most important mines are those of lignite, in which
between 2000 and 3000 workmen are employed; the department also produces
bauxite, building-stone, lime, cement, gypsum, clay, sand and gravel and
marble. The salt marshes employ many workmen, and the amount of sea-salt
obtained exceeds in quantity the produce of any other department in
France. Marseilles, the capital, is by far the most important industrial
town. In its oil-works, soap-works, metallurgical works, shipbuilding
works, distilleries, flour-mills, chemical works, tanneries, engineering
and machinery works, brick and tile works, manufactories of preserved
foods and biscuits, and other industrial establishments, is concentrated
most of the manufacturing activity of the department. To these must be
added the potteries of the industrial town of Aubagne, the silk-works in
the north-west cantons, and various paper and cardboard manufactories,
while several of the industries of Marseilles, such as the distilling of
oil, metal-founding, shipbuilding and soap-making, are common to the
whole of Bouches-du-Rhone. Fishing is also an important industry.
Cereals, flour, silk, woollen and cotton goods, wine, brandy, oils,
soap, sugar and coffee are chief exports; cereals, oil-seeds, wine and
brandy, raw sugar, cattle, timber, silk, wool, cotton, coal, &c., are
imported. The foreign commerce of the department, which is principally
carried on in the Mediterranean basin, is for the most part concentrated
in the capital; the minor ports are Martigues, Cassis and La Ciotat.
Internal trade is facilitated by the canal from Aries to Port-de-Bouc
and two smaller canals, in all about 35 m. in length. The Rhone and the
Petit-Rhone are both navigable within the department.

Bouches-du-Rhone is divided into the three arrondissements of
Marseilles, Aix and Arles (33 cantons, 111 communes). It belongs to the
archiepiscopal province of Aix, to the region of the XV. army corps, the
headquarters of which are at Marseilles, and to the _academie_
(educational division) of Aix. Its court of appeal is at Aix.
Marseilles, Aix, Arles, La Ciotat, Martigues, Salon, Les Saintes-Maries,
St Remy, Les Baux and Tarascon, the principal places, are separately
noticed. Objects of interest elsewhere may be mentioned. Near
Saint-Chamas there is a remarkable Roman bridge over the Touloubre,
which probably dates from the 1st century B.C. and is thus the oldest in
France. It is supported on one semicircular spa