2. The central division is remarkable for being without the deep
gorges which are found so frequently in other parts of the range.
It consists of the basin of which Pontarlier is the centre, through
notches in the rim of which routes converge from every direction;
this is the great characteristic of the middle region of the Jura.
Hence its immense strategical and commercial importance. On the
north-east roads run to Morteau and Le Locle, on the north-west to
Besançon, on the west to Salins, on the south-west to Dôle and
Lons-le-Saunier, on the east to the Swiss plain. The Pontarlier
plateau is nearly horizontal, the slight indentations in it being due
to erosion, e.g. by the river Drugeon. The keys to this important
plateau are to the east the Fort de Joux, under the walls of which
meet the two lines of railway from Neuchâtel, and to the west
Salins, the meeting place of the routes from the Col de la Faucille,
from Besançon, and from the French plain.
The Ain rises on the south edge of this plateau, and on a lower shelf or step, which it waters, are situated two points of great military importance—Nozeroy and Champagnole. The latter is specially important, since the road leading thence to Geneva traverses one after another, not far from their head, the chief valleys which run down into the South Jura, and thus commands the southern routes as well as those by St Cergues and the Col de la Faucille from the Geneva region, and a branch route along the Orbe river from Jougne. The fort of Les Rousses, near the foot of the Dôle, serves as an advanced post to Champagnole, just as the Fort de Joux does to Pontarlier.
The above sketch will serve to show the character of the central Jura as the meeting place of routes from all sides, and the importance to France of its being strongly fortified, lest an enemy approaching from the north-east should try to turn the fortresses of the “Trouée de Belfort.” It is in the western part of the central Jura that the north and south lines first appear strongly marked. There are said to be in this district no less than fifteen ridges running parallel to each other, and it is these which force the Loue to the north, and thereby occasion its very eccentric course. The cultivation of wormwood wherewith to make the tonic “absinthe” has its headquarters at Pontarlier.
3. The southern division is by far the most complicated and entangled part of the Jura. The lofty ridge which bounds it to the east forces all its drainage to the west, and the result is a number of valleys of erosion (of which that of the Ain is the chief instance), quite distinct from the natural “cluses” or fissures of those of the Doubs and of the Loue. Another point of interest is the number of roads which intersect it, despite its extreme irregularity. This is due to the great “cluses” of Nantua and Virieu, which traverse it from east to west. The north and south line is very clearly seen in the eastern part of this division; the north-east and south-west is entirely wanting, but in the Villebois range south of Ambérieu we have the principal example of the north-west to south-east line. The plateaus west of the Ain are cut through by the valleys of the Valouse and of the Surand, and like all the lowest terraces on the west slope do not possess any considerable towns. The Ain receives three tributaries from the east:—
(a) The Bienne, which flows from the fort of Les Rousses by St Claude, the industrial centre of the south Jura, famous for the manufacture of wooden toys, owing to the large quantity of boxwood in the neighbourhood. Septmoncel is busied with cutting of gems, and Morez with watch and spectacle making. Cut off to the east by the great chain, the industrial prosperity of this valley is of recent origin.
(b) The Oignin, which flows from south to north. It receives the drainage of the lake of Nantua, a town noted for combs and silk weaving, and which communicates by the “cluse” of the Lac de Silan with the Valserine valley, and so with the Rhone at Bellegarde, and again with the various routes which meet under the walls of the fort of Les Rousses, while by the Val Romey and the Séran Culoz is easily gained.
(c) The Albarine, connected with Culoz by the “cluse” of Virieu, and by the Furan flowing south with Belley, the capital of the district of Bugey (the old name for the South Jura).
The “cluses” of Nantua and Virieu are now both traversed by important railways; and it is even truer than of old that the keys of the south Jura are Lyons and Geneva. But of course the strategic importance of these gorges is less than appears at first sight, because they can be turned by following the Rhone in its great bend to the south.
The range is mentioned by Caesar (Bell. Gall. i. 2–3, 6 (1), and 8 (1)), Strabo (iv. 3, 4, and 6, 11), Pliny (iii. 31; iv. 105; xvi. 197) and Ptolemy (ii. ix. 5), its name being a word which appears under many forms (e.g. Joux, Jorat, Jorasse, Juriens), and is a synonym for a wood or forest. The German name is Leberberg, Leber being a provincial word for a hill.
