erally inaccessible, except at the mouths of the principal rivers,
such as the Touques, the Dives, the Orne and the Vire, which are
navigable at high tide for several miles inland. Trouville is the chief
of the numerous coast resorts. The climate, though humid and variable,
is healthy. The raising of cattle, sheep and horses is the mainstay of
the agriculture of the department. Pasture is good and abundant in the
east and north-west, and there is a large export trade in the butter,
eggs and cheese (Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Eveque) of these districts,
carried on by Honfleur, Isigny and other ports. The plain of Caen is a
great centre for horse breeding. Wheat, oats, barley, colza and potatoes
are the chief crops. The orchards of Auge and Bessin produce a superior
kind of cider, of which upwards of 40,000,000 gallons are made in the
department; a large quantity of cider brandy (eau-de-vie de Calvados) is
distilled. Poultry to a considerable amount is sent to the Paris
markets, and there is a large output of honey and wax. The spinning and
weaving of wool and cotton are the chief industries. Besides these,
paper-mills, oil-mills, tanneries, saw-mills, shipbuilding yards,
rope-works, dye-works, distilleries and bleach-fields, scattered
throughout the department, give employment to a number of hands. There
are productive iron-mines and building-stone, slate and lime are
plentiful. Fisheries, chiefly of lobster, oyster (Courseulles), herring
and mackerel, are prosecuted. Coal, timber, grain, salt-fish and cement
are among the imports; exports include iron, dairy products and sand.
Caen and Honfleur are the most important commercial ports. There is a
canal 9 m. in length from Caen to Ouistreham on the coast. The
department is served by the Ouest-Etat railway. It is divided into the
six arrondissements (38 cantons, 763 communes) of Caen, Falaise, Bayeux,
Vire, Lisieux and Pont l'Eveque. Caen, the capital, is the seat of a
court of appeal and the centre of an _academie_ (educational division).
The department forms the diocese of Bayeux, in the ecclesiastical
province of Rouen, and belongs to the region of the III. army-corps. The
other principal towns are Falaise, Lisieux, Conde-sur-Noireau, Vire,
Honfleur and Trouville (q.v.).

Amongst the great number of medieval churches which the department
possesses, the fine Gothic church of St. Pierre-sur-Dives is second in
importance only to those of Lisieux and Bayeux; that of Norrey,