VIENTE, UPPER, a department in the north-west of France, formed out of the Upper Limousin, and the districts of La Marche and Poitou. It is situated in north latitude between 45° 26', and 46° 24', and in east longitude between 0° 33', and 1° 41'. It is bounded on the north by the departments of Vienne and of Indre, on the east by that of the Creuse, on the south by the Correze and the Ardèche, and on the west by the Charente. It is 2165 square miles in extent, is divided into four arrondissements, and those into twenty-seven cantons, containing 198 communes or parishes. It contained in 1836 a population of 33,011, all of whom adhere to the Catholic church. They are represented as indolent and uninstructed, but kind and amiable, as penurious, and yet hospitable. The institutions for instruction are few and very ill conducted. The face of the country consists of mountains, hills, deep chasms, and narrow valleys, but presents no extensive plain. The mountains are of granite. The highest of them are in the south part of the frontiers of the department of the Creuse and the Correze, and decline gradually in height towards the departments of the Charente and the Vienne. The greatest height of any of them does not exceed 3000 feet. The rivers, which amount to thirty-eight in number, are rapid, and in their course have worn themselves deep beds in the granite or schistose hills. The principal are the Vienne, 240 feet wide at Limoges, the Gartempe, the Ardèche, the Vézère, the Gironde, and the Issoire, none of which are navigable. There are some lakes, but none of great extent. The climate is damp, cold, and highly variable. The frost begins early, and ends late. The mean heat of the year at Limoges is from eight to nine of Reaumur greater than in Paris, though it is three degrees south of that city. The appropriation of the soil is, according to the "Statistique de la France," 554,266 hectares, which is divided nearly in the following order:—Ploughed land, 248,599 hectares; water meadows, 93,960; upland pasture, 47,516; 9870 commons, 2969 vineyards, 33,563 chesnut wood, 39,580 forests, 4300 gardens, 14,480 sites, houses and roads, 2969 courses of rivers, dikes, and lakes, and 64,173 uncultivated heaths. Little alteration has taken place in agriculture during the last two hundred years, except by the introduction of potatoes. As the natives speak a patois something like the Provençal, they have no means of becoming acquainted with the improvements made in the other parts of France; and almost the whole is cultivated on the Metayer system. Frequent falls are necessary, and with them very little wheat is sown; about the same quantity of buck wheat, and about eight times as much rye. The oats, barley, and maize do not together yield half as much grain as the wheat alone. The most beneficial husbandry is the breeding of cattle: these are sold for the markets in the large cities near it, and some even in Paris. The annual sale to other depart-
ments is about 10,000, and 15,000 oxen and cows. In the department, there are about 600,000 sheep of small size, and with coarse wool, but they are much annoyed by the wolves. One important product is the chesnut, of which more than a million quintals are annually harvested. They are used as a substitute for bread by the inhabitants, but some are sent to other districts. The forests have been much neglected, and now yield little timber for building, and but a scanty supply for fuel.
There are mines of antimony, tin, and iron, but the product of them is inconsiderable. There are some valuable clays adapted for making porcelain. The manufactures are mostly of the domestic kind, such as that of spinning flax, and weaving it into linen. Some woollen and cotton goods are made in the city of Limoges, the capital of the department.