeuitean 
Guienne, and Gascony,. are infinitely better — our 
northern moors; and the mountains, of Scotland and 
Wales cannot be compared, in. int of soil, with those of 
the Pyrenees, Auvergne, Dauphiny, Provence, and Lan- 
guedoc.” According to the same au 
are the proportional areas of the several divisions of the 
kingdom, classed according to their respective.soils:.. . 
juan 
Rich district of the north-east, 
containing the provinces of. rh ye oy xii 
Flanders, Artois, Picardy, | | +f 
1 each pt a , pip 
ME iw. ale 8 18,179,590  Hihels aaa 
Plain of the Gitetng. se mie ene %y654,564, Was 
Plain of Alsace ore ee ev € © 687,880 é 7 
Lower Poitou, &c. . «|.» sssinies 
Rich loam. - 25,380,070, 
The heath district of Brittany, 1 
Anjou, and parts of Nor-) 
mandy, a ee HEAD IAA 
The heath district of Guienne, 
and Gascony...» « » ++ + 10,206,085 
Heath _—_ 25,513,218 
The TF aniggctie: district ete Dau-. 
phiny, Provence, -ae 98,707,087 
The chalky district of Champagne, Sologne, . isa 
Tourraine, Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois,, . 
&o, . ses vin ea a win nin 4 « 16,584,889 
The district of gravel of ese Bourbonnois., 
8,827,282 
and Nivernois Mae» 
The district of stony soils. in ‘Lorraine, Bure | 
gundy, Franche Compté, &c.+ +. +++ * 20,412,171 
The eet recon teens Kise hereon sant toe 
Berry, La Manche, &c. ... 8, 
Total, 131,722,711 
It is to be dena, however, that this admeasurement 
includes the whole surface of the kingdom; deductions 
ought therefore to be made for roads and rivers, &c. Ac- 
a Mea 1 Unie 
2” 
i fod 
ore dere Generat 
result. 
