ett a ee” 
a 
Ee a my 
FRANCE. - 
Statistics, in flower, to consider the colouring matter as the farina 
Barytic 
genus. 
this , that Franee. , 
eee rier 
abound in 
“1” of some plant. Ramond, who found this dust on the 
Of the ian genus, fullers’ earth, though not so 
good in quality, nor so abundant as in England, is found 
There are also other species of this genus, 
_ but none that require particular notice. 
Of the ealcareous genus, the great body of chalk 
which traverses France from Champagne to Calais has’ 
already been mentioned, and also the marbles of the 
Paris, as well as the other most interesting species of 
ted mass ; it was about the of 15. or 16 feet in 
clay, which had been digging for some years before at 
Sonved hese Toul. " 
Petroleum and asphaltes are found in great abun- 
dance in Alsace, in a bed of sand, but upon two beds of 
organic remains found in the basin of Paris have 
already been noticed. They also occur in other 
of France; but we can only afford room for the follow- 
ing instance. At St Chaumont, near Lyons, is found an 
of some ferns, all of 
rance, but peculiar to the East Indies, or 
ee eee enna oe See tree 
which s on the coasts alabar Coro- 
por ply et hen 
uret of iron, 
some fine specimens of native gold ; 
it was not 
i rich to defray the expence of 
the ipcantal tian contain 
Rhine, the Doubs, the Garonne, 
Ardeche, and anes small rivulets which 
, - : - 
also a part of Al- 
; and at Allemont in ; but silver is most 
attached to the and copper ore; and the 
former metal in some parts of France is particularly 
rich in this respect, containing for evéry quintal.of lead 
nearly 16 ounces of silver. 
Tron is found in abundance, parti in the north- 
eastern The ore is not unfrequently found 
in large lumps on the surface, and the strata are most 
but a few feet below it: wenn 
large banks ining iron ore. ‘There is 
an iron mine of considerable repute at Vicdessos, situa- 
VOL, IX, PART I. 
= 689 
ted very high in these mounfains, about 15 miles to the _ Statisties. 
south-west of Tarascon, and not far from the frontier of ““~y” 
Spain. The “ chantiers,” or places where the ore is 
dug, are some hundred fathoms deep ; and the passage 
to them in re parts very narrow and steep. Up 
these passages the ore is brought with amazing toil, on 
the backs of the miners.’ Some 100 lb. some 
120 Ib. and some even more, according to their strength. 
The mine is the property of government. There are 
generally 400 persons at work in it, under inspectors, 
but paying themselves by the sale of the ore to the 
forge masters. It is miserably wrought, without a sin- 
gle improvement, Mr Birkbeck supposes, since the days 
of Julius Cesar. The ore is rich, and containing cal 
careous spar, is reduced without the addition of any 
other substance. It lies very irregularly, under lime of 
a schistose ce. The mass of ore is in some 
parts upwards of 60 feet in thickness, The miners are 
mostly proprietors of land. The whole surface of the 
mountain is divided in patches of different dimensions; 
all cultivated and watered with the utmost assiduity, 
and clothed with luxuriant v tion. There are also 
abundant mines of iron in Upper Languedoc, in the 
mountains of the Rouergue, which bound the western 
part of the province ; and in the county of Foix, which 
joins to the south, there is a mine of iron, 
so extensive, that it has supplied 40 founderies for up- 
wards of two centuries. In these , the furnaces to: 
the iron founderies, instead of being blown with bel- 
lows, are supplied with a current of air, by means of 
water precipitated through a vertical tube, to which is 
given the name of a trombe, the same word which is’ 
used in France for a water spout. This practice is of 
very ancient standing. There are also iron mines in 
Franche Compté, ine, Champagne, Berri, &c. 
Great attentior- has been paid to the working of all the 
iron mines, since the Revolution. The number of for- 
ges for the working of iron and steel are computed at 
nearly 2000; but included the forges in those de« 
ts in the north-east, which no longer belong to 
rance. Before the Revolution, France im iron 
tothe annual value of 11 or 12 millions-of livres, A 
great quantity of steel is still im from Germany 
into France. There are some ri per mines in the Coppez: 
Pyrenees, in the departments of the Rhone and the Up- 
per Alps, inthe mountains of Rouergue; in the depart- 
ments of the Loire, the Lozere, and the Ardeche, and 
in a near the mountains of Vos« 
The principal copper founderies are at Saint Bel 
Cicee, Avi , Bedarieux, Montpellier, &c. Former. 
] ‘almost all the copper used in France -was brought 
om Sweden. 
Two-thirds of the lead of Frarice are from Brittany, Lead. 
icularly the mines of Poullaoven and Huelgoet. 
here are also lead mines in the ent of the 
Channel; but they. have been re ly abandoned, in 
consequence of a deficiency of coal for working them. 
Mines of lead also occur in the ents of the Ma~ 
ritime Alps, the Lozere, Ardeche, &c. and in the Moun- 
tains of Most of those that are worked, yield 
silver at the same time. ; bich ‘ight 
France possesses mines of antimony, which mi, 
suffice for lying all Europe with that commodity. 
The. princi ores are those of Creuse, Cantal, the 
rm, poy La Vendée, the of the Ar« 
and Allier, and at Allemont in Dauphiny. 
Antimony. 
Zine is the most common of the French semi-metals. 71, 
It is found in three states in the mines; viz. in blende, 
458 , 
