( no ; 



The Volcanoes of Central France not in a State of Activity in 

 the Age of Julius Cmsar. 



I remarked, indeed (says Dr Daubeny), in the former edition of 

 my work on Volcanoes, that if any of those volcanoes of Central 

 France had been in a state of activity in the age of Julius Otesar, 

 that General, who encamped upon the plains of Auvergne, and laid 

 siege to its principal city, would hardly have failed to notice them ; 

 and that had there been any record even of their existence in the 

 time of Pliny or Sidonius Apollinaris, the one would scarcely have 

 omitted to make mention of it in his Natural History, nor the other 

 to introduce some allusion to it among his descriptions of this his 

 native province. 



The learned author of an article in the Quarterly Review on the 

 Norman Coflquest* has questioned the soundness of this inference, 

 and whilst he has erroneously placed me in opposition to Mr Lyell, 

 who, on tho contrary, in this instance adopts in his workf the 

 very conclusions I had previously arrived at, even cites against me 

 the testimony of Sidonius AppoUinaris and of Alcimus Avitus, the 

 Bishop of Vienne, as proving the existence of active volcanoes in 

 Auvergne during the fifth century after Christ.j; But in so doing, 

 the reviewer seems to me to have confounded together the volcanoes 

 of Auvergne and those of the Vivarais, two groups which, although 

 scarcely 100 miles distant from each other, are nevertheless divided 

 by a barrier of primary rocks, and belong apparently to independent 

 systems. 



To infer that the volcanoes of Auvergne were in a state of activity 

 when those of the Vivarais showed symptoms of disturbance, would 

 be as rash as to presume that the extinct volcano of Mount Vultur 

 in Apulia was roused into activity in the first century of the Chris- 

 tian era, because ancient writers have recorded the ravages made at 

 that time by Vesuvius. 



The letter which Sidonius addresses to the Bishop of Vienne evi- 

 dently alludes to events which occurred within the diocese and' the 

 neighbourhood of the latter, if not immediately around the city in 

 which he resided. " Non enini latet nostram sciscitationem,'' says 

 Sidonius, " primis temporibus harumce supplicationum institutarum, 

 civitas coclitus tibi credita per cujusmodi prodigiorum terriculamonta 

 vacuabatur. Nam modo, scenaj mocnium publicorum crebris terraj 

 motibus concutiebantur ; nunc, ignes sajpe flammati caducas culmi- 



* Oct. 1844. 



t Principles of Geology, vol. iii., p. 2G9. 



\ Grei^ory of Tours has also been mentioned as an authority on the same 

 side, but I can only find that he bears testimony to a great earthqualie which 

 Hhook the city of Auvergne during the episcopate of ttt Clall in the sixth 

 century. 



