Aube, a department in the north-east of France, occupying the southern part of the old province of Champagne and a small portion of Burgundy, bounded by Marne, Haute-Marne, Yonne, and Seine-et-Marne. The eastern part belongs to the basin of the river Aube; the western to that of the Seine. Area, 2310 sq. m. Pop. (1891) 255,548. The climate is moist, but healthy. A great portion of the area is arable land. The north-east is chiefly pastoral; but the south-east is far more fertile, rich in meadow-land and forest, and producing grain, hemp, rape, hay, timber, and wine. The minerals are iron, building-stone, marble, chalk, marl, and potters' clay. Many persons are employed in the iron-industry, in cotton-spinning and weaving, in silk-spinning, and in the production of cloth, porcelain, faience, glass, paper, soap, and rape-sugar. There is an active commerce in wine, timber, and country produce by the railways, with which the department is covered, and of which its capital,
Troyes, is the centre. The river Aube rises near Mount Saule, on the plateau of Langres, and flows 140 miles north-westward by La Ferté, Bar, and Acris, to the Seine.