372 SPECIAL GEOLOGY. 



presumed that the limestone in which they are embedded 

 was injected into the ocean, in a fluid state, and that the 

 fishes were thus suddenly destroyed. 



DORMANT VOLCANOES OP CENTRAL ERANCE. "We now 

 arrive at the description of one of the most striking features 

 of the history of this period, the dormant volcanoes of the 

 continent of Europe. Mr. Poulett Scrope, to whom we are 

 indebted for an admirable account* of this interesting region, 

 and to whose excellent work we refer for more ample 

 particulars, remarks on the singularity of the fact, that the 

 volcanic phenomena of central Prance, its plains of lava, 

 and hills of scoriae and ashes, which so obviously bespeak 

 their volcanic origin, should have remained so long un- 

 noticed and unknown ; and that, up to the last half century, 

 no one should have thought of referring these phenomena 

 to the only agency in nature capable of producing them. 

 This apparent blindness, he adds, is, however, very natural, 

 and is by no means without example. The inhabitants 

 of Herculaneum and Pompeii built their houses with the 

 lava of Vesuvius, ploughed up its scoriae and ashes, and 

 gathered their chestnuts from its crater, without dreaming 

 of their neighbourhood to a volcano which was to give the 

 first notice of its existence by burying them under the pro- 

 ducts of its eruptions. The Catanians regarded as fables all 

 relations of the former activity of Mount Etna, until, in 

 1669, half their town was overwhelmed by one of its lava 

 currents. 



The circumstances under which public attention was 

 directed to these singular phenomena, are thus recorded: 

 " In the year 1751, two members of the Academy of Paris, 

 Gruettard and Malesherbes, on their return from Italy, 

 where they had visited Vesuvius, and observed its produc- 

 tions, passed through Montelimart, a small town on the 

 left bank of the Rhone, and having walked out to explore 

 the neighbourhood, the pavement of the streets imme- 

 diately attracted their attention. It is formed of short 

 articulations of basaltic columns, planted perpendicularly in 

 the ground, and resembles, in consequence, those ancient 

 roads in the vicinity of Rome, which ; are paved with 

 polygonal slabs of lava. Upon inquiry they learned that 



* Geology of Central France. 



