Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/300

202 the terrible impetuosity of the Rhône, which comes down like a bull escaped from the Alps, traverses a lake fifty miles long, and rushes to the sea, biting at its shores as it goes."

Having thus reviewed some of the characteristics of the chief regions of France, let us consider the distribution of the population, and the location and character of the chief industries, agricultural, manufacturing and commercial, which are carried on by the French people. The population of France amounts to thirty-eight and one-half million souls. The rate of increase has been, for a number of years, less than that of surrounding nations. Because of this fact it may be observed that foreign nationalities are encroaching upon French territory from various sides. The Spaniards are flowing in around the eastern and western ends of the Pyrenees. The Italians invade Provence, and the Belgians and Germans the northeastern portion of the country, while there are large colonies of foreigners in Paris itself. Within the last forty years the internal movements of the population show that the valleys have gained at the expense of the mountains. The north has increased more rapidly than the south. The coal regions have amassed dense populations. The city portion of the population has risen from 24.42 per cent, in 1846 to 35.95 per cent, in 1886. Aggregate figures show that in that time the city population has been increased by five millions, while the country population has decreased two millions. The occupational statistics still show, however, that France is to be classed as preeminently an agricultural nation. Agriculture and industry are, however, not increasing as rapidly as commerce.

The peasantry of France are the foundation strata of the industrial pyramid upon which the superstructure of manufactures and commerce rests. They are a frugal and industrious class. Holdings of land are small in the fertile valleys, larger in the pasture country and communal in the mountains, where the land remains in a state of nature and where the shepherd must needs range widely with his flocks. The higher portions of the Pyrenees, Alps and Central Highlands are the sheep walks of France. Between these and the valleys stretches the belt of heavy pastures devoted to cattle-raising. As in England one hears of Scotch and Welsh cattle, so in France one hears of the cattle of Auvergne and Brittany. The stock are grown to full size in the pastures, and are then (such at least as are designed for Paris) shipped to the fertile plains around Paris, to be stall-fed and fattened. In like manner, the cattle sent to London from the north of England are 'finished,' to use the trade phrase, in a semicircle of country to the north of that city. The dairy industry must be sharply distinguished from cattle-raising. The economic problems presented by the two are quite different. In France