Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

626 S E I-
the Seine and the Channel, hut deep valleys have been
hollowed out by the streams. The Bray district in the
south-east is a broad valley of denudation formed by the
sea as it retired, and it is traversed by smaller valleys and
covered with excellent pasture. In the comparatively
regular outline of the coast there are a few breaks, as at
Treport, Dieppe, St Valery-en-Caux, Fecamp, and Havre,
the Cap de la Heve, which commands this last port, and
Cape Antifer, 12 or 13 miles farther north. Treport,
Dieppe, Veules, St Valery, Fecamp, Yport, Etretat, and Ste
Adresse (to mention only the more important) are fashion¬
able watering-places with the Parisians. The winters are
not quite so- cold nor is the summer so hot as in Paris, and
the average temperature of the year is higher. The rain¬
fall is 24 inches per annum, increasing from Rouen to
Dieppe as the sea is approached.
With a total area of 1,491,458 acres, Seine Inferieure has
911,938 acres of arable ground, 151,125 of wood, 99,703 grass,
32,977 moorland and pasturage. Out of a total population of
814,068 in 1881 those dependent on agriculture numbered 233,536.
The live stock in the same year comprised 81,561 horses of good
breeds, 1421 asses, 125 mules, 236,493 cattle, 259,677 sheep of
ordinary kinds and 27,523 of special breeds (wool-clip, 560 tons),
78,186 pigs, 3341 goats, 13,202 beehives (54 tons of honey and 13 of
wax). Milch cows are kept in great numbers, and Gournay butter
and Gournay and Neufchatel cheese are in repute. The farms of
the Caux plateau are each surrounded by an earthen dyke, on which
are planted forest trees, generally beech and oak. Within the
shelter thus provided apple and pear trees grow, which produce the
cider generally drunk by the inhabitants (38,602,036 gallons in
1883). The other crops in 1883 were—wheat, 6,667,650 bushels ;
meslin, 59,950 ; rye, 654,489 ; barley, 443,751 ; oats, 7,017,609 ;
potatoes, 2,954,457 ; pulse, 98,736 ; beetroot for sugar 28,837 tons,
and for fodder 118,099 ; colza seed, 29,076 tons ; and 457,047 tons
of ordinary fodder. In general the department is fertile andpvell
cultivated. Along the Seine fine meadow-land has been reclaimed
by dyking ; and sandy and barren districts have been planted with
trees, mostly with oaks and beeches, and they often attain magnifi¬
cent dimensions, especially in the forest of Arques and along the
railway from Rouen to Dieppe ; Pinus sylvestris is the principal com¬
ponent of the forest of Rouvray opposite Rouen. With the exception
of a little peat and a number of quarries, employing 745 workmen,
Seine Inferieure has no mineral source of wealth ; hut manufactur¬
ing industry is well developed. Rouen is the chief centre of the
cotton-trade, which is in the department represented by 190 spinning
and weaving factories, employing 22,947 hands, 1,400,000 spindles,
14,000 power-looms, and 4000 hand-looms, and working up 30,000
tons of cotton annually. Hand-loom weaving, carried on throughout
the country districts, employs 18,000 looms ; in the branch of the
cotton trade known as rouennerie 190 manufacturers are employed,
producing to the value of £2,400,000 per annum; in that of
the indicnnes 20 establishments with 5000 workpeople turn out
yearly 1,000,000 pieces of 115 yards each. There are 22 establish¬
ments for dyeing cotton cloth with 700 workmen, and for dyeing
cotton yarn 32 establishments with 1200 workmen. The woollen
manufacture, of which Elbeuf is the centre, employs 24,000 work¬
men and produces goods valued at about £3,500,000, with raw
material valued at £1,720,000, mainly imported from Australia and
partly from the La Plata ports. The wool-spinning mills (at Elbeuf
and Darnetal) have 92,000 spindles, and there are 650 power-looms
and 3800 hand-looms. At Elbeuf (22,883 inhabitants in 1881)
there are 17 dyeworks, 50 twist factories, a manufactory of carding
machines, and 45 cloth-dressing factories. About 18,000 spindles
are employed in flax-spinning, an industry more widely distributed
throughout the department. Engineering works, foundries, and
iron shipbuilding yards occur at Havre (population 105,540 in 1881)
and Rouen (105,860). Wooden ships are also built at Havre, Rouen,
Dieppe (21,585), and Fecamp (11,919). Other establishments of
importance are the national tobacco-factories at Dieppe (1100 hands)
and Havre (580 hands), sugar-refineries (£1,440,000 worth of sugar
in 1881), glass-works (873 workmen), soap-works, chemical works,
candle-factories, flour-mills, oil-factories, ivory-works, lace-works,
clock-factories, &c. The total number of industrial establishments
in the department is 975 ; and it is estimated that 305,460 persons
depend on industrial pursuits. The fisheries are a great resource
