246 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



f In these regions the appearance of the people and 

 villages is quite Italian, only that the people are more 

 honest, and excessively simple. The accommodation 

 is homely enough, but I have found an inn which con- 

 tains within a very untempting exterior a clean bed and 

 most civil people : and this, I own, has had some influence 

 in postponing my departure. . . . 



' All this is within one day's journey of the Ehone, 

 where "Milords Anglais" are rattling along at this 

 moment, ignorant that on their right hand lies one of 

 the finest countries in Europe ! Never mind, let them 

 remain so. A traveller is quite a curiosity, and there is 

 no tradition of an Englishman having ever sojourned 

 here before. 



* I arrived at Thuez, quite astonished by the exquisite 

 beauty of the valley, which is far finer than that of 

 Montpezat, and has a more southern aspect. I found 

 excellent quarters at a small inn, but unpleasant, in so far 

 that as the profession of innkeeper was there of secondary 

 importance, there was a disposition to consider the traveller 

 as an equal, and the obliged person. After dinner I went 

 to examine the lava stream, which, proceeding from the 

 crater of Mouleyres, has filled up the whole valley to 

 a depth of 200 feet, and, abutting against the granite 

 mountains opposite, once formed a lake by damming up 

 the torrent of the Ardeche. I descended by the Goule 

 d'Enfer, a ravine formed at the junction of lava and 

 granite, and found myself in a wide gorge, the scenery 

 of which was perfectly magnificent. A lofty wall of 

 basaltic pillars stretches away for more than a mile, in 

 some places 180 feet in height; and while its columnar 

 structure is in the lower part vertical and regular, the 

 upper portion is composed of irregularly placed nascent 

 columns, but the whole is evidently the result of one 

 eruption. . . . 



' I am more and more charmed with the scenery of 

 Thuez. . . . Above the lava stream the valley expands and 

 the river runs in a wider bed. At this point, above the 

 southern bank of the river, rise the picturesque ruins of a 



