JURA

fourth largest island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyll and Bute council area, historic county of Argyllshire, Scotland. It is 27 miles (43 km) long, 28 miles (313 km) wide, and almost bisected by Loch Tarbert (a sea loch). A mountain range culminating in the Paps of Jurawith an elevation of 2,571 feet (784 metres)runs the length of the island. Cattle and sheep are raised; and oats, barley, and potatoes are cultivated along the eastern shore, where most of the population live. There is some fishing at Craighouse, the only village. Pop. (1991) 196. dpartement, Franche-Comt rgion, eastern France, created from the southern part of the old province of Franche-Comt. It is bordered on the north by the Ognon River, flowing between Dijon and Besanon. The eastern border, which adjoins Switzerland for 12 miles (19 km), is crossed by the road from Lons-le-Saunier, Jura's capital, to Nyon on Lake Geneva. The Jura Mountains in the southeast, reaching more than 4,905 feet (1,495 m) in Pela Ridge, slope northwestward to the Jura plateau and the fertile plain of the upper Sane River valley. The Doubs River flows southwestward through Dole, before 1674 the capital of Franche-Comt. The Ain River, which rises in eastern Jura, has been dammed to form Lake Vouglans, more than 20 miles (32 km) in length. In the mountains the winters are long and severe, but in the valleys they are mild and summers are warm. Extensively forested, Jura has well-developed farming in the valleys, in which large quantities of Gruyre cheese are produced. Jura is divided into the arrondissements of Lons-le-Saunier, Dole (birthplace of the pioneer microbiologist Louis Pasteur), and Saint-Claude, a centre for production of pipes and plastics and for diamond cutting. Area 1,930 square miles (4,990 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 252,400. canton, northwestern Switzerland, comprising the folded Jura Mountains in the south and extending northward to the hilly region of the limestone Jura Plateau, including the districts of the Franches-Montagnes and the Ajoie. Bordering France to the north and west, it is bounded on the south by Bern canton and on the east by Solothurn canton and Basel-Landschaft demicanton. It is drained mainly by the Rivers Doubs (tributary to the Sane-Rhone) and Birs (tributary to the Rhine). In 999 the Abbacy of Moutier-Grandval, comprising much of present-day Jura canton, was donated by the king of Burgundy to the bishop of Basel. For more than 800 years, up to the French Revolution, this prince bishopric remained a sovereign state within the Holy Roman Empire, with close ties to the Swiss Confederation after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 joined the Jura region to Bern canton. Dissension with the rest of predominately Protestant, German-speaking Bern canton and separatist feelings among the mainly French-speaking Roman Catholic Jurassiens led eventually to requests for an independent canton. In 1977 a constitution was accepted, and a year later the Swiss people voted for the creation of Jura canton. In 1979 it officially became the 23rd canton in the Swiss Confederation. The principal economic activities are agriculture and cattle and horse breeding. Watchmaking and the textile and tobacco industries are important. Delmont is the canton's capital. Area 323 square miles (836 square km). Pop. (1990) 66,163; (1994 est.) 68,626.