for their size and richness of flavour; the Meddlar, Quince, and a great
variety of choice Apple trees are thickly dispersed throughout the
vineyards; some of the latter of which during the winter, present a very
singular appearance, from their being often thickly studded over with
the sombre tufts of the parasitical _Viscus_, or Misleto. A considerable
quantity of excellent cyder is made in the neighbourhood of Tours.
The vineyards which occupy so large a portion of this district, contain
a great many varieties of the vine, which circumstance, together with
the prevailing difference of _soil_ and _aspect_, naturally produces
wines of very various flavour and opposite qualities.
It is affirmed, that the first requisite to make good wine seems to be a
peculiar quality in the soil in which the fruit is grown, more than in
the species of vine itself; the second requisite to good wine is the
species of plant, aided by a judicious mode of training and cultivation.
It would naturally be supposed that the wine is excellent in proportion
to the size and luxuriance of the plant, but such is not the case, on
the contrary, good rich soils invigorating the growth of the tree never
produce even tolerable wine, but it is best as the soil is lighter and
drier;--sandy, calcareous, stony and porous soils are found to be most
friendly to the growth of the vine. The chalky soils particularly
produce wines of great freshness and lightness.
Hence we may in a great degree account for the superiority of many of
the vinous productions of the neighbourhood of Tours; on both sides of
the vale of the Loire, the denudated or furrowed elevations naturally
afford many genial sites, whose southern aspects are always exposed to
the direct rays of the sun and which favoured situations are perhaps
more prevalent on the northern banks of the river; where, as on the
opposite slopes, the rather lofty chalky elevations, are mostly covered
by deep accumulations of adventitious and heterogeneous materials,
principally constituted of the debris of that cretaceous formation, and
partly composing the extensive deposit termed the argile et poudinge.
It moreover appears, that the species of plant which is a favourite in
one district is discarded in another; and also that very celebrated
wines are produced in vineyards where the species of plant is by no
means held in high repute; but the most inexplicable circumstance
respecting the culture of the vine, is the fact, that the most delicious
wine is sometimes grown on one little spot only, in the midst of
vineyards which produce no others but of the ordinary quality: while in
another place the product of a vineyard, in proportion to its surface,
shall be incredibly small, yet of exquisite quality, at the same time,
in the soil, aspect, treatment as to culture, and species of plant,
there shall be no perceptible difference to the eye of the most
experienced wine grower. Possibly this may in some measure be accounted
for by the peculiar nature of the substratum which the roots of the
respective vines may chance to penetrate.
The grape called _caux_ or _cos_, common on the banks of the Cher,
imparts colour and body to the red wines.
The best vines for the more valuable white wines, are the species
denominated _sauvignon_, _semilion_, _rochalin_, _blanc doux_,
_pruneras_, _muscade_, and _blanc auba_. The _semilion_ should form
two-thirds of a vineyard consisting of these seven species of plants.
Red Hermitage is produced from two varieties of plants named the little
and great _Scyras_. White Hermitage is produced from the greater and
lesser _Rousanne_ grape.
The esteemed red wines of Saumur, are made from the _pineau_ plant. The
Haut Rhin is classed under the generic title of the _gentil_. Some
excellent black wines are produced from a grape named _cote-rouge_, as
also from _auxerrois_, or _pied de perdrix_ grape, so called because its
stalk is red.
The best Bordeaux wine _de cotes_ is made with the grape called _noir de
pressac_, the _bochet_, and the _merlot_.
The first class Burgundies, called _les tetes de cuves_, are from the
choicest vines, namely; the _noirien_ and _pineau_, grown on the best
spots of the vineyards having the finest aspect.
The black grape called the "golden plant" (_plant dore_,) is cultivated
in all the most distinguished vineyards of Champagne, and from which is
produced the finest of those celebrated wines.
The vines called the _semilion_ and _muscat-fou_ are very extensively
cultivated, those most noted are the black _morillon_, of two varieties,
the _madaleine_ and the vine of Ischia; the latter produces fine fruit
as high as north lat. 48 deg..
The bloom upon the grape, which so delicately tints the skin, is
considered in proportion to its prevalence a proof of attention or
negligence in the culture.
