Rhone becomes officially “navigable,” though as far as Lyons the navigation now consists all but wholly of the floating of flat-bottomed boats, named rigues, laden chiefly with stone quarried from the banks of the river. Above Seyssel (11 m. from Bellegarde) the Usses (left) joins the Rhone, while just below that village the Fier (left) flows in from the Lake of Annecy. Below the junction of the Fier the hills sink on either side, the channel of the river widens, and one may say that it leaves the mountains for the plains. At Culoz (41½ m. by rail from Geneva) the railway from Geneva to Lyons (105 m.) quits the Rhone in order to run west by a direct route past Ambérieu. The Rhone continues to roll on southwards, but no longer (as no doubt it did in ancient days) enters the Lac du Bourget, of which it receives the waters through a canal, and then leaves it on the east in order to run along the foot of the last spur of the Jura. It flows past Yenne (left) and beneath the picturesque fortress (formerly a Carthusian monastery) of Pierre Châtel (right) before it attains the foot of the extreme southern spur of the Jura, at a height of 696 ft., not far from the village of Cordon, and just where the Guiers Hows in (left) from the mountains of the Grande Chartreuse. This is nearly the last of the cluses through which the river has to make its way. The very last is at the Pont du Saut or Sault, a little S. of Lagnieu. The river now widens, but the neighbouring country is much exposed to inundations. It receives (right) its most important tributary in this part of its course, the Ain, which descends from the French slope of the Jura and is navigable for about 60 m. above its junction with the Rhone. Farther down the Rhone meanders for a time with shifting channels in a bed about 2 m. broad, but it gathers into a single stream before its junction with the Saône, just below Lyons. The Saône (q.v.), which has received (left) the Doubs, is the real continuation of the Rhone, both from a geographical and a commercial point of view, and it is by means of canals branching off from the course of the Saône that the Rhone communicates with the basins of the Loire, the Seine, the Rhine and the Moselle. In fact, up to Lyons, the Rhone (save when it expands into the Lake of Geneva) is a huge and very unruly mountain torrent rather than a great European river.
3. Below Lyons, however, the Rhone becomes one of the great historical rivers of France. It was up its valley that first Greek, then Latin civilization penetrated from the Mediterranean to Lyons, as well as in the 10th century the Saracen bandits from their settlement at La Garde Freinet, near the coast of Provence. Then, too, from Lyons downwards, the Rhone serves as a great medium of commerce by which central France sends its products to the sea. Its length from Lyons to the sea is some 230 m., though its fall is but 530 ft. But during this half of its course it can boast of having on its left bank (the right bank is very poor in this respect) such historical cities as Vienne, Valence, Avignon, Tarascon and Arles, while it receives (left) the Isère, the Drôme and the Durance rivers, all formed by the union of many streams, and bringing down the waters that flow from the lofty snowy Dauphiné Alps. The Ardèche is the only considerable affluent from the right. Near Arles, about 25 m. from the sea, and by rail 175¼ m. from Lyons, the river breaks up into its two main branches, the Grand Rhone running S.E. and the Petit Rhone S.W.; they enclose between them the huge delta of the Camargue, which is cultivated on the banks of the river only, but elsewhere is simply a great alluvial plain, deposited in the course of ages by the river, and now composed of scanty pasturages and of great salt marshes. Between Lyons and the sea, the Rhone divides four departments on its right, bank (Rhône, Loire, Ardèche and Gard) from as many on its left bank (Isère, Drôme, Vaucluse and Bouches du Rhône).
Consult in general Ch. Lenthéric, Le Rhône—histoire d'un fleuve, 2 vols. (Paris, 1892).
RHÔNE, a department of south-eastern France, formed in 1793 from the eastern portion of the department of Rhône-et-Loire, and comprising the old districts of Beaujolais, Lyonnais, Franc-Lyonnais, Forez and a small portion of Dauphiné. Pop. (1906) 858,907. Area, 1104 sq. m. Rhône is bounded N. by the department of Saône-et-Loire, E. by Ain and Isère and S. and W. by Loire. The Saône and the Rhone form its natural boundary on the east. The department belongs almost entirely to the basin of the Rhone, to which it sends its waters by the Saône and its tributary the Azergues, and by the Gier. The mountains which cover the surface of the department constitute the watershed between the Rhone and the Loire, and from north to south form four successive groups—the Beaujolais Mountains, the highest peak of which is 3320 ft.; the Tarare group; the Lyonnais Mountains (nearly 3000 ft.); and Mont Pilat, the highest peak of which belongs to the department of Loire. The lowest point of the department (460 ft. above sea-level) is at the egress of the Rhone. The meteorological conditions vary greatly with the elevation and exposure. Snow sometimes lies in the mountains from November to April, while at Lyons and in the valleys the mean temperature in winter is 36° F. and in summer 70°, the annual mean being 53°. The average rainfall is somewhat higher than is general over France owing to the amount of the precipitation on the hilly region.
Good agricultural land is found in the valleys of the Saône and Rhone, but for the most part the soil is stony and only moderately fertile. Wheat, oats, rye and potatoes are extensively cultivated, but their importance is less than that of the vine, the hills of the Beaujolais on the right bank of the Saône producing excellent wines. Fruit trees, such as peaches, apricots, walnuts and chestnuts, grow well, but the wood in general is little more than copse and brushwood. Good pasture is found in the valleys of the Azergues and its affluents. Mines of iron-pyrites and coal and quarries of freestone are worked. The production of silk fabrics, the chief branch of manufacture, that of chemicals and machinery, together with most of the other industries of the department, are concentrated in Lyons (q.v.) and its vicinity. Tarare is a centre for the manufacture of muslin and embroidery. Oullins has large railway workshops belonging to the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway, and there are important glass works at Givors. Cotton-spinning and weaving are carried on in several localities. The products of its manufactures, together with wine and brandy, form the bulk of the exports of the department; its imports comprise chiefly the raw material for its industries. It is served by the Paris-Lyon railway. The Rhone and the Saône and in the extreme south the canal of Givors are its navigable waterways. Lyons the capital is the seat of an archbishop and of a court of appeal and centre of an educational division (académie). The department is divided amongst the districts of the VII., VIII., XII., XIII. and XIV. army corps. There are two arrondissements (Lyons and Villefranche) subdivided into 29 cantons and 269 communes. The principal places besides Lyons are Givors, Tarare and Villefranche, which receive separate treatment.
RHÖNGEBIRGE, or Die Rhön, a mountain-chain of central Germany, running in a north-westerly direction from the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia to the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau and the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar, and divided by the Werra from the Thuringian Forest on the N. The other sides are bounded by the Fulda on the W. and the Sinn and Frankish Saab on the E. and S. Its length is 50 m., breadth 5–7 m., and its mean elevation 1900 ft. This district is divided into three groups—the southern, the high (Hohe) and the nearer (Vordere) Rhön. Of these the southern, a continuation of the Spessart, largely consists of flat conical masses and reaches its highest point in the Heiliger Kreuzberg (2900 ft.). The Hohe Rhön, beginning immediately to the north-west of the latter mountain, is a high plateau of red sandstone, covered with fens and basalt peaks. It is a wild, dreary, inclement tract of country, covered with snow for six months in the year and visited by frequent fogs and storms. It is said of it that whoever desires to experience a northern winter can spare himself a journey to the North Cape or Siberia, and find it in his native Rhön. There is little vegetation, and the inhabitants eke out a scanty sustenance from the cultivation of potatoes