for the inhabitants of the seaboard. Fecamp sends yearly £100,000
worth of cod and £80,000 worth of herrings, mackerel, &c., into the
market; Dieppe has the supplying of Paris with fresh fish ; St
Valery sends its boats as far as Iceland. The principal ports for
foreign trade are Havre, Rouen, and Dieppe. There are 364 miles
of railway, 370 of national roads, 6543 of other roads, 98 of Seine
navigation, and the Bresle is canalized for 2 miles. In population
Seine Inferieure stands fourth in the list of French departments ;
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it has consequently been proposed to divide it into the two depart¬
ments of Seine Inferieure and Seine Maritime. The density of
population is double the average of France. There are 5 arrondisse-
ments, 51 cantons (of which 3 are in Havre and 6 in Rouen), and
759 communes. The department forms the archbishopric of Rouen ;
the court of appeal and the headquarters of the corps d'armee are
also in that city. Places of importance are Elbeuf; Fecamp, a
fishing port, with sea-bathing, distilling, &c. ; Bolbec (10,226
inhabitants), with weaving and spinning factories; and Eu (4827
inhabitants), with a celebrated castle belonging to Louis Philippe
and the Orleans family.
SEISIN. “ Seisin of the freehold may be defined to
be the possession of such an estate in land as was anciently
thought worthy to be held by a free man ” (Williams, On
Seisin, p. 2). Seisin is now confined to possession of the
freehold, though at one time it appears to have been used
for simple possession without regard to the estate of the
possessor. (See Possession.) Its importance is consider¬
ably less than it was at one time owing to the old form of
conveyance by feoffment with livery of seisin having been
superseded by a deed of grant (see Real Estate), and
the old rule of descent from the person last seised having
been abolished in favour of descent from the purchaser.
(See Inheritance.) At one time the right of the wife to
dower and of the husband to an estate by curtesy depended
upon the doctrine of seisin. The Dower Act, 3. and 4
Will. IV. c. 105, has, however, rendered the fact of the
seisin of the husband of no importance, and the Married
Women’s Property Act, 1882, appears to have practically
abolished the old law of curtesy. In the case of a convey¬
ance operating under the Statute of Uses, seisin is deemed
to be given by the effect of the statute. This constructive
seisin may still be of importance where the question arises
how long a person has been in actual possession. Thus in
Orme’s Case (Law Rep., 8 Common Pleas, 281) the right
to a county vote depended upon the form of the convey¬
ance of a rent-charge to the voter. If the conveyance had
been under the statute, the claimant would have been
seised for a sufficient time; the court, however, held that
the conveyance was a common' law grant, and that the
grantee must have been in actual receipt of the rent in
order to entitle him to be registered.
Primer seisin was a feudal burden at one time incident
to the king’s tenants in capite, whether by knight service
or in socage. It was the right of the crown to receive of
the heir, after the death of a tenant in capite, one year’s
profits of lands in possession and half a year’s profits of
lands in reversion. The right was abandoned by the Act
abolishing feudal tenures (12 Car. II. c. 24).
In Scotch law the corresponding term is “ sasine. ” Like seisin
in England, sasine has become of little legal importance owing to
recent legislation. By 8 and 9 Yict. c. 35 actual sasine on the
lands was made unnecessary. By 21 and 22 Yict. c. 76 the instru¬
ment of sasine was superseded by the recording of the conveyance
with a warrant of registration thereon. For the register of sasines,
see Registration.
SEISMOMETER. This name was originally given to
instruments designed to measure the movement of the
ground during earthquakes. Recent observations have
shown that, in addition to the comparatively great and
sudden displacements which occur in earthquakes, the
ground is subject to other movements. Some of these,
which may be called “ earth-tremors,” resemble earthquakes
in the rapidity with which they occur, but differ from
earthquakes in being imperceptible (owing to the small¬
ness of the motion) until instrumental means are used
to detect them. Others, which may be called “ earth-tilt-
ings,” show themselves by a slow bending and unbending
of the surface, so that a post stuck in the ground, ver¬
tical to begin with, does not remain vertical, but inclines
now to one side and now to another, the plane of the
ground in which it stands shifting relatively to the horizon.
I No sharp distinction can be drawn between these classes