CHARENTE-INFERIEURE, or LowerCharente, a maritime department of France, comprehending the old provinces of Saintonge and Aunis, and including the islands of Ré, Oléron, Aix, and Madame. It has an area of 2636 square miles, and is bounded N. by Vendée and Deux-Sèvres, E. by Charente, S. by Gironde, and W. by the Bay of Biscay. The surface is exceedingly flat throughout the whole department, and along the coast-line it is so far depressed as to require in many places the erection of sea-dikes and extensive artificial draining. The facilities of the department for internal communication are greatly increased by the number of navigable streams, the formation of two canals (from La Rochelle to the Sèvre-Niortaise, and from Brouage to Rochefort), and the development of an extensive railway system in the hands of a company known as the Company of the Charentes. The productions very nearly coincide with those of Charente, with this difference—that its wines and brandy are greatly inferior, but its fruits and vegetables greatly superior to those of the upper province. It has also more extensive pasturage, and considerable revenue accruing from the pilchard and oyster fisheries on the coast, but its mineral wealth and manufactures are neither so various nor so productive. The former is confined to iron pyrites and the salt supplied by the marshes along the coast; the latter includes coarse woollen stuffs, leather, soap, earthenware, staves, timber, and chemicals. It has several sheltered bays on the coast, and several good harbours, such as Rochefort, Tonnay-Charente, Royan, and Marans, at which a brisk coasting trade is carried on. There is considerable trade in colonial produce, and shipbuilding is prosecuted to some extent. The climate is salubrious except along the ...