MONT MEZENC—DESCENT ON THE LOWER VIVARAIS. 7 
bable that this district has been but imperfectly explored; the whole circumfer- 
ence of the Mezenc presents a degree of sterility and desertion almost repulsive. 
About an hour’s walk from the Mezenc is La Cléde, a small public-house where 
refreshment may be had, and the neighbouring old monastery of Bonnefoi, which 
belonged to the Chartreux, but is now the remote habitation of a private gentle- 
man, would afford an invaluable centre for excursions to a geologist proposing to 
examine the neighbourhood. Two hours after leaving the Croix de Boutiéres, I 
arrived at the foot of the phonolitic peak of the Gerbier des Joncs, which resembles 
the Pierre de Bar, near Le Puy. The Gerbier des Joncs is best known as the point 
where the river Loire is understood to take its rise, and where it at once commences 
its long and tortuous course, a course so involved, that between this point and the 
defile of Chamaliéres, by which it issues from the basin of Le Puy, it traverses a 
length of 250 kilometres, or 170 English miles, whilst the direct distance is not 
above one-fifth part so great.* The height of the source of the Loire is 4505 Eng- 
lish feet, which is about’ 2900 above the defile just mentioned. 
After passing the villages of St Eulalie and Usclades, I ascended through 
the forest of Bauzon, at the foot of the volcanic cone of the same name,} which I 
afterwards examined more particularly. A moderate descent brought me to the 
head of the valley of the Fontaulier, and to the singular volcanic crater of Pal, 
which forms a cup in the midst of granite mountains, never having raised a cone 
of ashes. The road then rises slightly to the col or passage separating the sources 
of the Fontaulier from those of the Pourseuille, which descends to the valley of 
Montpezat. From this point a magnificent view opens. A steep descent cf 2000 
feet leads to the village of Montpezat, surrounded with verdure, and placed at 
the entrance of the Bas Vivarais, a perfect contrast to the cheerless highlands 
of the Velay. It was almost like a peep from the Alps into the warm valleys 
of Italy, or like some of the pleasant scenes in the Pyrenees. In fine contrast 
with the deep green of the chestnut-clad slopes, rose the warm reddish-brown sum- 
mit of the Gravenne of Montpezat, a volcano so fresh in its appearance as to 
seem as if scarcely yet extinct. Immediately on the left, also, appeared vol- 
eanic relics still fresh and cindery, which contrasted with the sombre hue of the 
granite rocks on which they were spread. From Montpezat almost every part 
of the volcanic district of the Vivarais can be conveniently reached ; and, in point 
of accommodation, there is not much choice elsewhere, and probably it may be 
long before it is improved. 
But it will assist the clearness of my descriptions if I commence my account 
of the volcanoes and the surrounding scenery, not from the centre of the district 
but from one extremity; and, as these all lie on or near some of the numerous 
streams which rise amidst the heights of the Cevennes, and which unite a good 
* Burar, p. 158. 
J From this point of the description, the map, Plate I., may be consulted. 
