237 



ALPES, HAUTES. 



ALPES, HAUTES. 



238 



town. Barum, 8 miles N.W. from Forcalquier, situated on a hill near an 

 extensive oak-forest, in which large herds of swine are reared, population 

 1373 ; St.-Etiennes-lei-Orc/iKe, 6 miles N. from Forcalquier, population 

 1208 ; Peyruls, 10 miles N.E. from Forcalquier, near the right bank 

 of the Durance, population 873 ; and Reillanne, 8 miles S.W. from 

 Forcalquier, population 1379 are small market and fair towns that 

 give name to cantons. Jfanosque, the most populous and important 

 t'iwn in the arrondissement, situated in a fertile district at the foot of 

 a hill, 17 miles S. from Forcalquier, owes its origin to the castle built 

 here as a winter residence by the counts of Forcalquier. The counts 

 afterwards gave the castle and the town to the order of St. John of 

 Jerusalem. The town, which is an old-looking place, with tolerably 

 good streets and handsome promenades, has a tribunal of commerce, 

 brandy-distilleries, oil-mills, tan-yards, and manufactures of linen, 

 coarse silks, coarse woollens, sirup of grapes, &c. : population 5311. 

 Several large yearly fairs are held. Coal mines are worked in the 

 neighbourhood. 



The fifth arrondissement is named from its chief town Sisteron, 

 the seat of a tribunal of first instance, a college, and an agricultural 

 society; situated between two mountains at the junction of the 

 Buech with the Durance, 18 miles N.W. from Digne : population, 3S44. 

 The town is said to have existed in Roman times, and to have 

 preserved ita municipal rights ever since. It gave title to a bishop 

 from A.D. 600 till 17'.ni. Sisteron, surrounded by walls flanked with 

 towers, and further defended by a citadel built on a rock above the 

 town, was formerly more important than it is now, as it com!! 

 the valleys of the Buech and the Durance, and closed the ] 

 Provence and Dauphin^. The basin of the Durance in this part is 

 narrowed to a gorge formed by steep rocks, which on one side support 

 of the citadel, on the other, the suburb of Beaume. A single 

 'he gorge. There is a pretty promenade outside the Ai\ 

 the town. '/-.!/"'' '..K. from Sisteron, 



near the Serie, a small feeder of the Durance, population, 719 ; 

 5 miles W. from Sisteron, near the Jabron, population, 1254 ; Turners 

 in a valley 17 miles X.K. from Sisteron, population, 616; and 

 Volrmne, 6 miles S.S.E. from Sisteron, near the Durance, population, 

 1269 give name to cantons. 



The department forms the diocese of the bishop of Digne. It is 

 included in the 7th Military Division, of which Marseille is head- 

 quarters. Under the Monarchy Basses-Alpes returned two member") 

 to the Chamber of Deputies. 



ALPES, H.U'TKS. - A department of France, formed out of Upper 

 Dauphine', and named from its containing the highest of the French 

 Alps, is bounded X.E. and E. by Piedmont, S. by Basses-Alpes, \V. 

 by the department of Drome, and N.W. by that of Isere. It lies 

 between 44" IV and 45 7' N. lat., 5' 23' and 7 0' E. long. Its 

 greatest length from N.E. to S.W. is 75 miles; the average breadth 

 at right angles to the length is 27 miles. The area is 2136'8 square 

 miles, and the population is 132,038, which gives C17'.i to the square 

 mile, being 112'H2 below the average jv whole 



of France. In density of p . 'I intea Alp. - H exceeded by 



all the departments of France, except Basses-. \ 



Surface. The French Alps, which extend with their ramifications 



to the frontiers of 1'ie'lmont and Savoy, and from 



tin- Verdon on the south to the source of the Bourbre in the depart- 



"ii the north, attain their greatest height in the 



department of Hautes-Alpes. The directions of their principal 



branches, the crests of which in parts exceed 9000 feet in height, 



are marked out by the courses of the Isire and the Durance ; but 



the symmetry of the ranges is greatly broken by groups of much 



greater elevation, and by the capricious directions of the secondary 



chains. The highest summits on the frontier of Piedmont are the 



unsealed peak of Mont-Viso, and the truncated cone of Mont-Genevre, 



which rise respectively to 13,838 and 11,781 feet above the sea-level. 



Bat the highest mountains entirely within the territory of France lie 



in the range that runs through the north of the department and 



forms the watershed between the Durance and the Isere. Here, 



towering over a wild gronp of precipitous and pointed rocks, over 



glaciers and snow-fields, rises the lofty peak of Pelvou.x, more than 



1 l.i H HI feet above the sea; and a little farther south is Mont-Olan, 



whic-h attain. i the height of 13,120 feet. From these two points 



nni in all directions, the highest towards the north where it is 



flanked by glaciers, in which rise the Gnisanc, the Drac, and the 



nche, and having sunk a little to form the Col-de-Lauteret 



it joins the main ridge of the Alps on the confines of 



I'rance, and Savoy. Two other chains inclose the basin 



of the Drac, ramifications of which extend south-westward and 



.:ird to the Durance and the Rhone. A long and lofty ridge 



springs from Mont VHO, and runs along the right bank of the Ubaye, 



filling up the space between that river, the Durance, and the Guil. 



The glacier .ted on the western side of Mont-Pelvoux, 



and sometimes called the glacier of La-B<<rarde, from the beautiful 



valley from the head of which it extends to the Col-de-Saix, is 3 



miles in length. The valley of La-Berarde rivals Chamouni hi beauty, 



but is little known. Another glacier at the head of the Valloiiise, 



M also for its scenery, lies on the south-east side of Pelvoux. 



