Saone

Saone, a river of eastern France, rising in the Faucilles mountains (department of Vosges), 15 m. W.S.W. of Epinal at a height of 1300 ft. and uniting with the Rhone at Lyons. Length, 301 m.; drainage area, 11,409 sq. m. The oldest Celtic name of the river was Arar. In the 4th century another name appears, Sauconna, from which the modern name is derived. The Saone, moving slowly in a sinuous channel, has its course in the wide depression between the Plateau of Langres, the Cote d'Or and the mountains of Charolais and Beaujolais on the west and the western slopes of the Vosges and Jura and the plain of Bresse and the plateau of Dombes on the east. In the department of Saone-et-Loire, the Saone unites with the Doubs, an affluent rivalling the Saone in volume and exceeding it in length at this point. At the important town of Chalon-sur-Saone the river turns south, and passes Macon. Below Treveux its valley, now narrower, winds past the Mont d'Or group and joins the Rhone just below the Perrache quarter of Lyons. The Saone is canalized from Corre to Lyons, a distance of 233 m., the normal depth of water being 6 ft. 6 in. At Corre (confluence with the Coney) it connects with the southern branch of the Eastern Canal, at Heuilley (below Gray) with the Saone-Marne Canal, at St Symphorien (above St Jean-de-Losne) with the Rhone-Rhine Canal, and at St Jean-de-Losne with the Canal de Bourgogne and at Chalon with the Canal du Centre.