Marne

Marne, a river of northern France, rising on the Plateau of Langres, 3 m. S. by E. of Langres, and uniting with the Seine at Charenton, an eastern suburb of Paris. Leaving Langres on the left the river flows northward, passing Chaumont, as far as a point a little above St Dizier. Here it turns west and enters the department of Marne, where it waters the Perthois and the wide plain of Champagne-Pouilleuse. Soon after its entrance into this department it receives the Blaise; and turning northwest passes Vitry-le-Francois where it receives the Saulx, Chalons, below which it resumes a westerly course, and Epernay, where it enters picturesque and undulating country. Its subsequent course lies through the departments of Aisne, where it flows through Chateau-Thierry; Seine-et-Marne, where it drives the picturesque mills of Meaux; Seine-et-Oise and Seine. Its chief tributaries in those departments are the Petit-Morin, the Ourcq and the Grand-Morin. The length of the Marne is 328 m., the area of its basin 4894 sq. m. It is joined a mile from its source of the Marne-Saone canal which is continued at Rouvroy by the Haute-Marne canal as far as Vitry-le-Francois. From that town, which is the starting-point of the canal between the Marne and the Rhine, it is accompanied by the lateral canal of the Marne to Dizy where its own channel is canalized. At Conde, above Epernay, the river is joined by the canal connecting it with the Aisne. From Lizy, above Meaux, it is accompanied on the right bank, though at some distance, by the Ourcq canal.