Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/652

Rh S E I S E I the Seine and the Channel, but deep valleys have been hollowed out by the streams. The Bray district in the south-east is a broad valley of denudation formed by the sea as it retired, and it is traversed by smaller valleys and covered with excellent pasture. In the comparatively regular outline of the coast there are a few breaks, as at Treport, Dieppe, St Valery-en-Caux, Fecamp, and Havre, the Cap de la Heve, which commands this last port, and Cape Antifer, 12 or 13 miles farther north. Treport, Dieppe, Veules, St Valery, Fecamp, Yport, Etretat, and Ste Adresse (to mention only the more important) are fashion- able watering-places with the Parisians. The winters are not quite so cold nor is the summer so hot as in Paris, and the average temperature of the year is higher. The rain- fall is 24 inches per annum, increasing from Rouen to Dieppe as the sea is approached. With a total area of 1,491,458 acres, Seine Inferieure has 911,938 acres of arable ground, 151,125 of wood, 99,703 grass, 32,977 moorland and pasturage. Out of a total population of 814,068 in 1881 those dependent on agriculture numbered 233,536. The live stock in the same year comprised 81,561 horses of good breeds, 1421 asses, 125 mules, 236,493 cattle, 259,677 sheep of ordinary kinds and 27,523 of special breeds (wool-clip, 660 tons), 78,186 pigs, 3341 goats, 13,202 beehives (54 tons of honey and 13 of wax). Milch cows are kept in great numbers, and Gournay butter and Gournay and Neufchatel cheese are in repute. The farms of the Caux plateau are each surrounded by an earthen dyke, on which are planted forest trees, generally beech and oak. Within the shelter thus provided apple and pear trees grow, which produce the cider generally drunk by the inhabitants (38,602,036 gallons in 1883). The other crops in 1883 were wheat, 6,667,650 bushels ; meslin, 59,950; rye, 654,489; barley, 443,751; oats, 7,017,609; jwtatoes, 2,954,457 ; pulse, 98,736 ; beetroot for sugar 28,837 tons, and for fodder 118,099 ; colza seed, 29,076 tons ; and 457,047 tons of ordinary fodder. In general the department is fertile and well cultivated. Along the Seine fine meadow-land has been reclaimed by dyking ; and sandy and barren districts have been planted with trees, mostly with oaks and beeches, and they often attain magnifi- cent dimensions, especially in the forest of Arques and along the railway from Rouen to Dieppe ; Pinus sylvestris is the principal com- ponent of the forest of Rouvray opposite Rouen. With the exception of a little peat and a number of quarries, employing 745 workmen, Seine Inferieure has no mineral source of wealth ; but manufactur- ing industry is well developed. Rouen is the chief centre of the cotton-trade, which is in the department represented by 190 spinning and weaving factories, employing 22, 947 hands, 1,400,000 spindles, 14,000 power-looms, and 4000 hand-looms, and working up 30,000 tons of cotton annually. Hand -loom weaving, carried on throughout the country districts, employs 18,000 looms ; in the branch of the cotton trade known as rouennerie 190 manufacturers are employed, producing to the value of 2,400,000 per annum; in that of the indiennes 20 establishments with 5000 workpeople turn out yearly 1,000,000 pieces of 115 yards each. There are 22 establish- ments for dyeing cotton cloth with 700 workmen, and for dyeing cotton yarn 32 establishments with 1200 workmen. The woollen manufacture, of which Elbeuf is the centre, employs 24,000 work- men and produces goods valued at about 3,500,000, with raw material valued at 1,720,000, mainly imported from Australia and partly from the La Plata ports. The wool-spinning mills (at Elbeuf and Darnetal) have 92,000 spindles, and there are 650 power-looms and 3800 hand-looms. At Elbeuf (22,883 inhabitants in 1881) there are 17 dyeworks, 50 twist factories, a manufactory of carding machines, and 45 cloth-dressing factories. About 18,000 spindles are employed in flax-spinning, an industry more widely distributed throughout the department. Engineering works, foundries, and iron shipbuilding yards occur at Havre (population 105,540 in 1881) and Rouen (105,860). Wooden ships are also built at Havre, Rouen, Dieppe (21,585), and Fecamp (11,919). Other establishments of importance are the national tobacco-factories at Dieppe (1 100 hands) and Havre (580 hands), sugar-refineries (1,440,000 worth of sugar in 1881), glass-works (873 workmen), soap-works, chemical works, candle-factories, flour-mills, oil-factories, ivory-works, lace-works, clock -factories, &c. The total number of industrial establishments in the department is 975 ; and it is estimated that 305,460 persons depend on industrial