In another part of France there is a second important subterranean stream, which is much less known but no less remarkable than that of Vaucluse; this is the Touvre of Angoulême, continuing the course of the Bandiat, the waters of which, like those of the Tardoire, are swallowed up in several abysses at distances varying from 3 to 7 miles to the east and northeast. The three principal springs of the Touvre flow slowly out of a deep cave, hollowed out at the base of an escarped cliff; another spring bubbles up in a basin of rock; the third emerges from a sort of boggy meadow intersected by drains. At the outlet of their subterranean courses these three enormous springs immediately form three streams, which reunite, leaving between them two long peninsulas of reeds and other aquatic plants. Below the junction, the Touvre, which is here more than 100 yards wide, passes round a rugged hill, and, dividing into several branches, turns the numerous mill-wheels of the important gun-foundry of Ruelle; then, after a course of five miles, it flows into the Charente at a small distance above Angoulême. Among the hundreds and thousands of travelers whom steam annually conveys over the bridge of the Touvre, there are few who are aware of the curious nature of the source of the river of limpid water over which the train passes in its noisy career. Omitting to mention the streams which accidentally pass under the strata of rocks during a small part of their course, or of the subterranean outlets of certain lakes, a multitude of other instances might be brought forward of masses of water, more or less abundant, which appear above ground after having traversed a considerable distance under the earth. Of this kind is the graceful spring of Nîmes, the blue transparent water of which, reflecting the foliage of pines and chestnut trees, glides in its gentle ripples over the semicircular steps of an old Roman staircase. Of this kind, too, is the spring of Vénéran, near Saintes: this spring, which was formerly sacred to the Goddess of Love, gushes from the ground in a gorge of rocks, and, passing through a mill, the wheel of which it turns, it suddenly disappears, being swallowed up in an abyss; thus it appears on the earth to work but for an instant.