Loire

the largest river of France. It rises in eastern France, 4,500 feet above the sea level, and flows westward, 626 miles, under the walls of Nevers, Orleans, Tours, and Nantes, into the Bay of Biscay. It is navigable by large steamers to Nantes, thirty-three miles from the sea. Smaller boats ascend another 500 miles. The basin of the Loire includes 44,979 square miles. At one point, the Loire and the Seine, like our Cumberland and Tennessee, flow side by side. The footpath from the Seine to the Loire is but seven miles in length.