pasture. The highest point (about 800 ft.) is on the eastern border of the department. In the comparatively regular outline of the coast there are a few breaks, as at Le Tréport, Dieppe, St Valery-en-Caux, Fécamp and Havre, the Cap de la Hève, which commands this last port, and Cape Antifer, 12 or 13 m. farther north. Le Tréport, Dieppe, Veules, St Valery, Veulettes, Fécamp, Yport, Étretat and Ste Adresse (to mention only the more important) are fashionable watering-places. Forges-les-Eaux (in the east of the department) has cold chalybeate springs of some note. The winter is not quite so cold nor the summer so hot as in Paris, but the average temperature of the year is higher. The rainfall at Rouen is 28 in. per annum, increasing towards Dieppe.
In general the department is fertile and well 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 magnificent dimensions, especially in the forest of Arques and along the railway from Rouen to Dieppe; Pinus sylvestris is the principal component of the forest of Rouvray opposite Rouen. The forest of Eu covers 36 sq. m. in the north-east. Of the arable crops wheat and oats are the principal, rye, flax, colza, sugar beet and potatoes being also of importance. Milch cows are kept in great numbers especially in the Bray district, and Gournay butter and Gournay and Neufchâtel 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. With the exception of a little peat and a number of quarries, Seine-Inférieure has no mineral source of wealth; but manufacturing and especially the textile industry is well developed. Rouen is the chief centre of the cotton trade, which comprises spinning and the weaving of rouenneries, indiennes (cotton prints), cretonnes and other cotton goods. Elbeuf is the centre of woollen manufacture. Flax-spinning, the dyeing and printing of fabrics and other accessory industries also employ many hands. Engineering works, foundries and iron ship-building yards are found at Havre and Rouen. Wooden ships are also built at Havre, Rouen, Dieppe and Fécamp. Other establishments of importance are the national tobacco-factories at Dieppe and Havre, sugar-refineries, distilleries, glass-works, potteries, paper works, soap works, chemical works, flour-mills, oil-factories, leather works, &c. The fisheries are the great resource for the inhabitants of the seaboard. Fécamp, which plays a very important part at the Newfoundland fisheries, sends large quantities of cod, herrings, mackerel, &c., into the market; Dieppe supplies Paris with fresh fish; St Valery sends boats as far as Iceland. The principal ports for foreign trade are Havre, Rouen and Dieppe.
The chief imports of the department are cotton, wool, cereals, hides, coffee, timber and dye-woods, indigo and other tropical products, coal, petroleum, &c. The exports include industrial and dairy products. Seine-Inférieure is served principally by the Western railway, but the Northern railway also has several lines there. The Seine and other rivers provide 85 m. of navigable waterway. The canal of Tancarville from Quillebeuf to Havre is about 15 m. long, that from Eu to Tréport about 2 m. The department is divided into five arrondissements (Rouen, Dieppe, Havre, Neufchâtel and Yvetot) 55 cantons and 760 communes. It forms the diocese of the archbishopric of Rouen and part of the region of the III. army corps and of the académie (educational division) of Caen. Its court of appeal is at Rouen, the capital.
Rouen, Havre and Dieppe and in a lesser degree, Elbeuf, Fécamp, Harfleur, Lillebonne, Yvetot, Eu, Le Tréport, Aumale, Étretat, Bolbec, Barentin and Caudebec-en-Caux (see separate articles) are noteworthy towns for commercial, architectural or other reasons. The following places are also of architectural interest. St Martin-de Boscherville, where there are remains of an important abbey including a fine church in the Romanesque style of the early 12th century and a Gothic chapter-house of the latter half of the 12th century; Valmont, which has fine ruins (16th century) of the choir of a Cistercian abbey-church; Varengeville, well known for the manor (16th century) of Jacques Ango (see Dieppe); Graville-Ste Honorine, with a Romanesque church and other remains of an ancient abbey; Montivilliers, which has a fine abbey-church of the 11th, 12th and 16th centuries; and Arques, Boos, Martainville, Mesnières and Tancarville which have old châteaus of various periods.
SEISIN (from M. Eng. saysen, seysen, in the legal sense of to put in possession of, or to take possession of, hence, to grasp, to seize; the O. Fr. seisir, saisir, is from Low Lat. sacire, generally referred to the same source as Goth. satjan, O. Eng. settan, to put in place, set), 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 of two kinds, in law and in deed. Seisin in law is where lands descend and the heir has not actually entered upon them; by entry he converts his seisin in law into seisin in deed. 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.[1] Its importance is considerably 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 Feoffment), and the old rule of descent from the person last seised having been abolished in favour of descent from the purchaser. 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 (1833–1834), however, rendered the fact of the seisin of the husband of no importance, and the Married Women's Property Act 1882 practically abolished the old law of curtesy.
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, 1660).
In Scots law the corresponding term is “sasine.” Like seisin in England, sasine has become of little legal importance owing to modern legislation. By an act of 1845 actual sasine on the lands was made unnecessary. By an act of 1858 the instrument of sasine was superseded by the recording of the conveyance with a warrant of registration thereon.
SEISMOMETER (from Gr. σεισμός, earthquake, and μέτρον, a measure). This name was originally given to instruments designed to measure the movement of the ground during earthquakes (q.v.). 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 smallness of the motion) until instrumental means are used to detect them. Others, which may be called “earth-tiltings,” show themselves by a slow bending and unbending of the surface, so that a post stuck in the ground, vertical 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. No sharp distinction can be drawn between these classes of movements. Earthquakes and earth-tremors grade into one another, and in almost every earthquake there is some tilting of the surface. The term “seismometer” may conveniently be extended (and will here be understood) to cover all instruments which are designed to measure movements of the ground.
Popularly it is supposed that earthquake recorders are instruments so sensitive to slight vibrations that great care is necessary in selecting a site for their installation. SeismoscopeAlthough this supposition is correct for a certain class of apparatus, as for example that which will record rapid elastic vibrations produced by the movement of a train a mile distant, it is far from being so for the ordinary apparatus employed by the seismologist. What he usually aims at is either to record the more or less rapid movements of the ground which we can feel, or the slow but large disturbances which do not appeal to our unaided senses. Generally speaking, the instruments used for these purposes are not disturbed by the vibrations resulting from ordinary traffic. In almost every household something may be found which will respond to a gentle shaking of the ground. Sometimes it is a loosely-fitting shutter or window-frame, a hanging drawer-handle, or a lamp-shade which will rattle; the timbers in a roof may creak, or a group of wine-glasses with their rims in contact may chatter. Any of these sounds may call attention to movements which otherwise would pass unnoticed. Specially arranged contrivances which tell us that the ground has been shaken are called seismoscopes or earthquake indicators. A small column, as for example a lead pencil standing on end, or a row of pins propped up against suitable supports, or other bodies which are easily overturned, may be used as seismoscopes. Experience, however, has
- ↑ Up to the middle of the 15th century “seisin” was applied to chattels equally with freeholds, the word “possessed” being rarely used. In course of time the words acquired their modern meaning. See F. W. Maitland, “Seisin of Chattels,” Law Quarterly Review, vol. I. p. 324 and “The Mystery of Seisin,” Law Q. R. ii. 481. Pollock and Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, vol. ii. 29 seq.; Fry, L. J., in Cochrane v. Moore (1890), 25 Q.B.D. 57.
