f 
_ 
, FRANCE | 683 
‘Statistics, cording to"M. Neckar, there are 9000 leagues of roads 
in France. On the supposition,that their average breadth 
is 10 toises, this will give for the whole area occupied by 
roads, about 193,207 acres. A much | space must 
be allowed for rivers; so that probably the number of 
acres. may be estimated at 131,000,000, the proportional 
areas of the different divisions of soil remaining the 
same. 
The climate of so extensive ‘a kingdom as France must 
be very various; but perhaps, on the whole, it is more 
favourable to the sustenance and comfort of human life, 
than any other in Europe. The climate of the northern 
districts is hotter, and at the same time more moist \in 
summer, than the counties in the south-west of Eng- 
land. In the department of Finisterre, the sky is ob+ 
secured by an almost continual mist.’ In Brest and Mor- 
laix, it rains almost i 3 and the natives are said 
to be so habituated to dampness. and wet, that too dry 
seasons prove prejudicial to their health. The heat in 
in the north of France are heavy, and conti-~ 
nue longer than they generally do in England. In the 
winter, heavy snows and severe frosts are experienced 
to a greater degree than in the south of England; 
and it is remarked there, whenever there is a long and 
sliarp frost)in the north of Europe, it is felt much more 
severely in Paris than in London. 
The central division of France possesses a wonder 
fully fine climate, especially the provinces of Tourraine 
and the Limosin. - In man there is no snow, and 
frosts are not frequent. There-are no fogs and vapours, 
as in Bretagne, nor the t humidity of Normandy ; 
peas cae Pre | ree from the burning sun of the 
provinces. The air is light, pure, and elastic. 
spring is a continuance of such weather as is seen 
in abont the middle of May.” The harvest be- 
gins about the! Jatter end of June, but is sometimes so 
late as the middle of July. The great heats are from 
5 
ject to violent storms of rain and hail, the latter occa- 
sionally beating down and destroying all the corn and 
vintage on which it may fall. Frosts also sometimes 
happen in the spring, even so late as the end of May 
and. beginning of June, so severe as to turn the leaves 
of the walnut.trees quite black, and to render it neces« 
sary to cover the fig trees with straw. Autumnal frosts 
also not unfrequently occur earlier in the central pro- 
vinces of France than they do in the south of England. 
On the 20th of September 1787, Mr Young says, there 
~ happened so smart a one on the south of the Loire, be- 
tween Chambort and Orleans, that the vines were hurt 
by it: The high country of Auvergne is bleak and 
cold ; and all the district within reach of the mountains 
of Vosges are affected by the snow that falls upon them ; 
a circumstance which. sometimes occurs as late as the 
end of June. ; 
In the south of France, particularly in | Provence, a 
continuance of dry and hot weather may be ex 
the months of June, July, and August, and 
& part or perhaps the whole of September. The greatest 
4. 
heats seldom occur till the 15th of July, nor after the «Statistics. 
15th of September. Harvest generally begins the 24th “-\— 
of June, and ends the 15th of July: the middle of the 
vintage is about the end of September... During the con- 
tinuance of the hot weather, or les grandes chaleurs, as 
they are called, scarcely. any persons who can. avoid it 
think of quitting their houses in the middle of the 
day. During the.end of autumn and the beginning of 
winter, violent rains frequently fall; but, in the inter= 
vals between the rains, October and November may be 
regarded as the pleasantest months in the year.. In Des 
cember, January, and February, the weather is gene» 
rally fine; but, after February, the Vent de bize is very 
frequent. This wind seems to pierce through the body, 
and dry up all the humours, It is a strong north or 
north-east wind, accompanied generally with a clear sky, 
but sometimes with snow, It seldom lasts for'more than 
three days at a time. This wind blows. with’ peculiar 
violence and bitterness about Avignon ;, the winters there 
are sometimes rendered by it most distressingly cold; _ 
and the Rhone is covered with ice sufficiently strong to 
support loaded carts, and the olive trees sometimes pes 
rish to their roots. Some parts of the coast of Pro« 
vence, as about Toulon and Hieres, are still milder than 
about Marseilles and Aix; but the northern and more 
mountainous parts of the province often experience very 
severe weather in the winter, and are as cold as Eng~ 
land, but with a much clearer and purer air. 
The chief disadvantages of the climate of the south of Disadvanta- 
France are the plague of insects, and the peculiar vio- 
lence of its storms, especially in the mountainous tracts, 
The flies are excessively troublesome in the olive district 
of France; they not only bite, sting, and hurt, but they 
buzz, tease, and worry. The mouth, eyes, ears, and 
nose, are full of them ; they swarm on every thing eat« 
able; fruit, sugar, milk, every thing is attacked by 
them in such myriads, that if they are not driven away 
incessantly by a person, who has nothing else to do, to 
eat a meal is impossible. Sometimes it is absolutely ne- 
cessary to darken the room, in order to keep it tolerably 
clear of them. In the stables, they are obliged to che« 
rish the spiders, that their webs may. catch the flies, 
who would otherwise be an actual torment to the horses, 
In the night, the gnats are very troublesome; and, be- 
sides the torment of their bite, render sleep extreniely 
difficult to be procured, by their constant and loud noise. 
The author of the Essai sur la Mineralogie des Pyrendes 
describes a thunder storm near Bareges as extremely ims 
petuous and formidable; the cataracts rushing down the 
sides of the mountains, carrying ruin and desolation. 
along with them; those meadows, which a few hours 
before were covered with verdure, now buried under 
heaps of stones, or overwhelmed by masses of liquid 
mud, and the sides of the mountains cut by:deep: ravines, 
where the track of the smallest rivulet was not before to 
be discovered. The hail storms in the south, and even j,,.) 
in the central provinces of France, are not unfrequently storms, 
most dreadful and ruinous in their consequences. About 
thirty years ago, a violent storm of hail swept a track of 
desolation in a belt across the whole kingdom, to the da- 
mage of several millions sterling; and no year ever 
without whole. parishes suffering to a very consi- 
derable degree. In the south of France, where the hail 
storms are the most common and the most violent, it is - 
calculated, that, on an average, one tenth of the whole: 
produce is damaged by them. Young colts are some- 
