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peared first in 1788, was, however, not written with any direct 
reference to this controversy, but was rather the exposition of the 
clear and lively views of an acute and sagacious man, writing from 
the fullness of a perfect acquaintance with the country which he 
described, in which, indeed, his own estate and abode lay. In its 
main scheme, although Desmarest’s is mentioned with just praise*, 
the object of this Essay is to criticise and correct a work of M. 
Le Grand d’Aussy, entitled Voyage en Auvergne. But as the main 
additions to sound theory which this work contains, (a point which 
here concerns us far more than its occasion and temporary effect), 
we may, I think, note the mode in which he traces in detail the 
effects which the more recent currents of lava (those which fol- 
— low the causes of the existing valleys) must have produced upon 
the courses of rivers and the position of lakes ; and the idea, at that 
time a very bold and, I believe, a novel one, that lofty insulated 
ridges and pinnacles of basalt, which tower over the valleys, have 
been cut into their present form by the long-continued action of 
fluviatile waters, aided by a configuration of the surface very dif- 
ferent from the present. The striking and vivid pictures which 
Montlosier draws of such occurrences, are to the present day sin- 
gularly instructing and convincing to those who look at that region 
with the geologist’s eye. After publishing this essay, M. Montlosier, 
aman of varied and commanding talents, became involved in the po- 
litical struggles of his time, and was an active member of the National 
Assembly, to which he was sent as Deputy of the Noblesse of Au- 
vergne. In his place there he resisted in vain the proposals for the 
spoliation of the clergy ; and one speech of his on this subject was 
very celebrated. After witnessing some of the changes which his 
unhappy country had then to suffer, he became an exile, and resided 
in London, where for some years he was the editor of the Courier 
Francais, a royalist journal. Under the empire, he returned to 
France, and was employed in the Foreign Office of the Ministry, but 
recovered little of his property except a portion of a mountain, which 
was too ungrateful a soil to find another purchaser. The situation 
however could not but be congenial to his geological feelings ; for 
* After mentioning Guettard, he says, ‘“‘ Les mémoires de M. Desmarest, 
publiés quelques années aprés, entrainérent tout-a-fait opinion pub- 
lique.”” (p. 20.) 