The age of which the vine bears well, is from sixty to seventy years, or
more, but in the common course of things it is six or seven years
before it is in full bearing. The vines are pruned three times before
they bear fruit, when this operation is again repeated. In France the
vine is propagated by layers of buds, which are taken up after the
vintage, and by slips chosen from among the cuttings; vines from the
latter live longest and bear most fruit, though those from the layers
shoot earliest. The general method of training the vine in France, is
the "_tinge bas_" or low stem training, the young shoots of the year
being tied to stakes from four to five feet in height.
The season of the vintage is one of stirring interest and alacrity, the
merry groups of grape gatherers now to be seen in almost every field,
commence their employment as early as possible after the sun has
dissipated the dew, and the gathering is uniformly continued with as
much rapidity as possible, if the weather continue fair, so as to
terminate the pressing in one day.
In concluding this subject, we may very well exemplify the general
distribution of the vegetable tribes in this part of France, by
observing that merry _Bacchus_ presides over the cheerful hills, _Flora_
and _Pomona_ grace the laughing vallies and the sylvan shades, while the
bountiful _Ceres_ extends her dominion over the upland plains, and the
smiling prairies of the fertilizing Cher and Loire.
GEOLOGY OF TOURAINE.
_The GEOLOGY of Touraine_, being of a nature particularly worthy the
attention of the scientific enquirer, we may properly close these
restricted remarks, by a few cursory observations on so interesting a
subject. In contemplating the geognostic structure of this department,
the eye of the investigator encounters none of those strikingly bold and
sublime operations of nature, almost every where to be met with in the
primitive and volcanic regions of the globe.
Here with but a few solitary exceptions, the whole surface of the
province presents a continuous series of rounded and gentle undulations,
exhibiting to the careless glance of the unobservant, and to the
uninitiated, one vast homogeneous mass of earthy and stony materials.
But when this wide spread, and apparently uninvestigable aggregation of
particles, comes under the scrutinizing _eye of science_, a beautiful
and systematic arrangement of undigenous formations are clearly
developed. Individually containing within themselves the marvellous and
decisive evidence of their comparative existence, in their present
relative positions.
Those "_medallions of Nature_," the fossils which they contain not only
furnishing us with a chronological knowledge of the progressive
formation of the Earth's crust, but recording in language the most
intelligible, what were the peculiar states, and characteristics of
animal and vegetable existences at the distinct, and distant epochs of
the World.
By the aid of these silent but eloquent intelligencers, we discover that
the strata which now constitute the table lands of Touraine, were among
the last, in the whole geological series, that emerged from the waves of
the Ocean. That, that grand instrument of transposition and renovation,
has in a general sense, ever since been restrained within its mighty
confines. And that at the time its waters last prevailed over these
regions now high and dry, many of the types of living testacea, etc.
were become identical with those of existing species.
Touraine, or the department of Indre-et-Loire, may be said to be the
grand repository of the _tertiary_ formations of central France. It
constitutes the southern divisions of the great _Paris basin_, formed by
a vast depression in the chalk, and which is about 180 miles long and 90
miles broad. This cretaceous or chalk basin terminates to the south a
short distance from Poitiers, where the oolites and certain other
formations older than the chalk, crop out from beneath it, and thence
forward, principally constitute the formations of the more southern
departments of the kingdom: and occasionally extend to the summits of
the gigantic Pyrenees.
The long range of rocky precipices often constituting rather lofty
escarpments, along the northern borders of the valley of the Loire, are
a portion of the extensive cretaceous formations which surround Paris.
In the vicinity of Tours and many other places where its strata are
alike exposed to view, many beautiful specimens of some of its
characteristic fossils may be readily obtained; this formation here also
frequently contains its usual layers of flint, and which often assumes
the exact form of the zoophytes, and other organic structures, into
which it has percolated.
But in this locality, as also in many instances in the chalk region
south of Angouleme, the mineralogical character of the formation is
often completely altered, chiefly appearing as a fine white calcareous
sandstone, occasionally passing into a compact siliceous limestone,
similar to the _calcaire siliceux_ of the superior freshwater limestone,
but for the most part destitute of the small sinuous cavities the
latter commonly contains.
