208 On the Antiquity of the Volcanos of Auvergne. | April, 
6. It is contrary to the analogy of other active volcanos, to 
suppose that an eruption should have broken out at such a distance 
from the sea as that at which the city of Vienne is situated. 
7. Allowance being made for some little exaggeration in this 
part of the narrators, the descriptions both of Sidonius and of 
Avitus might apply to those dreadful earthquakes which, as we have 
reason to believe, from the subsequent testimony of Gregory of 
Tours, ravaged the whole of this district, and which may easily be 
supposed to have extended from the former seat of volcanic activity, 
in Auvergne, to a neighbouring province, just as the most fearful 
earthquakes in Sicily are experienced, not at Catania, but at spots 
as far distant from Etna as Palermo. ; 
‘Phe underground thunder, the opening of fissures in the ground, 
the bursting-out of flames and gases, the projection of water and of 
stones, the smell of sulphur, the alarm evinced by the animals of 
the spot and neighbourhood, the elevation or depression of the land, 
noticed by Sidonius and by Avitus in the passages referred to by 
Sir Francis Palgrave, are all reported as concomitants of the great 
earthquakes which have occurred in more recent times. 
On the above grounds I continued sceptical as to the late date 
assigned to the volcanos of Central France, even after weighing the 
arguments which Sir Francis Palgrave had brought forward in 
support of his opinion ; and as this distinguished writer never appears 
to have replied to my arguments (although in his ‘ History of Nor- 
mandy, published in 1856, he briefly reiterates his statement, 
without, however, remarking upon the grounds which had led him 
to adhere to it), I considered the question to be set at rest, until last 
year, when the controversy between Bishop Colenso and his anta- 
gonists, relating to the accuracy of the historical portions of the 
Pentateuch, unexpectedly led to its revival. 
The Bishop, it seems, contended, that if the deluge recorded in 
Genesis had been universal, it must have swept away those cones of - 
loose scorize which are found in many. parts of Auvergne, the great 
antiquity of which he inferred, amongst other reasons, from the 
admitted fact, that all volcanic action had ceased in the country 
before history commenced. 
To this his opponents replied, by appealing to the evidence already 
got together by Sir Francis Palgrave, in proof that such operations 
had continued there as late as the fourth century after Christ. 
Now, with reference to the question at issue between the Bisho 
of Natal and his opponents, it seems to me to matter little which 
side of the controversy is espoused ; for, on the one hand, supposing 
it to be established that the volcanos of Auvergne had continued 
active as late as Sir Francis Palgrave imagined, it would still remain 
to be ascertained whether those particular outbreaks to which Colenso 
had appealed could be referred to a date subsequent to the Noachian 
deluge. 
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