I. The Towns and People in the Province of Algiers ERRATA. FRANCE. I. COAL-FIELD NEAR NANTES AND SCENERY OF THE BANKS OF THE ERDRE. II. MINERAL FIELDS AND LIMESTONE PLATEAU OF AVEYRON. III. THE PLAINS OF LANGUEDOC AND GASCONY, — THEIR TOWNS, ANTIQUITIES AND INHABITANTS. B SCENERY, SCIENCE AND ART. . FRANCE. CHAPTER THE FIRST. ACCOUNT OF A COAL-FIELD NEAR NANTES.-SCENERY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER ERDRE IN BRITTANY. I HAVE lately been examining a small and singular coal-field extending from a few miles north of Nantes eastwards to the Loire at Chalonne, and in the course of my exploration had occasion to descend from the little town of Nort by an old rickety packet-boat of some twenty horse-power to the Loire at Nantes, following the course of the river Erdre, which is chiefly known as being a part of the line of water communication between Brest and Nantes. I was so much surprised and delighted at the singular beauty of this river during the greater part of its course, that I am anxious to communicate to others a means of enjoying charming scenery in a retired corner of France, which still retains a large number of its primitive habits and costumes. The coal-field of this part of Brittany is not very important. It consists of a singular belt of carboniferous rocks ranging nearly east and west, and reaching from the terminus of the Brest and Nantes Canal, where it enters the Erdre a few miles north of Nantes, to Chalonne, not far from Angers on the Loire, a total distance of about sixty-five miles. This belt contains two groups of coal-beds, both which are nearly vertical, but they have a uniform south dip as far as is known in the con |