﻿717 



MABSEILLR 



MARTINIQUE. 



718 



Went of the Coura liea the new town, which consists of broad 

 straight streets, proyided with paved foot-paths and lined with 

 high well-built honses. The street of Aix traverses the new town 

 firom north to south, and abuts on the Place Castellane. It is elegantly 

 built and above a mile long. But the finest street in the new town is 

 the Kue Caunabiere, combining great width with elegance of structure, 

 and commanding a view of the harbour, the shipping, and the hills 

 behind. A quarter of the town, inclosed by caniUs cut from the har- 

 bonr, and called ' qnartier-du-canal,' consists of well-built etreet-i, the 

 lines of which intersect in a well-built square. The squares of the 

 new town are all regubrly built and tastefully ornamented ; in the 

 principal are the Place Royale, and those of St.-Ferdol, Monthion, du 

 Grand Theatre, and de la Port-de-Rome. The port, au oval of more 

 than half a mile long and abont a quarter of a mile broad, and 

 capable of containing 1200 vessels, is surrounded by fine quays. There 

 are several promenades, the finest of which are the Esplanade of 

 Tourrettc, on the shoro in tbe old town, and the Boulevard des Dames. 

 The course, which connects the streets of Aiz and Rome, also forms 

 a fine central promenade : it is bordered with trees and ornamented 

 with fountains and lined with elegantly constructed houses. The 

 town-hall, built by the architect Puget, faces the harbour ; the ground- 

 floor is used as the exchange ; the great council-chamber has some 

 fine paintings. A new exchange was commenced in 1 S52. There 

 are a new market-house supported by thirty-two columns of the 

 Tuscan order, a fish-market, and other markets ; a lazaretto on the 

 shore, north of the city, one of the finest and best managed in the 

 world. Tbere are also a mint ; two theatres, the chief of them one 

 of the finest in France : a splendid hospital : a trinmphal arch, a 

 column, and several handsome public fountains. Water is brought 

 from the little rivers Huveaune and Jarret by an aqueduct almost 

 entirely subterranean, and rt^ceutly an aqueduct (one of the most stu- 

 pendens works of the kind in tbe world) has been constructed to 

 convey the water of the Durance to the city. A notice of this aque- 

 duct is given in the article Bocchks-du-Rh6»b. Many houses have wells. 

 Marseille is the third city in France for population, being exceeded 

 only by Pari.^ and Lyon. It has always depended for its prosperity 

 on commerce. The harbour is perfectly safe. A lighthouse on Planier 

 Island (43° 11' 54" N. lat., 5° 13' 59' E. long.,) and buoys mark the 

 approach from the south to the harbour, which is freqn>.-nted by 

 Teasels of all nations. Opposite the mouth of it, which is narrow, 

 not permitting the entry of more than one ship at a time, are the 

 three small inlands of If (having a castle, once used as a state prison, 

 and numerous batteries), Ratonneau, and Pom^gue, which are both 

 fortified. The islands of Pomfrgue and Ratonneau are connected by a 

 dyke, or break-water, so as to form, with the addition of a jetty, a 

 quarantine harbour for Teasels coming from places suspected of con- 

 tagion. This harbour is called Port-Dien-Donu<S ; its shores are lined 

 with quays and ship-building yards, and it is altogether a busy place, 

 which bids fair to become of great importance. The entrance to 

 the port is defended by the cross-fire of two forts : Port St.-J<San 

 on the north, and Poi-t Sl-Nicholas on the south. Very extensive 

 docks for the accommodation of shipping have been recently 

 constructed. 



The port is liable to be filled by the mud bronght down by the rain 

 from the neighbouring hills, but dredging machines are continually at 

 work to keep it clear. Frigates enter with difficulty ; ships of the 

 line anchor in tbe road between the islands of Ratonneau and 

 Pomfcgne, near the quarantine harbour. This anchorage is secure. The 

 total number of vesseU that entered and left the port in 1862 

 amounted to 15,866, meamring 1,672,823 tons, and worked by 138,960 

 men. Six screw-steamers ply regularly to Liverpool; two screw- 

 steam companies trade with Italy ; a steam company trades to Marocco 

 and Spain, another with AlgWe, and another employs its vessels in 

 the coasting trade. The trade of Marseille haatrreatly increased since 

 the conquest of Alg^rie by the French. The French trade with the 

 Levant is entirely carried on from the port of Marseille. Theimporta 

 arc of raw cotton, sugar, coffee, dye-woods, com, coal, linen, thread, 

 mannfactured goods, hides, wool, tallow, timber, colonial products, 

 &e. The exports are of wines, brandy, com, dried fruits, perfumery, 

 oil, soap, hosiery, damatik and other linens, woollens, silks, leather, 

 macMer, hides, and colonial produce. In 1843 the imports and 

 experts amounted in value to about 8,000,000/. sterling each. The 

 CiiHtoms duties of the port in the same year amounted to l,200,000i. 

 sterling. Since 1843 the trade has more than donbled. 



Tbe chief manufactures are soap, marocco and other leather, glass, 

 porcelain, hats, caps, starch, gunpowder, snuff, alum, sulphur, vitriol, 

 nitre and other chemicals, glue, wax-candles, straw-hats, and cutlery. 

