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his habitation was in the extinct crater of the Puys de Vaches. 
The traveller, in approaching the door of the philosopher of Ran- 
dane, had to wade through scoriz and ashes; and from the deep 
basin in which his house stood, a torrent of lava, still rugged and 
covered with cinders, has poured down the valley, and at the distance 
of a league, has formed a dike and barred up the waters which form 
the lake of Aidat ;—a spot celebrated by Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop 
of Clermont in the fifth century, as the seat of his own beautiful 
residence, under the name of Avitacus. It is curious to remark that 
Sidonius does not overlook the resemblance between his own moun- 
tain and Vesuvius: 
«¢ mula Baiano tolluntur culmina cono, 
Parque cothurnato vertice fulget apex.” 
In this most appropriate abode M. de Montlosier was, in his old 
age, visited at different times by several distinguished English geolo- 
gists, some of whom are now present ; and invariably delighted them 
with his unfading interest in the geology of his own region, his hospi- 
table reception, and I may add, his lofty and vigorous presence, ac- 
cording well with his frank and chivalrous demeanour. His ardour 
of character had shown itseif in early age: “ From my first youth,” 
thus his Essay opens, “I occupied myself with the natural history of 
my province, in spite of repulse and ridicule.” The same spirit in- 
volved him in other struggles to the end of his life; and, indeed, we 
may almost say, beyond it. He took a prominent part in the political 
controversies of his day; and few works on such subjects, which 
appeared in France in modern times, produced a greater fermenta- 
tion than his “ Mémoire 4 consulter” on the subject of the Jesuits. 
In this work he maintained that the position of the Jesuits in France 
was dangerous and illegal; and he must be considered as the ori- 
ginator of that movement in consequence of which their body was, a 
few years later, suppressed by the government. The expression of 
his opinions respecting the conduct and influence of the clergy of his 
country was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities, and was 
deemed by them of a nature to exclude him from that recognition of 
his being a son of the Catholic church, which is implied by the per- 
formance of the funeral rite according to its ordinances. This, how- 
ever, did not prevent the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the 
military stationed at Clermont from showing the regard which his 
