TERRA-COTTA ROOFING-TILES. 53 



The new arsenal at Berne had a tiled roof resting on 

 battens, each tile so loose that it could be easily pushed up 

 from within. There was no sheathing beneath, and here 

 and there glints of light could be seen. Indeed, it was 

 blowing a gale and snowing at the time I was there, and 

 a little snow had blown in. That the roof was water- 

 proof was implied by the fact that a new building filled 

 with polished weapons had only this kind of a roof-cover- 

 ing for protection. From the behavior of certain tiled roofs 

 in our country, we have certainly not yet learned the secret 

 of a good tile. 



FRANCE. 



My information concerning French roofing-tiles is very 

 meagre, being chiefly based on hasty notes made in Paris 

 and vicinity, and observations from the main railways 

 from Paris to Brussels and Calais respectively, supple- 

 mented by the examination of a few photographs. 



The flat tile appears to be the dominant form through- 

 out central and northern France, while the normal tile 

 (imb.) is common farther south, and especially along the 

 Mediterranean. The flat tile is usually square at its lower 

 end and smaller than the German or Swiss form. At the 

 Paris Exposition many forms of roofing-tiles were exhib- 

 ited from French tileries, among which were large num- 

 bers of flat tiles. 



The introduction of roofing-tiles among the peasantry 

 must have been comparatively recent. Leslie (Essays on 

 Moral and Political Philosophy), writing of Puy-de- 

 Dome, a central department of France, says : "I saw many 

 instances of a change which is the precursor of an elevation 

 of the standard of habitation, namely, the substitution of 

 tile for thatch roof." In Spenser's Sociological Tables a 

 number of references are conveniently accessible concern- 