This calcareous sandstone is directly succeeded, in ascending order, by
the most extensive surface deposit of Touraine, termed by the French
geologist, argile et poudinge; a rather thick argillaceous deposit, in
which flint boulders are sometimes thickly embedded, and on which
reposes the _calc d'eau douce_ or freshwater limestone, both formations
belonging to the uppermost subdivision of the Parisian tertiary strata,
or newer Pliocene deposits.
Immediately above the freshwater limestone just named, a series of
isolated masses occur, consisting of marine sand and marl, the whole
rarely exceeding fifty feet in thickness, and containing for the most
part a different and immense assemblage of fossils. This tertiary
formation which is provincially termed _faluns_, (broken shells) is
considered to belong to a period intermediate between that of the
Parisian and subapennine strata, and to assimulate in age to the crag
formation of England, which belongs to the Miocene or middle Tertiary.
Mr Lyell who has closely examined the _faluns_[D], says that most of
the shells they contain do not depart from the Mediterranean type,
although a few would seem to indicate a tropical climate, among these
may be mentioned some large species of the genera _conus_, _terebra_,
_rynula_, _tasciolaria_, _cerithium_ and _cardita_.
The species he considers for the most part marine, but that a few of
them belong to land and fluviatile genera. Among the former, _helix
turonensis_ (faluns Touraine) is the most abundant.
Remains of terrestrial quadrupeds are here and there intermixed,
belonging to the genera mastodon, rhinoceros, hyppopotamus, deer and
others, and these are accompanied by cetacea, such as the lamantine,
morse, sea calf, and dolphin, all of extinct species.
Out of two hundred and ninety species of shells from the _faluns_ Mr
Lyell says he found seventy-two identical with recent species, and that
out of the whole three hundred and two in his possession forty-five only
were found to be common to the suffolk crag. Nevertheless a similarity
of mineral composition, and the general analogy of the fossil shells and
zoophytes, together with the perfect identity of certain species,
strongly justifies the opinion that has long been pronounced, that the
faluns of Touraine, and the Suffolk crag are nearly contemporaneous.
To this brief outline of what may properly be termed the regular
stratifications of Touraine, it only remains to be stated, that they are
frequently concealed by considerable deposits of alluvial and diluvian
beds of flinty gravel, sand, and adventitious clays, in some of which
numerous specimens of the rocks and fossils to be found existing in
_situ_ in the neighbourhood are interspersed.
It is almost impossible to contemplate even the comparatively scanty
catalogue of geological facts just adverted to, without being forcibly
reminded of the remarkable physical transformations which the surface of
the country must have undergone, at distinct, and incalculably distant
epochs; and to speculate on the causes which effected; and the peculiar
circumstances characterizing those revolutionizing periods.
Geology, may indeed, be truly said to be an inductive science, and while
pondering over its natural inferences we find ourselves most
marvellously progressing through a long concatenation of pre-existing
realities, which at every remove may be said to assume more and more the
features of romance!
During the cretaceous period, _Touraine_ had not emerged from the
Ocean, which here was probably studded with Islands constituted of the
primary rocks of Brittany, and those of the older secondary formations
we have noticed as now principally occupying the more southern
provinces. These lands, we may reasonably infer, were adorned by the
luxuriant vegetation of a tropical climate, the fossil remains of which,
are found abundantly dispersed throughout the first formed members of
the tertiary series.
Subsequent to the deposition of the chalk, a retiring of the sea from
this region, and a period of repose, are indicated by the presence of
the _freshwater formation_, but on examining the overlying deposits of
_faluns_, we have the most indubitable evidence, that this quiescent
state, was succeeded by another irruption of the Ocean, which desolated
the land, and deposited the wrecks of its animal and vegetable
productions as now discovered in that formation. As yet, the geologian
maintains, man had not been called into existence, and therefore the
huge quadrupeds whose remains are found in the _faluns_, unmolestedly
ranged through the umbrageous wilds of nature absolute Lords of the
creation.
