several peaks over 10,000 ft. within French territory; the highest
elevation therein, the Vignemale, in the centre of the range, reaches
10,820 ft. On the north their most noteworthy offshoots are, in the
centre, the plateau of Lannemezan from which rivers radiate fanwise
to join the Adour and Garonne; and in the east the Corbière.
On the south-eastern frontier the French Alps, which include Mont
Blanc (15,800 ft.), and, more to the south, other summits over
11,000 ft. in height, cover Savoy and most of Dauphiné and Provence,
that is to say, nearly the whole of France to the south and east of the
Rhône. North of that river the parallel chains of the Jura form an
arc of a circle with its convexity towards the north-west. In the
southern and most elevated portion of the range there are several
summits exceeding 5500 ft. Separated from the Jura by the defile
of Belfort (Trouée de Belfort) the Vosges extend northward parallel
to the course of the Rhine. Their culminating points in French
territory, the Ballon d’Alsace and the Höhneck in the southern
portion of the chain, reach 4100 ft. and 4480 ft. The Vosges are
buttressed on the west by the Faucilles, which curve southwards
to meet the plateau of Langres, and by the plateaus of Haute-Marne,
united to the Ardennes on the north-eastern frontier by the
wooded highlands of Argonne.
Seaboard.—The shore of the Mediterranean encircling the Gulf of the Lion (Golfe du Lion)[1] from Cape Cerbera to Martigues is low-lying and unbroken, and characterized chiefly by lagoons separated from the sea by sand-dunes. The coast, constantly encroaching on the sea by reason of the alluvium washed down by the rivers of the Pyrenees and Cévennes, is without important harbours saving that of Cette, itself continually invaded by the sand. East of Martigues the coast is rocky and of greater altitude, and is broken by projecting capes (Couronne, Croisette, Sicié, the peninsula of Giens and Cape Antibes), and by deep gulfs forming secure roadsteads such as those of Marseilles, which has the chief port in France, Toulon, with its great naval harbour, and Hyères, to which may be added the Gulf of St Tropez.
Along the Atlantic coast from the mouth of the Adour to the
- ↑ The etymology of this name (sometimes wrongly written Golfe de Lyon) is unknown.
