II 



COTKXTIX. 



COTES-DU-NORD. 



01) 



The department i* divided into 4 arronduaementa, which, with 

 their subdivisions and population, are as follows : 



Population i; 



I. 



1. Bnane 



3. ChAlillon-* 



4. Semur . 



Teul 



14 



10 







6 



it; 



lir. 

 Ul 



111, Ml 



at 



718 



400,197 



1. In the find urondinement the chief towns are DIJON (the capital 

 of the department) and Arxosire, Among the other town*, all of 

 which are small, the following mar be named an they give names to 

 cantons : Fontainr-Franfttiif has blast-furnaces, breweries, and pot- 

 teries ; near it Henri IV. defeated the Dolce of M avenue in 1(95. 

 If-mr-Ti/lr, on the Ignon, hat iron-works and a worsted factory. 

 St.-Srint-TA bbayt owes its origin to the abbey founded here by St 

 Seine in 536, and has one of the finest churches in the department. 

 StloKfffy, on the Venettc, a feeder of the Sadne. 



2. In the second arrondissement the chief town is BEACHE. The 

 other towns are: Arnay-lt-Dut, near the left bank of the Arroux, 

 which IB n place of some manufacturing industry, with a college and 

 2511 inhabitant*, \uiti, a first-class station on the Paris-I.yon rail- 

 way and a pretty little town 9 miles N.E. from Beaune, has 8175 

 inhabitants, who manufacture cloth, leather, and paper, but are 

 chie8y engaged in the culture of the vine. Sfitrre, in a plain of great 

 fertility on the left back of the Saone, which has a college, oil and 

 flour mills worked by steam, tanneries, a shawl manufactory, boat- 

 building yards, and 3612 inhabitants, who trade with Alsace and 

 Switzerland in corn, charcoal, wine, hay, 4c. St.-Jean-de-Lofne, on 

 the right bank of the Sadne, which trades in similar produce, and has 

 a tribunal of commerce and 2184 inhabitants. Meurtault, 5 miles by 

 railway 8. from Beaune ; \olay, the birth-place of Carnot ; and Pottilly, 

 near the source of the Armancon, are small places which give names 

 to cantons. 



3. In the third arrondisscment the chief town is CMttilon-mr-Seine, 

 the capital of La Montagne, which stands on the Seme, in a hilly 

 country, and ho* tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a college, 

 and 4866 inhabitants, including the whole commune. It is a well- 

 built improving town, with clean well-paved streets. It formerly 

 consisted of two towns separated by arms of the Seine. One was 

 called Bourg, the other Chaumont ; each was inclosed by its own wall 

 and ditches, and further defended by a castle : the castle of Chaumont 

 was called Ch&telot, and still remains. The town-hall, which is 

 surrounded with public gardens ; the court-house, established in the 

 old Carmelite convent ; the church of St.-Nicholas, which dates 

 from tin' 1 2th cvntury ; the church of St.-Vorle' ; and the castle of 

 Chanmont, which is surrounded by a fine park traversed by the 

 Seine, are the most remarkable buildings. The town has a library of 

 7000 volumes ; blast-furnaces and iron-foundries ; paper-mills ; tan- 

 yards ; breweries; com, fulling, and bark mills, and brandy distilleries ; 

 it is a place of active commerce, being the centre of a very important 

 iron district. The early dukes of Bourgogne usually resided in 

 rbntillon. Aiynny-le-Duc; Laigna, at the source of the Laigne, a 

 feeder of the Seine ; and Ktcey, on the Ource, are small places which 

 give names to the other cantons, and, like most of the villages in this 

 arrondissemcnt, have iron-foundries and blast-furnaces. 



4. In the fourth arroDd Linemen t the chief town is Semur or Sfmnr- 

 at-Auroii, which is built on a granite rock on the left bank of tlm 

 Armancon, 35 miles W. from Dijon, and has 4355 inhabitant*. The- 

 town, which is wi 11 built, is divided into three quarters the Bourg, 

 the Donjon, and the Chateau; and has four squares and thru- 

 handsome promenades. The church, built in 1065 by Robert I., 

 duke of Bourgogno, is the most remarkable building; it contains 

 many antiquities, and has been clawed among the historical monu- 

 ment* of France. The town ha* a college; a library of 15,000 volumes; 

 a small theatre ; and manufactures of cloth, serge, vo, ,l|c-n :md cotton 

 yarn ; boiides tanyards, bark and fulling mills, ftc. In thr environs, 

 which are very pretty, the Armancon forms several cascades. Monilianl, 

 the hirthpl.cc of Buffon, at the junction of the Canal-de-Bourgogne 

 and the Brenne, a feeder of the Armancon, is n first-class station on 

 the Paris-Dijon railway, and a place of some trade : population, 2215, 

 Including the whole commune. Soulieu, the birthplace of Vauban, 

 17 mile* 8. fmm Senior, is a walled town with a tribunal of commerce, 

 a college and 2922 inhabitant*, who trade in com, hemp, wool, timber, 

 feel-wood, olianvwl, oak-stave., &c. Marigny, enst of H 



Itamr, a pr '-ii-iovt-Tkil, on the 



Smut, a fr- '"-r cantons, 



The dcnsrttno: .. re of tho Hishop of Dijon j B ,,,,,l, T 



the jurisdiction of th.- Ili-h Court and University of Dijon and is 

 comprised in the 7th Military Divi.j.,n, of . 

 quarters. 



"An 1853.) 



