54 Dr Daubeny on Thermal Springs, 



highly abrupt, and placed at right angles to the general direc- 

 tion of the valleys contiguous ; circumstances which, taken to- 

 gether, suggest the idea of violent action having occurred in the 

 vicinity of this spring. 



At St Paul de Fenouilhedes, on the road from Carcassone to 

 Perpignan, near the to . 'of Gaudies, a warm spring, having the 

 temperature of 22° Reaun. ir, gushes out from the bottom of a 

 vertical cleft or fissure in the range of hills which bound the 

 valley to the west. It is evident, both from the extreme narrow- 

 ness and depth of this cleft, that water has not occasioned it ; 

 and the appearance of the rocks on either side shews that they 

 have been acted upon by violence. At a little distance both to 

 the north and south of the spot at which the cleft occurs, the 

 limestone rock capping the ridge pursues an almost horizontal 

 direction, and a series of schistous strata, consisting of gritstones 

 and marls, is seen underneath it, occupying nearly the same 

 level for a considerable extent. But the calcareous rock just 

 mentioned, when it approaches the cleft on either side, suddenly 

 sinks downwards so far, that the subjacent schists in consequence 

 altogether disappear, and the limestone is brought down to the 

 lowest level of the valley ; thus demonstrating, that the formation 

 of the fissure was accompanied by a very considerable dislocation 

 of the strata in which it occurs. {Vide PI. III. Fig. 2.) 



It may be asked, whether, besides that general suspicion of 

 volcanic agency which many geologists are apt to entertain in 

 the case of all uplifted chains of mountains, there are any phe- 

 nomena observable in the Pyrenees which particularly point to the 

 operation of the same cause ? To this it may be replied, that on 

 the Spanish side, the extinct volcanos of Ollot in Catalonia, and 

 on the French, those that occur at Agde, near Montpellier, and 

 in various parts of the Cevennes, seem connected with the same 

 system of causes. 



Earthquakes also, according to M. Palassou *, are frequent 

 in all parts of this chain, though most destructive on the Spa- 

 nish side, where, it is to be observed, hot springs are rare. 

 Nevertheless, even at Bagneres de Bigorre, several houses were 

 thrown down by an earthquake that occurred in 1660, at which 



• Nouvelles Memoires pour servir k THistoire Naturelle des Pyrenees. 



