THE ANCIENT PROVINCE OF THE PEECHE 19 



soils are met with occasionally. In color they vary 

 from black to a ruddy chocolate. 



Near Belleme a limestone suitable for building 

 purposes is found. Free-stone or sandstone is quar- 

 ried at various places in The Perche. A consider- 

 able quantity of marl is also available, and it has 

 been a custom for hundreds of years for the farmers 

 to spread this over their fields. Formerly there 

 were many iron mines, chiefly at Logny, but they 

 are now exhausted. The sandstone quarries of Beg- 

 malard and Logny are still worked, this stone being 

 used for building purposes. Lime-kilns are operated 

 in some districts. 



Water Courses. — The Perche is especially well 

 watered. It is rare that one encounters so many 

 flowing streams in such a small country. This fact 

 contributes in a great measure to the excellence of 

 its pastures. There are six rivers: The Huisne, 

 which rises to the north of Belleme, and flows into 

 the Sarthe, near the town of Le Mans, is about 77 

 miles long; the Sarthe empties itself into the Loire, 

 after a course of 165 miles; the Eure is 82 miles 

 long, the Avre 41 miles, the Iton about 60 miles, and 

 the Loire about 123 miles. Not all the mileage of 

 these rivers is in The Perche. There are no less than 

 twenty-seven small tributaries or rivers of the second 

 class. Many of these streams would be designated 

 merely as creeks in the United States. It is the 

 Huisne, in its meandering semi-circular route around 

 Belleme, Pervencheres, Corbon, Nogent-le-Rotrou 

 and La Ferte Bernard, which serves as the chief col- 



