28 FOREST REGIONS AND IMPORTANT SPECIES 



has played a great part in the promotion of industry. With the exception 

 of Loire, Bouches-du-Rhone, and Rhone, the chief industrial depart- 

 ments of France are to be found in the north and northeast of the country. 

 The department of the Seine, comprising Paris and its suburbs, which has 

 the largest manufacturing population, is largely occupied with the manu- 

 facture of dress, milUnery, and articles of luxury (perfumery, etc.), but it 

 plays the leading part in almost every great branch of industry with the 

 exception of spinning and weaving. The typically industrial region of 

 France is the department of the Nord, the seat of the woolen industry, 

 but also prominently concerned in other textile industries, in metal work, 

 and in a variety of other manufactures, fuel for which is supplied by its 

 coal fields. 



Water Power. — France is relatively poor in coal, and even in ordinary 

 times must import a large amount for use by its factories. Since Ger- 

 many's destruction of the colUeries of the north, which have suppUed 

 about three-fourths of all the coal mined in France, the situation is made 

 difficult even with the Sarre basin. Fortunately for France, she is rich 

 in hydraulic power. The water power is estimated at nine to ten million 

 horse power. Of the European countries only Norway and Sweden 

 possess a larger amount of available hydrauUc power. Still more for- 

 tunate for France, most of her water power is to be found in the South, 

 free from war damage, particularly in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the C^ven- 

 nes, and the Jura, although some water power is available in the Vosges 

 and the Central Plateau. During the war the water power development 

 in France has received a tremendous stimulus. Many new factories have 

 been built in which the motive power is electricity, generated by hydraulic 

 force, for the manufacture of machinery, munitions, and other supplies 

 necessary for the army. The manufacture of products necessary for 

 mihtary purposes has not only absorbed all the power which at first was 

 left unutilized because of the discontinuance of a number of factories en- 

 gaged in the production of ordinary commodities, but it was soon found 

 necessary to increase the available water power. Thus several of the 

 Pyrenees water power companies have raised the dam of a lake which 

 served as a reservoir by seven feet and thus increased its reserve in water by 

 1,300,000 cubic meters, and obtained a proportional increase in the avail- 

 able water power. Several water power establishments in the Alps and in 

 the Pyrenees have entirely changed their equipment and adapted their 

 factories for the manufacture of products needed by the Government. 

 The Government has rushed the completion of a number of factories in 

 the course of construction and has taken over in the Central Plateau 

 several waterfalls for the development of water power. During the war 

 the Government increased the available hydrauUc power by at least 

 60,000 horse power. The Government not only sought to develop water 



