in its relation to Agriculture. 
423 
in the c;]iomical properties of water will be shown to exert an 
influence on agriculture capable of further extension. 
France lends herself easily to such a distribution. She is 
bounded on the north-east by the Northern Ocean, on the north- 
west by the English (vhanncl, on the west by the Atlantic, and 
on the south by the Mediterranean; and hence four great hydro- 
graphical divisions may be formed. 
As the same chain of hills for many leagues often forms the 
common barrier between two adjacent basins, to avoid repetition 
and ensure perspicuity, it is desirable to give a combined view 
of the general outline of all these divisions. 
Of the north-eastern basin but a small portion falls within 
French territory ; the barrier which separates it from the north- 
western division begins at Cape Grisnez, opposite Dover, and runs 
along eastward, near the frontier of Belgium, till it has reached 
the eastern side of Champagne, where it turns towards the south 
and forms the eastern boundary of that province ; but before it has 
reached its southern limit the chain divides and forms a lori^', 
from which the head-waters of the Mediterranean basin issue forth. 
The eastern prong, forming the watershed between the latter Ijasin 
and the north-eastern, bends to the east, until it has joined the 
mountains of Alsace, and then running to the south, forms the 
long and magnificent range of the Jura, which culminates over 
the town of Gex, not far from Geneva. 
The north-western basin is bounded on the north by the 
mountain-range which stretches from Cape Grisnez to the fork 
already described, from whence, passing the lofty plateau of 
Langres, this western prong is continued southwards beyond 
Dijon, when the barrier turns suddenly to the west by Chateau 
Chinon, and thence returns in a continuous north-westerly direc- 
tion through several provinces of Central France, north of Orleans, 
to Alen(^on, and so through the west of Normandy, rejoining the 
Channel near Cherbourg. 
The western or oceanic division comprehends two noble rivers : 
the Loire and the Garonne, and Avill best be subdivided into 
the northern, or basin of the Loire, and the southern, or that of 
the Garonne. 
The basin of the Loire, which, in the extreme west, has for 
its northern barrier the granitic mountains of Brittany, is conter- 
minous with the north-western division from Alengon to Chateau 
Chinon and the hills of Burgundy, whence a high range, running 
down to the south beyond Lyons and Valence, divides it from 
the valley of the Rhone ; and here the watershed makes a circuit 
to the west amongst the interesting volcanic mountains of 
Auvergne, from whence a lower range of hills, traversing the 
provinces of Limousin and Poitou, returns in a north-westerly 