 The refining of Sugar and salt; calico-printing; the distillation of 

 brandy, essences, and liquetirs ; cork-cutting ; and the preparation of 

 anchotisK, salt provisions, dried fruits, olives, and wine for exportation, 

 are carried on. Tlie city is, from its commercial character, the resort 

 of foreigners of all nations ; and the variety of costume, continual 

 bustle, and medl^-y of languages which this occasions are among the 

 most striking features of the place. 



Marseille abounds with hotels and has public baths and handsome 

 coffee-houses. The mistral, a keen, parching, and often tempestuous 

 wind, blights all verdure, and its blasts are interchanged vrith the 

 ■corchiog rays of an unclouded sun j awarms of gnats infert every 



comer night and day, and the scorpion is often found in the houses, 

 occasionally in the beds. 



Marseille has a customhouse, a stamp-office, an exchange, and a 

 board of trade ; tribunals of first instauoe and of trade, and a council 

 of Prud'hommes. Among its educatioual establishments, which are 

 numerous, are an academy of sciences and belles-lettres, an athenseum, 

 a medical society, a school of hydrography of the first-clas3, an en- 

 dowed college, a secondary school of medicine, a school of music, a 

 diocesan seminary, and a preparatory theological school. It has also 

 a botanical garden, a school for deaf-mutes, a public library of 50,000 

 volumes and above 1000 manuscripts, a picture gallery, collections of 

 coina and natural history, and an observatory. The observatory is a 

 large and lofty building, the top of which commands a fine view of 

 the town, the harbour, and the neighbouring country. The ground- 

 floor is occupied by the naval school, the school of geometry, and 

 the school of practical mechanics. Astronomy and navigation are 

 favourite studies at Marseille. 



The parish and other Catholio churches and chapels are 20 in 

 number. The Calvinists have a consistorial church and the Jews a 

 oonsistorial synagogue. There are several hospitals and other charitable 

 institutions. The most ancient church is that of La-Major, which has 

 however been so altered and repaired that it has generally the appear- 

 ance of a modem edifice. It contains an altar with a bas-relief of the 

 11th century. The church of the monastery named after St. Victor, 

 who suffered martyrdom here under Diocletian (July 20, 803), and 

 whose remains are here buried, is also an ancient structure, but 

 of no architectural pretensions. The church is the only part left 

 of the monastery. The Carthusian church outside of the town 

 is a fine ecclesiastical edifice, superior to any church in Marseille. 

 There is a new cathedral being built, which promises to be a splendid 

 structure. Beyond a few pieces of ancient sculpture, and the remains 

 of one or two ancient monasteries, Marseille is singularly deficient in 

 external evidence of its remote origin. The hotel occupied by the 

 prefect of the department in the new town is a handsome and elegant 

 edifice, by far the finest civic structure in Marseille. 



The diocese of Marseille comprehends the town and its arrondisse- 

 ment. The bishop is a suffragan of the Archbishop of Aix. The see 

 wa» founded in the third century. The town is the head-quarters of 

 the 9th Military Division, which includes the departments of Basses- 

 Alpes, Vauolose, Vor, and Bonches-du-Kh6nc. 



Coin of Marseille. 

 British Museum. Actual size. Silver. 



MARSHFIELD. [GLOtJCESTERsniRE.] 



MARSICO NUOVO. [Basilicata.] 



MARSTOy MORETAINE. [Bedfordshire.] 



MARSTRAND. [Swedbn.] 



MARTABAN. [TESASseRiM.] 



MARTEL. [Lot.] 



MARTIOUE.S, LES. [Bouciibs DuRHdNE.] 



MARTIN, ST., one of the Lesser Antilles, lies to the sonth of 

 Anguilla, from which island it is separated by a deep channel, about 

 4 miles wide in the narrowest part. St. Martin is about 12 miles long 

 and of a very irregular shape ; its area is about 90 square miles. It 

 contains a great number of rocky hills. The soil of the valleys and 

 plains is sandy, and not very productive ; there are no rivers or run- 

 ning streams on the i-sland. The little raiu which falls is collected 

 into cisterns. The produce consists of sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco, 

 and cattle. The island also contains some valuable salt-ponds. 



St. Martin was originally settled by Spaniards, but they abandoned 

 the island in the middle of the 17th ccnturj-. After this it was held 

 jointly by the French and the Dutch, the former taking the northern 

 and the latter the southern half, which contains the salt-ponds. 

 Marigot, the French town, stands in 18° 4' N. lat.. 63° 10' W. long. 

 Philiaburg, on the south-west side, in 18° 1' N. lat., 63° 7' W. long., 

 has a commodious harbour with from 8 to 1 fathoms water. The 

 population of the French part of the island is about 4000, of the 

 Dutch 950. 



MARTIN-DE-LONDRES, ST. [Herault.] 



MARTIN-DE-Rfi, ST. [CharbnteInferiecre.] 



MARTINIQUE, one of the French West India Islands, the most 

 northem of the Windward I«les, is 10 leagues S.S.E. from Dominica. 

 Its greatest length is 50 miles from north-west to south-east, and the 

 mean breadth is about 16 miles; in foi-m it is very irregular, and its 

 surface is very uneven, being generally occupied by conical shaped 

 hills. Three mountains of considerable height are visible on approach- 

 ing the island in any direction ; one of these, Mont Pelde, on the 

 north-west side, is an extinct volcano ; the summits of the three are 

 mostly covered with clouds. The island contains a gi'eat number of 

 streams, and the coast, being indented by numerous bays and inlets, 

 affords many good harbours. There are two towns, St.-Pierre and 



