1873 TOUR IN THE AUVERGNE 103 



month of the year into a hot valley to collect sticks for 

 firewood washed up by a stream, when one of them after 

 stooping down opposite a heat-reverberating rock, was, 

 in rising, attacked with a transient vertigo, under which 

 she saw a figure in white against the rock. This bare 

 fact being reported to the cure of the village, all the 

 rest followed. 



Soon after our arrival at Clermont Ferrand, your 

 father had so far recovered his wonted elasticity of spirits 

 that he took a keen interest in everything around, the 

 museums, the cathedral, where he enjoyed the conclusion 

 of the service by a military band which gave selections 

 from the Figlia del Regimento, but above all he appreci- 

 ated the walks and drives to the geological features of 

 the environs. He reluctantly refrained from ascending 

 the Puy de Dome, but managed the Pic Parion, Ge^govia, 

 Royat, and other points of interest without fatigue. . . . 



After Clermont ther visited the other four great 

 volcanic areas explorec by Scrope, Mont Core, the 

 Cantal, Le Puy, and the valley of the Ardeche. 

 Under the care of his friend, and relieved from the 

 strain of work, my father's health rapidly improved. 

 He felt no bad effects from a night at Mont Dore, 

 when, owing to the crowd of invalids in the little 

 town, no better accommodation could be found than 

 a couple of planks in a cupboard. Next day they 

 took up their quarters in an unpretentious cabaret 

 at La Tour d'Auvergne, one of the villages on the 

 slopes of the mountain, a few miles away. 



Here (writes Sir J. Hooker), and for some time after- 

 wards, 011 our further travels, we had many interesting 

 and amusing experiences of rural life in the wilder parts 

 of central France, its poverty, penury, and too often its 



