LOIRE, a department of the south-east of France, formed out of the whole district of Forez, a part of the Lyonnais, and a few portions added from the neighbouring departments. It extends in north latitude from 45. 10. to 46. 12. and in east longitude from 3. 39. to 4. 46. It contains 2032 square miles, or 496,000 hectares. It is bounded on the north by the departments of Allier and Saône-Loire, on the east by those of the Rhone and of the Isère, on the south by Ardèche and the Upper Loire, and on the west by Puy de Dome and Allier. It comprehends three arrondissements and twenty-eight cantons, which are subdivided into 327 communes, and contain a population of 318,500 persons. The face of the country is generally hilly, and towards the south-east is mountainous, where Mount Pilat attains the height of 3000 feet. With this is connected a chain, of lower elevation, called the Pérouse Range, which, from the vast quantity of basalt, is supposed to be extinguished volcanoes. The greatest plain is the basin of the Loire, which is about fifteen miles in extent. The highest mountains are stony, and many of them incapable of cultivation. The sides of the hills, and even the tops of those of lower elevation, are covered with vineyards; and the
basin of the Loire, and the other plains in the valleys, are fertile, and yield abundant crops of corn, and much hemp. The chief river is the Loire, which is navigable from Roane, receives the waters of the Semene, the Bonson, the Furand, the Lignon, the Rahins or Rhine, and the Tessonne, as well as that of many smaller streams that issue from the hills. In the middle of the department, especially in the arrondissement of Montbrison, are a multitude of lakes, which abound in fish, the water of which is let off every two or three years, and the ground is sowed with wheat, and thus alternately the land produces fish and corn. The whole growth of corn does not equal the consumption; but the deficiency is supplied from the neighbouring departments, which take hemp in exchange for it. The chief products of the soil are, wine, fruit, honey and wax, chestnuts, wood for building and fuel, and the flesh of sheep, cows, and goats, with cheese made from the two latter classes of animals. The agriculture is but indifferently conducted. Many of even the valleys grow only rye, and the produce of some scarcely equals the expense of raising it. There are numerous coal-mines worked, which yield annually 300,000 tons of that substance. Mines of lead and of iron are also worked, but scarcely yield more of those metals than is consumed within the department. The quarries of granite, marble, porphyry, and flint, are sources of employment and wealth. The chief manufacturing industry is occupied in making ironmongery and cutlery goods; and, besides these trades, many silk goods, chiefly ribbons, are prepared, and cloth of cotton, of wool, and of hemp, with brandy, paper, glass, and leather. The department elects two deputies to the legislative chamber. The capital is Montbrison.