XSft M. iBertrand de Doue's Merioir on tite 



from the same village ; while a third, a very considerable stream 

 of basaltic lava, has descended nearer to the Allier, where, in 

 covering rocks of gneiss, it has formed a sort of plateau, 

 which passes under the village of Saint-Privat-d' Allier, and 

 advances towards the south as far as the parsonage. With the 

 description, therefore, of this plateau, as connected with the 

 deposit of the fbssil bones, we shall resume M. Bertrand's 

 nan-ative.] 



" This plateau is formed of modern lavas in large prismatic 

 masses; it reposes immediately upon the gneiss, and in this 

 place is not covered over. It is evidently the remains of a 

 flow of lava, the lateral and anterior parts of which have been 

 almost entirely carried away by the waters. Traces of it have 

 been quite effaced upon the left bank, and in order to find 

 them again on this side, we must ascend as far as the bridge 

 newly erected on the road to Le Puy, where we may detect 

 them in the bed of the stream. But here, this first flow, which 

 I regard as the most ancient, since the plateau of Saint-Privat, 

 to which it is attached, has gneiss for a base ; — here, I say this 

 first flow is covered over by a very extensive bed of the scoriae 

 of craters in a state of agglutination, (Peperine rougedtre^ 

 Brong. Breche scoriacee, Nob. J which separates it from a second 

 flow, distinguished by large inflected prisms, sometimes coupled 

 together, above which we still see one or two others, issuing*, 

 like the preceding ones, from adjacent craters. 



*' Again, in setting out from the bridge, we find that this se- 

 cond flow forms, along with the bed of scoriae which it covers, a 

 vertical escarpment that follows the windings of the road as 

 far as Saint-Privat, and the continuation of which we observe 

 on the other side of the village, until we arrive above the house 

 Besqueut, which is distant from it about 250 metres. 



" Some bones have been extracted in this space of the bed of 

 the scoriae, but in a very small number ; their principal site 

 being near this house in a part of the escarpment which is op- 

 posite the plateau of Saint-Privat, from which it is separated 

 by a small valley, commonly dry. 



" At this point, the bed of scoriae is elevated a metre only 

 above the road ; but its thickness is more considerable, for it 



