Hérault

Hérault, a maritime department in the south of France, bounded on the south-east by the Gulf of Lyons, is oval in form, 84 miles in greatest length from east to west, and has an area of 2393 sq. m. Pop. (1872) 429,878; (1891) 461,651. It is occupied in the north and north-west by chains of the Cévennes; but the mountainous tracts give place to low plains as the coast is approached, and these in turn to salt-marshes and lagoons next the sea. The largest of the lagoons (étangs), Thau, covers nearly 20,000 acres. The principal rivers are the Hérault, the Orb, and the Lez, which rise in the Cévennes and pursue a generally southward course to the Mediterranean. In the neighbourhood of the étangs the climate is unhealthy, especially in summer, when agues and fevers prevail; but elsewhere throughout the department it is unusually fine, though in summer very hot and dry. About a fourth of the entire area consists of arable land. Previous to the devastating attacks of the phylloxera, this department was counted amongst the most important of the wine-growing districts of France. The acreage planted with vines has in ten years decreased from 480,000 to 154,000 acres, and the yield of wine from 390 to about 125 million gallons. The cultivation of olives and the breeding of silkworms and sheep are important industries, as are also the preparation of brandy and liqueurs, the manufacture of cloth, glass, soap, and candles, and tanning. Coal is the chief mineral mined. Large quantities of salt are prepared from the saline marshes; and from the shore-lakes and the sea immense quantities of fish are obtained. This department is divided into the four arrondissements of Béziers, Lodève, Montpellier, and Saint-Pons. Montpellier is the capital.