ultural
products. The department is served chiefly by the Orleans and Ouest-Etat
railways, and the Charente is navigable below Angouleme. Charente is
divided into the five arrondissements of Angouleme, Cognac, Ruffec,
Barbezieux and Confolens (29 cantons, 426 communes). It belongs to the
region of the XII. army corps, to the province of the archbishop of
Bordeaux, and to the academie (educational division) of Poitiers. Its
court of appeal is at Bordeaux.

Angouleme (the capital), Cognac, Confolens, Jarnac and La Rochefoucauld
(q.v.) are the more noteworthy places in the department. Barbezieux and
Ruffec, capitals of arrondissements and agricultural centres, are
otherwise of little importance. The department abounds in churches of
Romanesque architecture, of which those of Bassac, St Amant-de-Boixe
(portions of which are Gothic in style), Plassac and Gensac-la-Pallue
may be mentioned. There are remains of a Gothic abbey church at La
Couronne, and Roman remains at St Cybardeaux, Brossac and Chassenon
(where there are ruins of the Gallo-Roman town of Cassinomagus).

CHARENTE-INFERIEURE, a maritime department of south-western France,
comprehending the old provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, and a small
portion of Poitou, and including the islands of Re, Oleron, Aix and
Madame. Area, 2791 sq.m. Pop. (1906) 453,793. It is bounded N. by
Vendee, N.E. by Deux-Sevres, E. by Charente, S.E. by Dordogne, S.W. by
Gironde and the estuary of the Gironde, and W. by the Bay of Biscay.
Plains and low hills occupy the interior; the coast is flat and marshy,
as are the islands (Re, Aix, Oleron) which lie opposite to it. The
department takes its name from the river Charente, which traverses it
during the last 61 m. of its course and drains the central region. Its
chief tributaries are on the right the Boutonne, on the left the Seugne.
The climate is temperate and, except along the coast, healthy. There are
several sheltered bays on the coast, and several good harbours, the
chief of which are La Rochelle, Rochefort and Tonnay-Charente, the two
latter some distance up the Charente. Royan on the north shore of the
Gironde is an important watering-place much frequented for its bathing.

The majority of the inhabitants of Charente-Inferieure live by
agriculture. The chief products of the arable land are wheat, oats,
maize, barley and the potato. Horse and cattle-raising is carried on and
dairying is prosperous. A considerable quantity of wi