Politically the Jura is French (departments of the Doubs, Jura and Ain) and Swiss (parts of the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Bern, Soleure and Basel); but at its north extremity it takes in a small bit of Alsace (Pfirt or Ferrette). In the middle ages the southern, western and northern sides were parcelled out into a number of districts, all of which were gradually absorbed by the French crown, viz., Gex, Val Romey, Bresse and Bugey (exchanged in 1601 by Savoy for the marquisate of Saluzzo), Franche-Comté, or the Free County of Burgundy, an imperial fief till annexed in 1674, the county of Montbéliard (Mömpelgard) acquired in 1793, and the county of Ferrette (French 1648–1871). The northern part of the eastern side was held till 1792 (part till 1797) by the bishop of Basel as a fief of the empire, and then belonged to France till 1814, but was given to Bern in 1815 (as a recompense for its loss of Vaud), and now forms the Bernese Jura, a French-speaking district. The centre of the eastern slope formed the principality of Neuchâtel (q.v.) and the county of Valangin, which were generally held by Burgundian nobles, came by succession to the kings of Prussia in 1707, and were formed into a Swiss canton in 1815, though they did not become free from formal Prussian claims until 1857. The southern part of the eastern slope originally belonged to the house of Savoy, but was conquered bit by bit by Bern, which was forced in 1815 to accept its subject district Vaud as a colleague and equal in the Swiss Confederation. It was Charles the Bold’s defeats at Grandson and Morat which led to the annexation by the confederates of these portions of Savoyard territory.
Authorities.—E. F. Berlioux, Le Jura (Paris, 1880); F. Machacek, Der Schweizer Jura (Gotha, 1905); A. Magnin, Les lacs du Jura (Paris, 1895); J. Zimmerli, “Die Sprachgrenze im Jura” (vol. i. of his Die Deutsch-französische Sprachgrenze in der Schweiz (Basel, 1891). For the French slope see Joanne’s large Itinéraire to the Jura, and the smaller volumes relating to the departments of the Ain, Doubs and Jura, in his Géographies départementales. For the Swiss slope see 3 vols. in the series of the Guides Monod (Geneva); A. Monnier, La Chaux de Fonds et le Haut-Jura Neuchâtelois; J. Monod, Le Jura Bernois; and E. J. P. de la Harpe, Le Jura Vaudois. (W. A. B. C.)
JURASSIC, in geology, the middle period of the Mesozoic era,
that is to say, succeeding the Triassic and preceding the Cretaceous periods. The name Jurassic (French jurassique; German
Juraformation or Jura) was first employed by A. Brongniart and
A. von Humboldt for the rocks of this age in the western Jura
mountains of Switzerland, where they are well developed. It
was in England, however, that they were first studied by William
Smith, in whose hands they were made to lay the foundations
of stratigraphical geology. The names adopted by him for the
subdivisions he traced across the country have passed into
universal use, and though some of them are uncouth English
provincial names, they are as familiar to the geologists of France,
Switzerland and Germany as to those of England. During the
following three decades Smith’s work was elaborated by W. D.
Conybeare and W. Phillips. The Jurassic rocks of fossils of the
European continent were described by d’Orbigny, 1840–1846;
by L. von Buch, 1839; by F. A. Quenstedt, 1843–1888; by
A. Oppel, 1856–1858; and since then by many other workers:
E. Benecke, E. Hébert, W. Waagen, and others. The study of
Jurassic rocks has continued to attract the attention of geologists, partly because the bedding is so well defined and regular—the strata are little disturbed anywhere outside the Swiss Jura and the Alps—and partly because the fossils are numerous and
usually well-preserved. The result has been that no other
system of rocks has been so carefully examined throughout its
entire thickness; many “zones” have been established by means
of the fossils—principally by ammonites—and these zones are
not restricted to limited districts, but many of them hold good
over wide areas. Oppel distinguished no fewer than thirty-three
zonal horizons, and since then many more sub-zonal divisions
have been noted locally.
The existence of faunal regions in Jurassic times was first pointed out by J. Marcou; later M. Neumayr greatly extended observations in this direction. According to Neumayr, three distinct geographical regions of deposit can be made out among the Jurassic rocks of Europe: (1) The Mediterranean province, embracing the Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathians, with all the tracts lying to the south. One of the biological characters of this area was the great abundance of ammonites belonging to
