Rhone

Rhone (Lat. Rhodōnus), the only important French river which falls into the Mediterranean, takes its rise in the Swiss Alps, on the western side of Mount St Gothard, at an altitude of 5752 feet, and not far from the sources of the Rhine. Its entire length, from its source to its mouth in the Gulf of Lyons, is 504 miles, and the area of its river-basin 38,170 sq. m. It first runs in a south-westerly direction through the canton of Valais, along a narrow valley between the Bernese and the Pennine divisions of the Alps, until near Martigny it takes a sudden turn to the north and pours its waters into the Lake of Geneva (q.v.). It issues from the lake at its southern extremity, proceeding west, and then forces a passage through the Jura. The municipality of Geneva has taken advantage of the strong and steady current of the river where, passing through the city, it is divided by an island into two arms, to utilise it for industrial purposes. A system of 20 turbines with 4400 horse-power has been constructed in a building in the bed of one of the arms, at a cost of £285,000; and by this means, in 1890, 220 motors with some 1600 horse-power were at work. Formerly the river used to disappear for some distance near Fort l'Ecluse into the subterranean channel La Porte du Rhone; but the vault or covering of the gorge into which it plunged has now been blown away by blasting agents. At St Génis the Rhone turns back suddenly to the north-west, and then once more flows westwards through a more level country as far as Lyons, where it is joined by its largest tributary, the Saône (283 miles long), from the north. From Lyons it follows a southern direction past Vienne, Valence, Montélimart, Avignon, and Arles, where begins its delta, embraced between two main arms, the Greater and the Lesser Rhone. Its most important affluents are, on the right, the Ain, Saône, Ardèche, and Gard; on the left, the Arve, Isère, Drôme, and Durance. From Lyons southward the Rhone is easily navigable for good-sized vessels; but the up-navigation, owing to the rapidity of the current and the sudden shifting of sandbanks, is attended with considerable difficulty, and is at times almost impracticable. On account of these and other obstructions, which are greatest near the mouths of the river, communication with the Mediterranean is in great part dependent upon canals. Canals likewise connect the Rhone with the Rhine by the Saône, with the Seine, the Loire, and the Garonne.