ne, most of which
is distilled into brandy, is produced. The department has a few
peat-workings, and produces freestone, lime and cement; the salt-marshes
of the coast are important sources of mineral wealth. Glass, pottery,
bricks and earthenware are prominent industrial products. Ship-building,
brandy-distilling, iron-founding and machine construction are also
carried on. Oysters and mussels are bred in the neighbourhood of La
Rochelle and Marennes, and there are numerous fishing ports along the
coast.

The railways traversing the department belong to the Ouest-Etat system,
except one section of the Paris-Bordeaux line belonging to the Orleans
Company. The facilities of the department for internal communication are
greatly increased by the number of navigable streams which water it. The
Charente, the Sevre Niortaise, the Boutonne, the Seudre and the Gironde
furnish 142 m. of navigable waterway, to which must be added the 56 m.
covered by the canals of the coast. There are 6 arrondissements (40
cantons, 481 communes), cognominal with the towns of La Rochelle,
Rochefort, Marennes, Saintes, Jonzac and St Jean d'Angely--La Rochelle
being the chief town of the department. The department forms the diocese
of La Rochelle, and is attached to the 18th military region, and in
educational matters to the academie of Poitiers. Its court of appeal is
at Poitiers.

La Rochelle, St Jean d'Angely, Rochefort and Saintes (q.v.) are the
principal towns. Surgeres and Aulnay possess fine specimens of the
numerous Romanesque churches. Pons has a graceful chateau of the 15th
and 16th centuries, beside which there rises a fine keep of the 12th
century.

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, a town of northern France in the department of Seine,
situated on the right bank of the Marne, at its confluence with the
Seine, 1 m. S.E. of the fortifications of Paris, of which it is a
suburb. Pop. (1906) 18,034. It derives the distinctive part of its name
from the stone bridge of ten arches which crosses the Marne and unites
the town with Alfortville, well known for its veterinary school founded
in 1766. It has always been regarded as a point of great importance for
the defence of the capital, and has frequently been the scene of
sanguinary conflicts. The fort of Charenton on the left bank of the
Marne is one of the older forts of the Paris defence. In the 16th and
17th centuries Charenton was the scene of the ecclesiastical councils of
the Protestant party, wh