ill its rclatioi to Agriculture. 
425 
The Scheldt, like its two allluents, the Scarpo and the Ljs, 
arises from the great chalk range which terminates at Cape 
Cxrisnez, and runs in a south-eastern direction into the basin of 
tlie Mcuse, to which it might be easily joined. The highly 
prosperous and advanced state of agriculture in the provinces, 
such as Lorraine, Alsace, Flanders, which these rivers traverse, 
gives to this French division, small though it be, a characteristic 
importance which more than compensates for its comparative 
geographical insignificance. 
Of the mn-th-western basin the chief river is the Seine, Most 
travellers by the Paris and Lyons Railway may remember the 
steep incline which begins at Montbard and culminates at the 
station of Blaisy Bas. The bleak crags and mountain-tops which 
crown this wild valley form part of the boundary-line between 
the north-western basin and that of the Mediterranean, In that 
neighbourhood the beautiful Seine gushes forth from a cleft in 
the hills, whilst many other of its tributary streams spring from 
various points of the immense amphitheatre of Jurassic moun- 
tains, which forms as it were the eastern apse of this elongated 
enclosure. From its source, near Dijon, to its mouth at Havre, 
the Seine runs a course of no less than 600 miles through this im- 
mense parallelogram ; its principal tributaries are the Oise, the 
Aube, the Yonne, the Marne, and the Eure. The area drained by 
the Seine'^may be computed at nearly twenty million acres. The 
mean annual rainfall upon that area has been calculated at 22,933 
millions of cubic metres, or 3,045,260 million gallons. Some efforts 
have been made to gauge the quantity of water flowing through the 
channel of the Seine at vaiious parts, in order to calculate what 
proportion it bore to the amount of the annual average rainfall. 
The following figures have been accurately ascertained by the in- 
teresting experiments of M. Dausse : — When the stream is at its 
lowest point the quantity of water passing beneath the bridge 
of La Concorde, at Paris, is 75 cubic metres, or 16,500 gallons, per 
second ; when the stream is not unusually low it is 111 cubic metres ; 
or 24,420 gallons ; at its mean height it is 246 cubic metres, or 
54,120 gallons; and in times of great influx, when the river is 
on the verge of overflowing its banks, the amount rises to 1141 
cubic metres, or 251,020 gallons. In the year 1615, 1400 cubic 
metres, or 308,000 gallons were registered. From the most trust- 
worthy calculations it may be inferred that only one-fourth of the 
rain falling upon the area of the Seine basin finds its way to the 
sea through that channel, the other three-fourths being otherwise 
absorbed. These records apply to an area essentially undrained. 
It would be interesting to be in a position to compare them with 
similar experiments made upon streams which receive the waters 
of a well-drained district. 
