Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/210

 GALLU TRAK& the Rhine, throngh Pom, neariy doe vest to Beedu Raz in Bretagn/e^ is about 694 miles long. A line from iiM eastern extremity of the Pyrenees to Parti is 445 miles ; and a line from Paris to Arnkenn on the Riiine is abont S70 miles long. It compre- hends all France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, those parts of the German states which lie west of the Rhine, the greater part of Switzerhind, and the country south of the Leman lake which belongs to the kingdom of Sardinia. The area of France within its present limits is estimated at about 200,000 square miles. Gallia has the best position of any country in Europe. It has a large coast on the Mediterranean and a larger on the Atlantic, which give it a com- munication with all the world. These seas are well stocked with fisli. Except the mountains that form its boundaries, and a lew ranges that cover only a comparatiTely small part of its surface, it is a plain country with a very large proportion of fertile soil. It produces com in abundance, wine of the best quality, and, in the southern part of the valley of the Rhone, the olive. Some parts have good pas- turo, and it is well adapted for the growth of timber. Though the winters are cold in the north, the summer is warm, and fruits generally ripen well. It is not so rich in minerals as Britain, but it contains coal, and iron in abundance ; also lead, copper, and a great variety of valuable stone. It is rich in mineral springs, and it has brine springs and rock salt. This wealtli wi^s not neglected even in the period before the Roman ccmquest ; but under Roman dominion it was still more productive. The Galli of Caesar^s time were an ingenious people: they liad made some progress in the working of metals and other useful arts, and they were a]^ learners. Of all Uie nations of Western Europe none has had more influence on civilisatimi than the Galli, both before and during the Roman dominion, except the Romans themselves ; and since the establishment of the Franks in Gallia, the country between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, though now containing several states and parts of states, has still a unity both natural and social which makes it the most im- portant part of the whole world. The ancient geographers had a better notion of their work than some of the modems. Strabo says (p. 177), in his book on Gallia: " It is the office of the geographer to describe natural divisions, and na- tional, and also all that is worthy of mention ; but whatever mlers variously dispose in their political arrangements according to circumstances, it is enough if a man mention it in a summary way. As to the particulara, he must leave that to others." The Roman geographers (Pliny, Mela), as well as Strabo, had a right conception of the great natural divisions of Galluk. Pliny and MeUi describe Gallia Narbo- nensis apart from the rest of Gallia, and they place their description of it between the descriptions of Spain and Italy, not only because Narbonensis was then completely Romanised, but for better reasons. " Narbonensis," says Pliny (iii. 4), " is divided firom the rest of Gallia on the north side by the mountains Gehenna and Jura, a country in its culti- vation, popuUition, and civility of mannera, and in its wealth, inferior to no provincia, and in brief Italia rather than a provincia." The range of the Ci' vennety as these geographers rightly saw, separates Gallia on the Mediterranean from the Gallia that is bordered by the ocean. [Gbvenna.] Strabo made a mistake about the position of the C^veimes ; for GALLU TRANS. 051 as he supposed it to be at right angles to the Pyre- noes, he must also have supposed that it ran from west to east. The basin of the Rhone below Lgon^ bounded on the west by the CevetmeSy and on the east by the Alps, is a country by itself, and in all respects more like Italy than the rest of Gallia. Pliny may have supposed or he may not have sup- posed that the Jura was a continuation of the Ct- vennety which it is nut; but the Jura also forms a natural division between Gallia to the east and the west, as Caesar saw. The Jura, as Caesar supposed {B, G, i. 2), extends from the north bank of the Rhone tXFort VEdute about 20 miles below Geneva to the Rhine; for he estimates the width of the coun- try of the Helvetii at 180 l P., and this is about the length of the Jura from the Rhone to the junc- tion of the Rhine and Aar. The Jura is a natural boundary between France and Switzerland. Caesar makes the length of the country of the Helvetii 240 M. P., which may be measured from Fori PEcluse along the Rhone, the Leman lake, and the northern base of the snow-covered Bernese Alps to the source of the JReuss, and thence along the Vor- derrhem to Chwy the Roman Curia, whor the Rhone begins to be navigable with rafts. But the longest straight that can be drawn in Switzerland eastward from Fori VEcUue is to Bregem on the Lake of ContianZy and this line agrees very well with Cae- sar*s length. Neither the Valais or Wallis, down which the Rhone flows, as already observed, nor any part of the highest Alpine country, is inchided in Caesar's Helvetia, though a large part of it is a mountainous country. He says, therefoie, qnite cor- rectly, " Undique loci natura Helvetii continentur," — on the west by the Jura, on the south by the Rhone, the Leman lake, and the mountains, on the east and the north by the Rhine. The basin of the Upper Rhone is a distinct country from the basin of the Lower Rhone, and from the rest of Switzerland : it is shut in between the Bernese and Peiuiine Alps as far as a point somewhat lower down than the bend at Martigny. The valley widois before it reaches the Ijoka of Genevay which is a deep cavity in the valley of the Rhone filled wiih water. The level of this huge lake, the lowest part of the valley of the Upper Rhone, is more tluui 1000 feet above the Mediterranean. The high lands on the west side of the Rhone basin extend northward under various modem names, from the utmost limit that we can assign to the Cevetmes [Crbenna], but with di- miniithed elevation. They extend to the heights of Langre$y the country of the Gallic Lingones, and form the west limit of the basin of the Arar (Saone) which joins the Rhone at Lyon, The heights of Langreg ran eastward, and are connected with the Vosegus of Caesar (A G, iv. 10), the Vogges, This Vosegiis, wluch Caesar saw, runs northward from the valley of the Aldiiasdubis (J>oub9)y a branch of the SaoMy and parallel to the Rhine as far as Bin- gium {Bingen) oxk the Rhine. Between the Vo»ge9 and the Rhine is a long, narrow, and fertile plidn, one of the finest parts of Gallia, which the Germans from the other side of the river looked on with a longmg eye. The high lands about Zou^tm and the neighbouring Vo»ge9 contain the sources of the Moidy the Maa$y the Seiney and the SaSne ; and from this elevated, but not mountainous comitiy, a tract of moderate height mns NW.. forming the northern boundary of the basins of the Seine and the Sommey and terminates in the chalk cliffs {Cap Grie Nez) which project into the English Channel between 3p 4