communes. It forms the bishopric of Digne, formerly in the ecclesiastical
province of Embrun, but since 1802 in that of Aix-en-Provence. Its chief
towns are Digne, Barcelonnette, Castellane, Forcalquier, and Sisteron. It
is poorly supplied with railways (total length 109-1/2 m.), the main line
from Grenoble to Avignon running through it from Sisteron to Manosque, and
sending off two short branch lines to Digne (14 m.) and to Forcalquier (9
m.). It is a poor department from the material point of view, being very
mountainous and containing many mountain pastures. But these pastures have
been much damaged by the Provencal shepherds to whom they are let out,
while the forests have been very much thinned (though extensive
reafforestments are now being carried out) so that the soil is very dry and
made drier by exposure to the southern sun. From near the head of the Ubaye
valley the pass of the Col de l'Argentiere (6545 ft.) leads over from
Barcelonnette to Cuneo, in Italy; it was perhaps traversed by Hannibal, and
certainly in 1515 by Francis I.

See C. J. J. M. Feraud, _Histoire, geographie et statistique du Departement
des Basses-Alpes_ (Digne, 1861).

(W. A. B. C.)

BASSES-PYRENEES, a department of south-western France, at the angle of the
Bay of Biscay, formed in 1790, two-thirds of it from Bearn and the rest
from three districts of Gascony--Basse-Navarre, Soule and Labourd. The
latter constitute the Basque region of France (see BASQUES) and cover the
west of the department. Basses-Pyrenees is bounded N. by Landes and Gers,
E. by Hautes-Pyrenees (which has two enclaves forming five communes within
this department), S. by Spain, and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. Pop. (1906)
426,817. Area, 2977 sq. m. The whole of the south of the department is
occupied by the western and lower summits of the Pyrenees. The remainder
consists of a region of heaths and plateaus to the northeast of the Gave de
Pau, and of hills divided by numberless fertile valleys to the west of that
river. The height of the mountains of the southern frontier increases
gradually from west to east. The peak of the Rhune, to the south of St Jean
de Luz, rises only to 2950 ft.; and on the border of the Basque country the
mean height of the summits is not much greater. The peak of Orhy alone, in
the south of the valley of Mauleon, reaches 6618 ft. But beyond that of
Anie (8215 ft.), on the meridian of Orthez, which marks the boundary of
Bearn, much loftier elevati