While the imagination is startled at the mystic nature of these
successive cosmological revolutions, it is no less puzzled to account
for the mighty causes which have effected them. The geologist however
has discovered in various parts of the world, the most positive evidence
of the upheaving and subsidence of immense tracts of territory, by the
stupendous operations of subterranean convulsions.
At Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight we have an extraordinary and complete
example of this description; in the remarkable _vertical_ position of
the beautiful and variously coloured arenose stratifications of the
plastic clay, we are enabled to discover that the ponderous substrata of
chalk were uplifted subsequently to the deposition of the tertiary
formation. And it would not be unreasonable to believe that the same, or
a similar convulsion, finally raised the lands of Touraine to their
present elevation above the level of the sea.
We have however in this country, as in almost every other part of the
globe, the most striking proofs of the mighty modifying operations of
the last grand _cataclysm_, the erosive power of whose turbulent waters
have denudated or scooped out deep vallies, frequently leaving--as
instanced in the faluns detached and widely scattered masses of
pre-existing formations, and heaping up their _debris_ in the vast and
variously shaped accumulations designated as diluvial deposits.
These popular speculations have been touched upon rather with the view
of exciting the attention of the curious, and inviting the disquisitions
of the able student of nature, than a desire to attach any absolute
importance to existing theories; for in a progressive science like
geology, new and amazing facts are continually being developed, and it
is only when an immensely increased accumulation of such existing
evidences has been thoroughly scrutinized by the penetrating and
comprehensive genius of a _Newton in geology_, that we can hope to
arrive at any thing approaching a correct explication of its remarkable
and interesting phenomena.
To the commonest observer however the present state of geology presents
an astounding exposition of divine power and goodness, and distinctively
marks the gigantic footsteps of that creative energy, which out of
stupendous confusion and disorder, the rocking earthquake, and the
"wreck of worlds," has caused to spring forth the existing order of
things; whose beauty, perfection, utility and harmony, charm our senses,
enhance our knowledge, and demand for their Creator, the constant
tribute, of our most grateful emanations.
There are a few Chalybeate, and many calcareous springs in the
department, some of the latter of which incrust every substance over
which they flow, and it is not uncommon to find an assemblage of most
fancifully shaped stalactical incrustations in the caves of the
calcareous freestone, etc., being often singularly imitative of the
works both of nature and of art. Caves of this description known by the
name of the caves gouttieres are to be seen near the _village of
Savonnieres_ on the road from _Tours_ to Chinon, not far from the banks
of the Cher. But perhaps no less remarkable in the estimation of the
curious are the extraordinary series of excavations ranging nearly
opposite Tours. These artificial caverns which are hewn out of the
white calcareous sandstone rocks on the banks of the Loire, frequently
constitute entire dwellings, and are so free from humidity as to be
occupied by the peasantry during summer and winter, while others are
formed into extensive storehouses for the wines of the country.
From the general and impartial review we have here taken of some of the
more attractive features, climatic advantages, and geological structure
of Touraine, it cannot but be admitted that it possesses inducements of
no ordinary description to the searcher after health or recreation.
Considerations, of more special importance to the hypochondriac and the
valetudinarian, who may feel themselves obliged to abandon the soothing
comforts of the domestic circle, for the purpose of obtaining relief
from a temporary residence abroad.
In our just estimation of any country or locality, much however depends
on the spirit and manner in which we scrutinize its resources, to the
eye of the vacant and unobservant mind, the most beautiful and
soul-stirring facts and scenes possess neither novelty nor charms, while
the attentive and _intelligent investigator_ seldom fails to discover
and appreciate those extraordinary assemblages of creative perfections,
and wonders, with which the all bountiful hand of the Supreme Creator
has most amply stored every portion of the material Universe.
SPAS OF FRANCE.
A small work of this description will not admit of our entering into a
minute detail of all the mineral waters of France; we shall therefore
merely give a sketch of their physical characters, medicinal properties,
and of the different localities where they are found, to serve as a
superficial guide to Invalids; and conclude by giving a more general
description of the _Spas of Central France_.