But the largest glacier in France is that of Laus-en-Oysans, which is 



nearly 5 miles in length, and 24 miles in breadth. On each side of the 



Col-de-la-Grave or Lauteret, which forms the communication between 

 the valleys of the Romanche and the Guisane, there are glaciers. 



The mountains and high valleys are covered with snow for seven 

 or eight months in the year, and on the high crests and peaks it never 

 disappears. The southern slopes of the mountains are generally 

 naked and arid ; but the northern slopes are clothed with forests up 

 to the line where vegetation ceases. The hills which form the 

 buttresses of these lofty masses are generally covered with pasture, or 

 with woods. 



All the east, south, and west of the department belongs to the basin 

 ot" the Durance. The intervals between the mountains comprise the 

 immediate basin of the upper part of this river ; and the secondary 

 basins of the Guil, the Buech, aud the Drac, which last is included 

 in the basin of the Isere. A great number (65 in all) of deep narrow 

 valleys, each traversed by a rapid brook which is converted into a 

 torrent sifter a fall of rain or on the melting of the snows, open into 

 these four basins. Many of the valleys, among others that of Monestier 

 which is traversed by the Guisane, present scenery that may vie in 

 grandeur and sublimity with that of any other part of the Alps. 

 The bulk of the population is gathered into villages situated in the 

 fertile parts of the valleys. From the foot of the Col-de-Lauteret, 

 the neighbourhood of which pass is covered in sximmer with perhaps 

 the finest pasture in the Alps, to Briancon, the valley of the Guisane 

 riit;iiiis no fewer than 22 villages, besides the town of Monestier. 

 The valley, which is fertile and well cultivated, is screened by high 

 mountains, the slopes of which are clothed with forests of pine. The 

 valley of the Durance is for the most part desolate, the impetuous 

 stream sweeping away in . its frequent inundations the soil of the 

 valley and strewing it with rocks instead. At the head of the valley 

 of the Durance is the Col-de-Mont-Genevre, a level plain on which 

 barley ripens ; it is one of the lowest passes of the Alps, being only 

 c>47o' feet above the pea-level; the Dora Susina, a feeder of the Po, 

 rises on the eastern side of it, at a short distance from the source 

 of the Durance. The valley of the Durance is commanded by the 

 fortress of Briancon, one of the strongest in the world ; and lower 

 down by Mont-Dauphin, which is so situated as to command also the 

 valley of the GuiL The Guil which joins the Durance just below 

 Mont-Dauphiu drains the valley of Queyras, at the head of which is 

 the Col-de-Viso, 10,150 feet in height, whence the view over the 

 valley of the Po and the plains of Piedmont is one of the most 

 magnificent in the world. 



//',-'/</, -n/ilii/ /mil <'i>,n.:i ii nicotians. The principal river of the 

 department is the Durance, a feeder of the Rhone, whieli rises in 

 Mout-Gencvre, and runs south-westward past Briancon aud Embrun 

 to its junction with the Ubaye. [ALPES, BASSES.] From this point 

 its course for several miles is westward, and then southward between 

 the departments of Hautes-Alpes and Basses-Alpes ; into the latter it 

 enters a little above the town of Sisteron. [Ai.rES, BASSES; DrnAMT.] 

 It is an impetuous stream, sweeping along stones and gravel, and 

 frequently desolating the land on its banks by its inundations. No 

 part of it is navigable, but timber is floated down it from the Alpine 

 foreste. The Buech, which drains the west of the department, is 

 noticed in the previous article. [Ai.PES, BASSES.] The Guil rises in 

 the Alpine lake of Sestio, to the north of Mont-Viso, and runs south- 

 west through the valley of Queyras into the Durance on the left 

 bank below Mont-Dauphin after a course of about 30 miles. The 

 valley of Queyras presents a series of narrow defiles, which are strewed 

 with rocks and seem to be the effect of the erosions of the river. 

 One of these, called the Gorge of Chapelue, is situated above the 

 village of Guillestre, which was the residence of English prisoners 

 during the last war with France. The chasm is bounded on each 

 side by precipices between 700 and 800 feet high ; the rocks almost 

 meet overhead, and the road crosses the depths, in which the Guil 

 flows far below, from side to side as the rocks present a shelf to support 

 it. At the upper end of the gorge is the old feudal castle of Queyras, 

 built on a rock which commands the defile : it is now occupied as a 

 military post. About two miles above Queyras a fine view is obtained 

 of the wild and savage scenery of Mont-Viso. The Guisane rises in 

 the glacier near the Col-de-Lauteret, and running to the south-south- 

 east through the valley of Monestier, enters the Durance on the right 

 bank at Brian9on. The Drac rises on the south side of the Mont- 

 Pelvoux group, and flows first towards the south-west to its junction 

 with a small stream that rises in the mountain-range which runs along 

 the right bank of the Durance opposite Mont-Dauphin. It then sweeps 

 round to the north-north-west, passing St. -Bonnet, and entering the 

 department of Iscre, where it receives the Bonne on the right bank 

 and the Ebron on the left. From its junction lyith this last river, the 

 Drac runs nearly due north to its junction with the Isere, a short 

 distance below Grenoble, having received the Romanche on its right 

 bank about 9 miles above its mouth. The Romanche, which rises 

 in the most northern district of the department, near the source of the 

 Guisane, will be noticed under IsfcnE, as its entire course, with the 

 exception of a mile or two, is in that department. During its short 

 course in this department it forms a splendid fall into a deep precipitous 

 defile near Villars-d'Arene. None of the rivers of the department is 

 navigable. Their waters supply a vast number of irrigating rills, 

 which contribute much to the fertility of the soil in the valleys. 

 The department contains a great number of small Alpine lakes, some 



