to it the archiepiscopal see of Embrun, which was then suppressed. There are 114 m. of railway in the department. This includes the main line from Briançon past Gap towards Grenoble. About 1612 m. W. of Gap is the important railway junction of Veynes, whence branch off the lines to Grenoble, to Valence by Die and Livron, and to Sisteron for Marseilles. The chief town is Gap, while Briançon and Embrun are the only other important places.
See J. Roman, Dictionnaire topographique du dép. des Htes-Alpes (Paris, 1884), Tableau historique du dép. des Htes-Alpes (Paris, 1887–1890, 2 vols.), and Répertoire archéologique du dép. des Htes-Alpes (Paris, 1888); J. C. F. Ladoucette, Histoire, topographie, &c., des Hautes-Alpes (3rd ed., Paris, 1848). (W. A. B. C.)
HAUTE-SAÔNE, a department of eastern France, formed in 1790 from the northern portion of Franche Comté. It is traversed by the river Saône, bounded N. by the department of the Vosges, E. by the territory of Belfort, S. by Doubs and Jura, and W. by Côte-d’Or and Haute-Marne. Pop. (1906), 263,890; area, 2075 sq. m. On the north-east, where they are formed by the Vosges, and to the south along the course of the Ognon the limits are natural. The highest point of the department is the Ballon de Servance (3970 ft.), and the lowest the confluence of the Saône and Ognon (610 ft.). The general slope is from north-east to south-west, the direction followed by those two streams. In the north-east the department belongs to the Vosgian formation, consisting of forest-clad mountains of sandstone and granite, and is of a marshy nature; but throughout the greater part of its extent it is composed of limestone plateaus 800 to 1000 ft. high pierced with crevasses and subterranean caves, into which the rain water disappears to issue again as springs in the valleys 200 ft. lower down. In its passage through the department the Saône receives from the right the Amance and the Salon from the Langres plateau, and from the left the Coney, the Lanterne (augmented by the Breuchin which passes by Luxeuil), the Durgeon (passing Vesoul), and the Ognon. The north-eastern districts are cold and have an annual rainfall ranging from 36 to 48 in. Towards the south-west the climate becomes more temperate. At Vesoul and Gray the rainfall only reaches 24 in. per annum.
Haute-Saône is primarily agricultural. Of its total area nearly half is arable land; wheat, oats, meslin and rye are the chief cereals and potatoes are largely grown. The vine flourishes mainly in the arrondissement of Gray. Apples, plums and cherries (from which the kirsch, for which the department is famous, is distilled) are the chief fruits. The woods which cover a quarter of the department are composed mainly of firs in the Vosges and of oak, beech, hornbeam and aspen in the other districts. The river-valleys furnish good pasture for the rearing of horses and of horned cattle. The department possesses mines of coal (at Ronchamp) and rock-salt (at Gouhenans) and stone quarries are worked. Of the many mineral waters of Haute-Saône the best known are the hot springs of Luxeuil (q.v.). Besides iron-working establishments (smelting furnaces, foundries and wire-drawing mills), Haute-Saône possesses copper-foundries, engineering works, steel-foundries and factories at Plancher-les-Mines and elsewhere for producing ironmongery, nails, pins, files, saws, screws, shot, chains, agricultural implements, locks, spinning machinery, edge tools. Window-glass and glass wares, pottery and earthenware are manufactured; there are also brick and tile-works. The spinning and weaving of cotton, of which Héricourt (pop. in 1906, 5194) is the chief centre, stand next in importance to metal working, and there are numerous paper-mills. Print-works, fulling mills, hosiery factories and straw-hat factories are also of some account; as well as sugar works, distilleries, dye-works, saw-mills, starch-works, the chemical works at Gouhenans, oil-mills, tanyards and flour-mills. The department exports wheat, cattle, cheese, butter, iron, wood, pottery, kirschwasser, plaster, leather, glass, &c. The Saône provides a navigable channel of about 70 m., which is connected with the Moselle and the Meuse at Corre by the Canal de l’Est along the valley of the Coney. Gray is the chief emporium of the water-borne trade of the Saône. Haute-Saône is served chiefly by the Eastern railway. There are three arrondissements—Vesoul, Gray, Lure—comprising 28 cantons, 583 communes. Haute-Saône is in the district of the VII. army corps, and in its legal, ecclesiastical and educational relations depends on Besançon.