Mineral waters may be arranged into the four following classes;
_Saline_; _Acidulous_; _Chalybeate_; and _Sulphureous_.
_Saline._ These waters owe their properties altogether to saline
compounds. Those which predominate and give their character to the
waters of this class are either,
1. Salts, the basis of which is Lime.
2. Muriate of Soda and Magnesia.
3. Sulphate of Magnesia.
4. Alkaline Carbonates, particularly Carbonate of Soda.
They are mostly purgative, the powers of the salts they contain being
very much increased by the large proportion of water in which they are
exhibited.
There are but few _Cold Saline Springs_ in France, viz: those of Andabre
or Camares in the department of Aveyron; Jouhe, dep: Jura; Pouillon,
dep: Landes; Niederbronn, dep: Lower Rhine. They are employed in
diseases which require continued and moderate intestinal evacuations;
such as dyspepsia hypochondriasis, chronic hepatitis, jaundice and
strumous swellings. They are more grateful to the stomach when carbonic
acid gas is also present; and when they contain Iron as in the springs
of Camares, their tonic powers combined with their purgative qualities,
render them still more useful in dyspeptic complaints and amenorrhoea.
To this class the water of the Ocean belongs. The quantity of saline
matter _Sea Water_ contains varies in different latitudes thus, between
10 deg. and 20 deg. it is rather more than 1/24; at the equator it is 1/25; and
at 57 deg. north it is only 1/27. The saline ingredients in 10,000 parts of
sea water according to the last analysis of Dr. Murray, are, muriate of
Soda 220.01; muriate of lime, 7.84; muriate of Magnesia, 42.08; and
Sulphate of Soda 33.16. When brought up from a great depth, its taste is
purely saline; but when taken from the surface it is disagreeably
bitter, owing, perhaps, to the animal and vegetable matters suspended in
it. Its specific gravity varies from 1.0269 to 1.0285; and it does not
freeze until cooled down to 28.5 deg. Fahrenheit. Its medicinal properties
are the same as those of the saline purgative waters, but more powerful;
and as a bath, its efficacy is much superior to that of fresh water.
The general effects of mineral waters are modified by temperature,
whether they be taken internally, or applied externally.
In some _Warm Saline Springs_ as those of Plombieres, and Bains, in the
department of Vosges; Luxeuil, dep. Haute Saone; Bourbon-Lancy, dep.
Saone-et-Loire; Bourbonne-les-Bains, dep. Haute-Marne; Chaudes-Aigues,
dep. Cantal; Avene, Balaruc, dep. l'Herault; La Motte, dep. l'Isere;
Bagnols, dep. l'Orne; Aix-en-Provence; dep. Bouches-du-Rhone;
St.-Laurent-Les-Bains, dep. l'Ardeche; Sylvanes, dep. l'Aveyron;
Cap-Bern, Bagneres, Bigorre, dep. Upper Pyrenees; Encausse, dep.
Haute-Garonne; Neris, dep. l'Allier; their virtues depend principally on
the height of temperature. And in others which have been found to
contain scarcely any foreign matter, the simple diluent power of the
pure water seems to produce the benefit that results from drinking them.
ACIDULOUS. Waters of this class owe their properties chiefly to Carbonic
Acid. They sparkle when drawn from the spring, or when poured into a
glass; have an acidulous taste, and become vapid when exposed to the
air. Besides free carbonic acid, on the presence of which these
qualities depend, acidulous waters contain generally carbonates of Soda,
of Lime, of Magnesia, and of Iron; and sometimes muriate of Soda.
They may be divided into _thermal_ or _warm acidulous waters_, and _cold
acidulous waters_.
The temperature of the former rarely exceeds 72 deg. F. while that of the
latter is generally about 55 deg. F. Of the warm acidulous waters are those
of Mont-D'or, Saint Nectaire, Clermont-Ferrand, in the department of
Puy-de-Dome; Vichy, Bourbon-l'Archambault, dep. l'Allier; Audinac,
Ussat, dep. l'Arriege; Chateauneuf, Saint-Mart, Chatel-guion, dep.
Puy-de-Dome; Dax, dep. Landes; Saint Alban on the left of the river
Loire.