GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



379 



body of fresh water, which will afterward be 

 gradually drained and laid dry. This plan 

 would divide the expense among a large num- 

 ber of years. 



The canal for draining Lake Copais, in Bcso- 

 tia, was opened June 13. This ends an under- 

 taking attempted even in ancient times, and 

 will contribute to the settlement of the region, 

 which has hitherto been hindered by the un- 

 healthful exhalations of the lake. 



Following are extracts from a paper read by 

 A. Martel before the Paris Geographical Socie- 

 ty regarding a district of France comparatively 

 unknown : 



" One finds it stated even now, in the best 

 scientific books of the day upon geography, that 

 Lozere is the poorest department of France, 

 the most abandoned district of our country. 

 But, if Lozere takes rank among the lowest of 

 the departments with regard to total popula- 

 tion, agriculture, commerce, and industries, 

 she holds, on the other hand, a first place in 

 regard to Nature's marvels and scientific curi- 

 osities. Forming a part of the great Causse 

 limestones, which form the western slopes of 

 the Cevennes between Mende and Lodeve, so 

 well described by Elisge and OnSsime Reclus, 

 Lozere possesses, as a matter of fact, in the 

 gorges of the Tarn, one of the greatest curiosi- 

 ties of Europe one may say of the whole 

 world. For a distance of about sixty-two 

 miles between Florae and Millau, the river 

 Tarn runs between two limestone walls almost 

 perfectly perpendicular, from 1,300 to 2,000 

 feet in height, red and yellow as the setting 

 sun, broken into sharp points and shaped into 

 formidable bastions. The stream flows at the 

 bottom of a wide gorge from 3,200 to 6,500 

 feet high at its summit, where the sunlight en- 

 ters perpendicularly, as down a shaft. Consid- 

 ering it with the feelings of grandeur and won- 

 der that it produces on the traveler, there are 

 only three places more impressive than the 

 gorges of the Tarn: the Alps of the Tyrol, the 

 Spanish slope of Mount Perdu in the valley of 

 Arrasas, and .the Great Canon of the Colorado 

 in Arizona. Nowhere else does one find such 

 flame-colored and supernatural rocks. And 

 yet, while France possesses such a treasure in 

 the districts of Mende and Florae, people point 

 to Lozere as a country cursed by Heaven ond 

 under the ban of civilization. Since 1834-, 

 Baron Taylor, MM. C. Nodier and A. de Cail- 

 leux, in their great work on ancient France, 

 strove, without obtaining a hearing, against 

 this great injustice. About forty years later, 

 MM. One"sime Reclus and Lagrese-Fossat re- 

 turned to the charge without further success ; 

 they managed, however, to rouse the curiosity 

 of the Club Alpin francais, to which must be 

 attributed, in the person of M. Lequeutre, the 

 honor of having since 1879, by a widely ex- 

 tended publicity, brought about a true appre- 

 ciation of the picturesque value of Lozere. In 

 1883 a true geographical discovery was effected 

 in the district of the Causses the discovery of 



Montpellier-le-Vieux, about nine and a half 

 miles east of Millau, in Aveyron, and conse- 

 quently beyond the borders of Lozere, but only 

 a few hours' journey from the gorges of the 

 Tarn, and therefore in the same sphere of at- 

 traction for travelers. Montpellier-le-Vieux is 

 nothing else but an immense ruin, a sort of 

 Thebes or Palmyra, but a natural ruin made 

 of rocks. Between the gorge of the Dourbie 

 and the deep ravines of two of its tributaries, 

 the mysterious city, suspended like the hang- 

 ing-gardens of Babylon about 1,820 feet above 

 the river, has been guarded against the inroads 

 of the curious and the researches of geogra- 

 phers by its frowning ramparts, and, above all, 

 by superstition. The inhabitants of the valleys 

 dare not adventure into a chaos of rocks which 

 they called the city of the devil; and when, 

 three years ago, MM. de Barbeyrac and de 

 Mallafosse penetrated it for the first time, their 

 admiration was only equal to their wonder. 

 Where the map of the ' Etat-major ' indicates 

 by a blank spot a smooth plateau, there are 

 really five amphitheatres of different shapes, 

 and from 330 to 410 feet in depth, surrounded 

 by rocky circumvallations with broken gaps, 

 and inclosing a forest of obelisks and pointed 

 arches, towers of defense and embattled ram- 

 parts, streets, squares, amphitheatres in a 

 word, a giant Pompeii, covering nearly 300 

 acres. Beyond the ravines, a circle of detached 

 forts, all rocky monoliths, perhaps 200 feet in 

 height, form the exterior defense. M. A. Mar- 

 tel, in 1884 and 1885, explored with great mi- 

 nuteness this new possession of tourists and 

 geographers. He has constructed a very exact 

 plan of it, which makes its easy to understand 

 the lay of the whole district and the situation 

 of the remarkable points. A masterpiece of 

 Nature such as this is beyond description. It 

 is sufficient to say that one gets an idea of 

 Montpellier-le-Vieux by imagining a combina- 

 tion of the forest of Fontainebleau, Swiss Sax- 

 ony, and the cliffs of Causse. But the caprice 

 of Nature is there exercised with a power two 

 or three times as great as one sees in these 

 three celebrated places." 



A recent book on Spain by George Higgin, 

 Mem. Inst. C. E., gives much interesting in- 

 formation on its industrial condition. The 

 growth of population from 1860 to 187V has 

 been about 25 per cent, only of the rate for 

 the preceding fourteen years ; but the increase 

 of population in towns has been very rapid. 

 Bilbao, for instance, has increased 82*17 per 

 cent., probably owing to its iron-mines; and 

 Pontevedra has grown 195 per cent. The 

 total population is now about 17,000,000. The 

 import and export trade has increased about 

 250 per cent, during the past twenty years. 

 The export of wine to France amounts to 

 130,181,427 gallons. Many miles of railroad 

 have been built within the past ten years, 

 mainly by Frenchmen, and new lines are pro- 

 jected. These and improvements in the wagon- 

 roads have aided the development of mining 



