AUDE

aude, a river of south-western france, rising in the eastern pyrenees and flowing into the golfe du lion. rising in a small lake a short distance east of the puy de carlitte, it soon takes a northerly direction and flows for many miles through deep gorges of great beauty as far as the plain of axat. beyond axat its course again lies through defiles which become less profound as the river nears carcassonne. below that town it receives the waters of the fresquel and turns abruptly east. from this point to its junction with the cesse its course is parallel with that of the canal du midi. the river skirts the northern spurs of the corbieres, some distance below which it is joined by the orbieu and the cesse. it then divides into two branches, the northernmost of which, the aude proper, runs east and empties into the mediterranean some 12 m. east-north-east of narbonne, while the other branch, the canal de la robine, turning south, traverses that town, below which its course to the sea lies between two extensive lagoons, the etang de bages et de sigean and the etang de gruissan. the aude has a length of 140 m. and a basin 2061 sq. m. in extent. there is practically no traffic upon it.