Some of them are noted for their length, extending to points not far from the Rhone, and, by means of the spurs which these in their turn send out in various directions, rendering the entire region between the Alps and that river an exceedingly mountainous one. The peaks of some of the mountains, too, of which we are speaking, are very elevated: Mount Olan, for example, to the northeast of the Val Godemard, rises to the height of 13,819 feet, and Mont Pelvoux de Vallouise, to the southwest of Briançon, to that of 15,446 feet. The rivers of France most deserving of mention are the following: (1) The Rhone, which comes from Switzerland, and on leaving Geneva proceeds in a tortuous course to the city of Lyons. It there receives the Saône from the north, and continues its course in a direction nearly south. Passing by Vienne, Valence, Avignon, and Beaucaire, to Arles, it separates into several branches, forming a delta, called the Isle of Camargue, and discharges its waters soon after into the Gulf of Lyons. Its fall is considerable and rapid, and its navigation is, consequently, difficult and dangerous. Its principal affluents on the right are the Ain, Saône, Ardèche, and Gard; and on the left, the Isère, Drôme, and Durance. The basin. of the Rhone, it may be added, is a very contracted one, with the Alps on one side of it and the Cévennes Mountains on the other. The Rhone is connected with the Loire by means of the Saône and the canal "du Centre," with the Yonne and Seine by the canal of Burgundy, and with the Rhine by that of the Rhone and Rhine. (2) The Adour descends from Mount Tourmalet in the Pyrenees (6332 feet), flows by Bagnères, celebrated for its mineral waters, and Tarbes, the chief town in the department of the Upper Pyrenees. Proceeding thence in a semicircular curve, first in a northwest and afterwards in a southwest direction, it reaches Bayonne and enters the Bay of Biscay two and a half miles beyond this city. The Adour is navigable from St. Severs for a space of seventy miles. The harbor of Bayonne is obstructed by a moving sandbank, which must be carefully sounded before either entering or going out of the river. This city is, however, one of great importance, being a fortress of the first rank, and constituting the centre of the defence of France on the side of the western Pyrenees. The affluents of the Adour are of very secondary importance. (3) We come next to the Garonne. Its basin is formed by the eastern slope of the mountains of Barèges, the northern slope of the central Pyrenees, the western slope of the southern Cévennes, and by the southern slope of the chain of hills between the Garonne and the Loire. Its general direction is from southeast to northwest; its length, two hundred and seventy-three miles; its greatest breadth, one hundred and sixtytwo miles. This river has a course of three hundred and fifty miles, and is navigable for an extent of two hundred and sixty six miles. On its banks there are two very important cities, Bordeaux and Toulouse, the former containing, in 1861, 162,750 inhabitants, and has been long celebrated for its extensive commerce; the latter containing at the same period (1861) 113,229 inhabitants, and noted besides for being the point of convergence of the roads into France from Spain. By holding it, a French army would possess the important strategic advantage of preventing the junction of the two hostile armies which may have debouched respectively by way of Bayonne and Perpignan. And hence the great battle which was fought here in 1814 between Marshal Soult and the Duke of Wellington. It may be mentioned that the Garonne, on leaving Toulouse, receives the canal of the South, or of Languedoc, which extends eastwards to the lagune of Thau on the Mediterranean, passing by Villefranche, Castelnaudary, Carcassonne, Béziers, and Agde, a distance of more than one hundred and forty miles. The principal affluent of the Garonne is the Dordogne. Its course is about two hundred and twenty-four miles, of which one hundred and fifty are navigable. It unites with the Garonne at Bourg, to form the Gironde and to proceed together with it to the sea. (4) Further north we meet with the Charente. This river has a course of two hundred miles, and is naturally navigable as far as Saintes, and artificially as far as Angoulême. It is chiefly remarkable for having on its banks, five miles from its mouth, the celebrated naval port of Rochfort, previously mentioned. (5) The basin of the Loire is formed by the northern slope of the mountains of Auvergne, of the Limousin, and of Poitou,-by the western slope of the mountains of the Vivarais, the Lyonnais, the Beaujolais, and the Charolais,-and by the southern slope of the heights extending between the Loire and the Seine. Its direction is from southeast to northwest; its length is four hundred and forty-seven miles, and extreme breadth two hundred and forty-eight miles. The Loire takes its rise in the Gerbier de Jones (4711 feet high), passes near Le Puy (2050 feet), the chief town of the department of the Upper Loire, then washes Saint Rambert, where it becomes navigable, and passes by Roanne and by Digoin, whence proceeds the canal of the Centre, which connects the Loire and the Saône, and whence proceeds also the lateral canal to the Loire, skirting this river as far as Briare. On the Loire are situated, besides, the towns of Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours, Saumur, and Nantes, the last being an important place of commerce, and containing, by the census of 1861, 113,625 inhabitants. The course of the Loire is said to be five hundred and sixty miles in length; and it is navigable for a distance of four hundred and twenty-two miles from the sea. The Allier, the Cher, the Indre, the Vienne, the Mayenne, and the Sarthe, all of them affluents of the Loire, require no especial mention in this