Seine (anc. Sequana), a river of France, rising in the department of Côte-d'Or, on the slope of Mt. Tasselot, flowing first N. W., then W. S. W., and again N. W., through the departments of Aube, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-et-Oise, Seine, Eure, and Seine-Inférieure, and falling into the English channel between Havre and Honfleur. The direct distance from its source to its mouth is 250 m., but its windings make it nearly 500 m. long. It is navigable for large vessels to Rouen, and for small vessels 350 m. to Méry-sur-Seine. It is connected by canals with the Loire, the Saône and Rhône, the Somme and Scheldt, and the Ourcq. Its elevation at its source is about 1,500 ft. above the sea. At Paris its width is from 300 to 500 ft., and at its embouchure about 7 m. Its chief tributaries on the right are the Aube, Marne, and Oise, and on the left the Yonne, Loing, Essonne, Eure, and Rille. The principal towns on its banks are Châtillon, Bar-sur-Seine, Troyes, Nogent, Melun, Paris, Poissy, Mantes, Rouen, and Havre.

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Seine, the metropolitan department of France, in the old province of Île-de-France, entirely enclosed by the department of Seine-et-Oise; area, 183 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 2,220,-060. It is divided into the arrondissements of Paris, St. Denis, and Sceaux, the first of which is coterminous with the city of Paris. The surface is generally level. The Seine flows through the department very circuitously from S. E. to N. W., and the Marne joins it from the eastward. The most valuable mineral productions are excellent building stone and gypsum, producing plaster of Paris. The soil is fertile, and cultivated with great care. Capital, Paris.