Cévennes

Cévennes (ancient Cebenna), the chief mountain-range in the south of France. With its continuations and offsets, it forms the watershed between the river-systems of the Rhone and the Loire and Garonne. Its general direction is from north-east to south-west, commencing at the southern extremity of the Lyonnais Mountains, and extending under different local names as far as the Canal du Midi, which divides it from the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. The Cévennes extend for over 150 miles, through or into nine departments, the central mass lying in Lozère and Ardèche, where Mont Lozère attains 5584 feet, and Mont Mézenc (the culminating point of the chain) 5754 feet. The average height is from 3000 to 4000 feet. The mountains consist chiefly of primary rocks, covered with tertiary formations, which in many places are interrupted by volcanic rocks. For the religious wars of which the Cévennes have been the arena, see ALBIGENSES, CAMISARDS, WALDENSES; also R. L. Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), and Martel's Les Cévennes (1890), with 140 illustrations.