MARMOSET  , a name derived from Fr. marmouset (meaning " of a

gross figure "), and used to designate the small tropical American monkeys classed by naturalists in the family Hapalidae (or Chrysothricidae) . Marmosets are not larger than squirrels, and present great variation in colour; all have long tails, and many have the ears tufted . They differ from the other American monkeys in having one pair less of molar teeth in each jaw . The common marmoset, Ha pale (or Chrysothrix) jacchus, is locally Marne and Aube . Pop . (r906), 434,157 . Area 3167 sq. m . About one-half consists of Champagne-Pouilleuse, a monotonous and barren plain covering a bed of chalk 1300 ft. in thickness . On the west and on the east it is commanded by two ranges of hills . The highest point in the department (920 ft.) is. in the hill district of Reims, which rises to the south-west of the town of the same name, between the Vesle and the Marne . The lowest level (164 ft.) where the Aisne leaves the department, is not far distant . To the south of the Marne the hills of Reims are continued by the heights of Brie (700 to 800 ft.) .

All these belong geologically to the

basin of Paris . They slope gently towards the west, but command the plain of Champagne-Pouilleuse by a steep descent on the east . On the farther side of the plain are the heights of Argonne (86o ft.) formed of beds of the Lower Chalk, and covered by forests; they unite the calcareous formations of Langres to the schists of Ardennes, and a continuation of them stretches southward into Perthois and the marshy Bocage . The department belongs entirely to the Seine basin, but includes only 13 miles of that river, in the south-west; it there receives the Aube, which flows for ro miles within the department . The principal river is the Marne, which runs through the department for ro5 miles in a great sweep concave to the south-west . The Aisne enters the department at a point 12 miles from its source, and traverses it for 37 miles . Two of its affluents on the left, the Suippes and the Vesle, on which stands Reims, have a longer course from south-east to north-west across the department . Marne has the temperate climate of the region of the Seine; the annual mean temperature is 50° F., the rainfall about 24 in . Oats, wheat, rye and barley among the cereals, lucerne, sainfoin and clover, and potatoes, mangold-wurzels and sugar- -~ beet are the principal agricultural crops . The raising of sheep of a mixed merino breed and of other stock together with bee- ~- ...'x \ % farming are profitable . The vineyards, concentrated chiefly The Alpine Marmot (Arctomys marmotta) . I round Reims and Epernay, are of high value; the manufacture I of the sparkling Champagne wines being a highly important (q.v.), the commonest species being A. monax .

The so-called I

industry, of which 1pernay, Reims and Chalons are the chief prairie-dogs, which are smaller and more slender North American centres . Several. communes supply the more valuable vegetables, rodents with small cheek-pouches, form a separate genus, such as asparagus, onions, &c . The principal orchard fruits are Cynomys; while the term pouched-marmots denotes the various species of souslik (q.v.), Spermophilus (or Citillus), which are common to both hemispheres, and distinguished by the presence of large cheek-pouches (see RODENTIA) .