SABLE

SABLE, in Heraldry, signifies black, and is borrowed from the French, as are most terms in this science. In engraving it is expressed by both horizontal and perpendicular lines crossing each other. Sable of itself signifies constancy, learning, and grief; and ancient heralds will have it, that when it is compounded with

SABLES D'OLONNE, Les, an arrondissement of the department of Vendée, in France. It extends over seven hundred and thirty-two and a half square miles, and comprehends eleven cantons, divided into seventy-nine communes, with 99,508 inhabitants in 1836. The capital is the city of the same name, situated at the termination of a sandy plain on the sea-shore, and only connected by a strip of land with the continent. It has a small harbour fit for vessels of not more than a hundred and fifty tons. It consists of four long parallel streets, with 4778 inhabitants, who carry on the fisheries, and deal in corn, cattle, and salt, which last is made by the sun on the marshes. Long. 1. 53. 3. W. Lat. 46. 29. 50. N.