rapid sketch of the French rivers. (6) The basin of the Seine and the slope of the British Channel will require but little remark. The river Seine rises in the heights of the Côte d'Or, near Chanceaux, at an elevation of 1463 feet, and passes by Chatillon, where the Congress of 1814 held its sessions, by Troyes, the ancient capital of Champagne, by Paris (1,696,141 inhabitants), Rouen (102,649), and Havre (74,336), to the British Channel. It has a course of four hundred and fourteen miles in length, for three hundred and fifty of which it is navigable; its chief affluents are, on the left, the Yonne, Loing, Essonne, Eure, and Rille, and on the right, the Aube, Marne, and Oise. It communicates with the Loire by the canals of Loing, Orleans, and Briare. The Yonne unites it with the Saône and the Rhine by the canals of Burgundy and those of the Rhone and Rhine; and the Oise connects it with the Somme, Scheld, and Sambre by the canals of Crozat, St. Quentin, and the Sambre. The most important affluent of the Seine on the right is the Marne. This descends from the plateau of Langres, and has a general direction parallel with the Seine, with which it unites at Charenton after a course of two hundred and thirty-six miles. It may be mentioned here that the valleys or basins of the Seine, Marne, and Yonne constituted the great field of conflict between Napoleon and the Allies in his brilliant campaign of 1814. (7) Of the streams which flow from France into the British Channel, besides the Seine, we shall only note the Somme. It is comparatively a small river, rising at Fons-Somme, and passing by St. Quentin, Ham, Péronne, Amiens, and Abbeville. The last two are fortified places. The Somme is connected with the Oise by the canal of St. Quentin, and is skirted by the canal of Picardy, which joins the first-mentioned canal at St. Simon. The country on the north of France, especially the western portion of it, has, generally speaking, only a gentle slope towards the Rhine or the German Ocean. Of its rivers we shall say a word or two in speaking of Belgium and the adjacent parts of Germany; none of them, however, excepting it may be for very short distances, being frontier rivers. France has, then, on this side no natural, but only a political, boundary. To compensate for this disadvantage, many fortresses have been constructed. These are most numerous between the river Meuse and the sea. Here, in the first line, are Givet, Maubeuge, Le Quesnoy, Valenciennes, Condé, Lille, Bergues, and Dunkirk; in the second line, Rocroy, Avesnes, Landrecy, Cambray, Bouchain, Douai, Gravelines, Béthune, Aire, St. Omer, Ardres, and Calais; in the third line, Guise, Bapaume, and Boulogne; in the fourth line, Laon, La Fère, Péronne, Doulens, Hesdin, and Montreuil; in the fifth line, Vitry, Soissons, Amiens, and Abbeville; and lastly, in the sixth line, if we may use the expression, Paris. Between the Meuse and the Rhine, there are Bitche, Thionville, Longwy, Montmédy, Sédan, Mézières, and Givet; and in the second line, Phalsbourg, Marsal, Metz, and Verdun. It is proper to mention here, also, the fortified places on the frontier of the Rhine, contributing as they do essentially to the defence of the country: they are New Brisach, Schelestadt, Strasburg, and Weissenburg. Among the fortresses in different parts of France which have been mentioned, one or two of the first rank, such as Grenoble and Briançon, have escaped notice, and so also Cette, Charenton, Montmédy, Embrun, &c., of secondary rank, not liable, from their situation, to be called into requisition for the national defence. The most important by far of all the fortified places at present of the French empire is undoubtedly Paris. In 1814, and again in 1815, it was taken by the allied armies, which were very numerous and powerful, and the city was but feebly fortified on its northern side, where the attack was made by the enemy in the first-mentioned year. The southern side had scarcely any defences to oppose to the Prussians, on the crossing of the Seine by the latter in the following year. Paris is now surrounded by a formidable chain of forts, that may be said to render it, when adequately garrisoned and supplied with provisions and the munitions of war, impregnable by any force united Europe would be able to bring against it. If, then, in addition to the facts which have been stated above, we consider the vast control possessed by the French Government over the population and industry of the people, the number and excellency of the roads and railways by means of which their products as well as the troops of all descriptions can be conveyed from one point of the empire to another, we cannot fail to appreciate, in a very high degree indeed, its capacities for either offensive or defensive war. THE AFRICAN COLOUR-SERGEANT. I. GLARES the volcano breath, Twice vain the wild attack: Inch by inch, sadly, slow, II. Yet free the colours wave, He sinks! the banner falls From the faint, mangled limt, Those star-folds dim! III. Stay, stay the taunting laugh! Till he the ranks has found: IV. O deed so pure, so grand, LATER RAMBLES OVER THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG. [Concluded.] FOLLOWING the crest of this ridge in a southward direction, we pass the residence of Dr. Krauth, one of the Professors in the Theological Seminary. It was near and in front of his house that we saw our line of battle formed, on July 1, when the First Corps went to meet the rebels. At first the doctor and his family intended to remain in their dwelling, although shot and shell fell thick and fast around them and some entered his house. Going to the cellar for safety, they soon found it to be little less dangerous there than above-stairs. Advised to leave by our men, who were bringing in their wounded and filling parlor, study, dining-room, and hall with them, and then by the |