Nord

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a department of France in the extreme N. (whence its name), corresponding with the former province of French Flanders, and bordering on Belgium and the Strait of Dover; area, 2,193 square miles; is composed of two parts, or at least contracts near the middle at Armentières, on the Lys, to a very narrow strip. It is watered by the Scheldt and the Sambre, with their affluents, and by numerous canals. Next to that of the Seine, it is the most densely-peopled department of France. In he went to Paris, and devoted himself blood the people are Flemish and Wal- to literature. He wrote loon in about equal proportions. The soil is fertile, well cultivated, and yields more abundant harvests than any other part of the country; the fisheries are productive, the mineral wealth very great, especially in coal; and for its manufacturing industries Nord is in several respects the foremost of French departments-iron, machinery, porcelain, glass and mirrors, paper, candles, soap, chemicals, beet-sugar, and cotton, woolen, linen, and silk cloths being all made on a large scale. It is abundantly equipped with railways and navigable streams. The department possesses five fortresses of the first class and has been the scene of NORDENSKJÖLD many great campaigns and battles. The chief town, Lille; chief port, Dunkirk. In the World War (1914-1918) the department was the scene of heavy fighting between the Allies and Germans in October and November, 1914, and in April and May, 1915. The department remained largely in German hands until October, 1918, when the Allies drove out the invaders. Pop. about 2,000,000.