pursuits. The fisheries are a great resource for the inhabitants of the seaboard. Fecamp sends yearly 100,000 worth of cod and 80,000 worth of herrings, mackerel, &c., into the market ; Dieppe has the supplying of Paris with fresh fish ; St Valery sends its boats as far as Iceland. The principal ports for foreign trade are Havre, Rouen, and Dieppe. There are 364 miles of railway, 370 of national roads, 6543 of other roads, 98 of Seine navigation, and the Bresle is canalized for 2 miles. In population Seine Inferieure stands fourth in the list of French departments ; it has consequently been proposed to divide it into the two depart- ments of Seine Inferieure and Seine Maritime. The density of population is double the average of France. There are 5 arrondisse- ments, 51 cantons (of which 3 are in Havre and 6 in Rouen), and 759 communes. The department forms the archbishopric of Rouen ; the court of appeal and the headquarters of the corps cTarmte are also in that city. Places of importance are Elbeuf ; Fecamp, a fishing port, with sea-bathing, distilling, &c. ; Bolbec (10,226 inhabitants), with weaving and spinning factories ; and Eu (4827 inhabitants), with a celebrated castle belonging to Louis Philippe and the Orleans family. SEISIN. " Seisin of the freehold may be defined to be the possession of such an estate in land as was anciently thought worthy to be held by a free man " (Williams, On Seisin, p. 2). Seisin is now confined to possession of the freehold, though at one time it appears to have been used for simple possession without regard to the estate of the possessor. (See POSSESSION.) Its importance is consider- ably less than it was at one time owing to the old form of conveyance by feoffment with livery of seisin having been superseded by a deed of grant (see REAL ESTATE), and the old rule of descent from the person last seised having been abolished in favour of descent from the purchaser. (See INHERITAN/TE.) At one time the right of the wife to dower and of the husband to an estate by curtesy depended upon the doctrine of seisin. The Dower Act, 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 105, has, however, rendered the fact .of the seisin of the husband of no importance, and the Married Women's Property Act, 1882, appears to have practically abolished the old law of curtesy. In the case of a convey- ance operating under the Statute of Uses, seisin is deemed to be given by the effect of the statute. This constructive seisin may still be of importance where the question arises how long a person has been in actual possession. Thus in Orme's Case (Law Rep., 8 Common Pleas, 281) the right to a county vote depended upon the form of the convey- ance of a rent-charge to the voter. If the conveyance had been under the statute, the claimant would have been seised for a sufficient time ; the court, however, held that the conveyance was a common law grant, and that the grantee must have been in actual receipt of the rent in order to entitle him to be registered. Primer seisin was a feudal burden at one time incident to the king's tenants in capite, whether by knight service or in socage. It was the right of the crown to receive of the heir, after the death of a tenant in capite, one year's profits of lands in possession and half a year's profits of lands in reversion. The right was abandoned by the Act abolishing feudal tenures (12 Car. II. c. 24). In Scotch law the corresponding term is " sasine. " Like seisin in England, sasine has become of little legal importance owing to recent legislation. By 8 and 9 Viet. c. 35 actual sasine on the lands was made unnecessary. By 21 and 22 Viet. c. 76 the instru- ment of sasine was superseded by the recording of the conveyance with a warrant of registration thereon. For the register of sasines, see REGISTRATION. SEISMOMETER. This name was originally given to instruments designed to measure the movement of the ground during earthquakes. Recent observations have shown that, in addition to the comparatively great and sudden displacements which occur in earthquakes, the ground is subject to other movements. Some of these, which may be called " earth- tremors," resemble earthquakes in the rapidity with which they occur, but differ from earthquakes in being imperceptible (owing to the small- ness of the motion) until instrumental means are used to detect them. Others, which may be called " earth-tilt- ings," show themselves by a slow bending and unbending of the surface, so that a post stuck in the ground, ver- tical to begin with, does not remain vertical, but inclines now to one side and now to another, the plane of the ground in which it stands shifting relatively to the horizon. No sharp distinction can be drawn between these classes