CO 1 w)>iih now 



form* the greater part of the department of Manche. It is i 

 i*h the . . -ook its name from it* 



. , . . ... . .,,;.,. 



northward from tho neighbourhood of Oranville into the English 

 Channel, by which it u bounded on tin: north, the west, and <M 

 the south lies the district of Avranchin. It is watered in tho SOL 

 the Soulle and its feeders, in the north by the Douve, and in the eaat 

 by the Vire, which divide* it from Deasin and the Bocage, which are 

 now included in the department of CaUados. The strata are chiefly of 

 pranitu and clay-slate, and the soil U fertile in grain and p:> 

 Much butter i* made, and many horse* of good breed are reared : 

 poultry U abundant The quantity of woodland U not great ; there 

 are no vineyards, but cider is made in considerable quantity. Hemp 

 and flax are grown. The chief towns of C'oUntin are Coutancea, 

 the capital, Cherbourg, Granville, and Valognea, [HANCUK, Depart- 

 ment of] 



COTBS-DU-NORD, a deportment in the north of France, u 

 bounded N. by the Bay of Bt-Malo, an inlet of the English Channel, 

 K. by the department of Ille-et-VUaine, S. by that of Horbihan, anil 

 W. by that of Finistore. It lies between 48" 2' and 48 63' N. lat, 

 1 68' and 3 85' W. long. Its greatest length is from east to went 

 76 miles, the breadth from north to south varies from 25 to 50 mile*. 

 The area according to the cadastral returns of 1851 is 2659 square 

 miles. The population in 1851 was 682,613, giving 237'91 inhabitants 

 to the square mile, which is 68'2 above the average population per 

 square mile for the whole of France. 



The department comprises the old diocese of St-Brieuc and a part 

 of the diocese of St.-Malo (now forming the arrondiaaement of Dinan), 

 which belonged to Middle Bretagne, and of almost the whole of the 

 diocese of Treguier, and a small portion of that of Quin 

 geographically and politically were dependencies of Lower Bretagne. 

 It takes its name from its ]>osition on the ' northern coast ' of France. 



The coast line (which is very irregular), reckoning all its winding*. 

 is about 150 miles in length, and presents to the sea a bold wall of 

 granite rocks, which inclose numerous bays and harbour.", and form 

 several bold headlands. The principal bay is that of St-Brieuc. Of 

 the headlands or points the following succeed each other from eact 

 to went ; Pointe St-Cast, Cap Frehel, Puinte d'Hcrquin, Pointc-de- 

 Port-de-Pomme (these two are at the extremities of the Bay of 

 St.-Brieuc), Pointe de Plouazc, Pointe de Minar, Pointe de Uilfaut, 

 Pointe du Sillon, and Pointo de Union. The coast is M 

 small islands and rocks ; lie d'Embier is near the Pointe tie St.-Ca*t, 

 Lea Verdelcts in the Bay of St-Brieuc, the lie St.-lloui and the lies 

 de Brehat between the Pointe de Hilfaut and the Pointe du - 

 the lie d'Er between the last point and the Pointe de Chien ; tin- 1U- 

 de Gueltat, He Thornd, the lies Melban, Platte, Kioux. i. and the others 

 of the group called Lea Sept-lies (the Seven Islands), Lea Triagons, 

 the He Molenes or Molenoe, and Le Taureuu, ore to the west of Puiuto 

 de Chien. 



A district called ' La Cincture Doree,' or the Golden Belt, which 

 extends along the coast and about 8 or 10 mile* inland, is of great 

 fertility, producing largo quantities of wheat, barley, hemp, flax, 

 clover, and all kinds of table vegetables. Sea-weed, wl. 

 in great abundance on tho sands at the foot of the rocks on the sea- 

 shore, is commonly used for manure in thin di 



The Armoric Hills, which cross the middle of the department from 

 east to west, have a breadth from north to south of about 16 miles, 

 and in their culminating point, Mount Menez, reach a height of about 

 1200 feet. From their highest summit these hills are sometimes 

 called the Menez Mountains, sometimes also, in consequence of their 

 barren heathy aspect, they are called Montague Noires, or Black 

 Mountains. The Armoric Hills are in general barren and stony ; 

 they are broken by narrow gorges here and there, and send 

 numerous spurs to the north and south, which sink gradually down 

 into two hungry sandy plains, the northern one of which extends to 

 the southern bonier of the Golden Kelt. 



In tin' interior of the department, where the farmers have neither 

 sea-weed nor lime to manure their land, agriculture is in a very back- 

 ward stato, and the people are steeped in poverty and misery, which 

 are increased by the decay of the linen trade. Here rye and oata are 

 grown ; draught horses, homed cattle of inferior breed, and goats are 

 reared ; a good many sheep are kept, but as they are chiefly pastured 

 on heathland they are small, wretched, and feeble in the exi 

 The cider apple-tree U extensively cultivated throughout the d 



the neglect of all other trees. Among the Armoric Hill. 

 there are some good forests ; but in general the range presents large 

 tracts overgrown with broom, gone, holly, evergreens, and other 

 unproductive shrubs. 



Among tli" wild animals of the department ore wolves, foxe., 

 badgers, roebucks, and wild boors ; hares and rabbits arc numerous ; 

 along tho coast and in the adjacent islands the number of land and 

 tea birds is prodigious. The deep-sea flnhery affords employment to 

 a great number of hands, and several vessels are (itted out from the 

 coast towns for tl iland fisheries, so that tho department 



furnishes a large number of experienced sram navy. 



Iron mines ore worked, and a good deal of pV -'-on is 



I ; slates and granite arc quarried. 



In the iron furnaces the ore i .iiv.Tti-d iir 



iron generally by mean." 



from England or Belgium. !e at several places on the 