Vesoul, the capital of the department, Gray and Luxeuil are the principal towns. There is an important school of agriculture at St Rémy in the arrondissement of Vesoul. The Roman ruins and mosaics at Membrey in the arrondissement of Gray and the church (13th and 15th centuries) and abbey buildings at Faverney, in the arrondissement of Vesoul, are of antiquarian interest.
HAUTE-SAVOIE, a frontier department of France, formed in 1860 of the old provinces of the Genevois, the Chablais and the Faucigny, which constituted the northern portion of the duchy of Savoy. It is bounded N. by the canton and Lake of Geneva, E. by the Swiss canton of the Valais, S. by Italy and the department of Savoie, and W. by the department of the Ain. It is mainly made up of the river-basins of the Arve (flowing along the northern foot of the Mont Blanc range, and receiving the Giffre, on the right, and the Borne and Foron, on the left—the Arve joins the Rhone, close to Geneva), of the Dranse (with several branches, all flowing into the Lake of Geneva), of the Usses and of the Fier (both flowing direct into the Rhone, the latter after forming the Lake of Annecy). The upper course of the Arly is also in the department, but the river then leaves it to fall into the Isère. The whole of the department is mountainous. But the hills attain no very great height, save at its south-east end, where rises the snowclad chain of Mont Blanc, with many high peaks (culminating in Mont Blanc, 15,782 ft.) and many glaciers. That portion of the department is alone frequented by travellers, whose centre is Chamonix in the upper Arve valley. The lowest point (945 ft.) in the department is at the junction of the Fier with the Rhone. The whole of the department is included in that portion of the duchy of Savoy which was neutralized in 1815. In 1906 the population of the department was 260,617. Its area is 1775 sq. m., and it is divided into four arrondissements (Annecy, the chief town, Bonneville, St Julien and Thonon), 28 cantons and 314 communes. It forms the diocese of Annecy. There are in the department 176 m. of broad-gauge railways, and 70 m. of narrow-gauge lines. There are also a number of mineral springs, only three of which are known to foreigners—the chalybeate waters of Évian and Amphion, close to each other on the south shore of the Lake of Geneva, and the chalybeate and sulphurous waters of St Gervais, at the north-west end of the chain of Mont Blanc. Anthracite and asphalte mines are numerous, as well as stone quarries. Cotton is manufactured at Annecy, while Cluses is the centre of the clock-making industry. There is a well-known bell foundry at Annecy le Vieux. Thonon (the old capital of the Chablais) is the most important town on the southern shore of the Lake of Geneva and, after Annecy, the most populous place in the department.
(W. A. B. C.)
HAUTES-PYRÉNÉES, a department of south-western France, on the Spanish frontier, formed in 1790, half of it being taken from Bigorre and the remainder from Armagnac, Nébouzan, Astarac and Quatre Vallées, districts which all belonged to the province of Gascony. Pop. (1906), 209,397. Area, 1750 sq. m. Hautes-Pyrénées is bounded S. by Spain, W. by the department of Basses-Pyrénées (which encloses on its eastern border five communes belonging to Hautes-Pyrénées), N. by Gers and E. by Haute-Garonne. Except on the south its boundaries are conventional. The south of the department, comprising two-thirds of its area, is occupied by the central Pyrénées. Some of the peaks reach or exceed the height of 10,000 ft., the Vignemale (10,820 ft.) being the highest in the French Pyrénées. The imposing cirques (Cirques de Troumouse, Gavarnie and Estaubé), with their glaciers and waterfalls, and the pleasant valleys attract a large number of tourists, the most noted point being the Cirque de Gavarnie. The northern portion of the department is a region of plains and undulating hills clothed with cornfields, vineyards and meadows. To the north-east, however, the
