an arrondissement of the department of the Loire, in France, which extends over 628 square miles. It comprehends ten cantons, divided into 108 communes, with 124,871 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name on the left bank of the Loire, which is so far navigable. It is a well-built city, with broad streets, good houses, and fine quays on the bank of the stream, and contains 9910 inhabitants, who are employed in making linen, cotton, and woollen goods, buttons, gilt ware, and jewellery. It is a place of great transit commerce, from being the chief depot between Paris and Lyons, where the goods produced in the southern provinces can be transmitted to the capital by means of rivers and canals.