130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



traversed by those wonderful public roads to be found every- 

 where in France, as substantially built, as smooth and as well 

 kept, although not as wide, as the grand boulevard and river- 

 side drive in Ncav York Cit} r . These magnificent highways 

 wind around among the mountains, sometimes pass through 

 them by tunnels, and are carved from the sides of precipi- 

 tous cliffs, so as to maintain easy grades, and often span 

 deep chasms or cross valleys from mountain to mountain, 

 upon causeways of solid masonry, with long series of lofty 

 arches. This grand public work, as complete when passing 

 a hamlet as when approaching a city like Orleans, commands 

 the admiration of the stranger for the engineering skill dis- 



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played, the evident durability of construction, the perfection 

 of finish and maintenance, and the beauty of the numerous 

 bridges and arcades. 



Aveyron may also be approached from the south by the 

 Midland Railway, which, from the quaint old city of Cette, 

 on the Mediterranean shore, traverses miles of rocky coun- 

 try filled with vast vineyards, — the town of Xarbonne 

 being a great wine-producing centre, — and then climbs and 

 winds through the hills and into a coal and mining district 

 until it enters the desolate country already mentioned. De- 

 scending from the carriage of the iron road, as the French- 

 man says, at the station of Tournemire, a hamlet only, upon 

 the little stream called Soulzon, in a deep valley, one sees 

 clinging to the face of lofty limestone cliffs what looks at 

 a distance much like an ancient cliff town in a canon of 

 Arizona. This is the village of Roquefort, appropriately so 

 called, and which has made its name known throughout 

 the civilized world by the unique variety of cheese, which 

 now, as for many generations, if not centuries, has consti- 

 tuted the sole industry of this little town, and the only 

 raison-d'etre in that peculiar location. 



Following a good highway winding up the face of the 

 mountain from the valley the climb of 2,000 feet is easily 

 made, a pair of horses carrying a strong vehicle and six 

 men at a trot much of the way. Then a snug little town 

 is found, solidly built of stone, upon terraces. It has a 

 fixed population of about 700, temporarily increased to 



