1912-13.] 633 



Andrews, Mr. A. Basil Wilson, Mr. Robt. May, and Dr. Rusk. 

 The lecturer having replied to the numerous questions, the 

 meeting terminated. 



"THE GORGES OF THE TARN." 

 The fourth meeting of the Winter Session was held in the 

 Museum on 18th February, when a paper was read by Mr. A. M'l. 

 Cleland on the above subject. A very large audience followed 

 this lecture with the greatest interest and attention. The chair 

 was occupied by Mr. R. J. Welch, M.R.I. A., who suitably 

 introduced the lecturer. After a brief reference to the district of 

 the Cevennes and its connection with the Huguenot wars in the 

 fifteenth century and the Camisard revolt in the early days of the 

 eighteenth, the lecturer described the Causses as vast flat lime- 

 stone plateaux, spreading out from the south-western flank of the 

 Cevennes range, and giving rise to several rivers, among them the 

 Tarn, which ultimately join the Garonne, and flow into the 

 sea in the Bay of Biscay. From the sylvan Tarn the lecturer led 

 his audience to the volcanic district of the Auvergne, a region 

 covered by craters so recently extinct as to give one the impression 

 that their last discharges took place only a few centuries ago. 

 But neither history nor legend had any record of the volcanoes of 

 the Auvergne having been known to be active. After a visit 

 to Buy de Dome and various other mountains and to several 

 interesting castles, a trip was made to the basaltic plateau of 

 Gergovia, 2,000 feet high, and the site of an ancient Gaulish city. 

 Here Vercingetorix, the last Gaulish chieftain, inflicted a severe 

 defeat on Julius Cajsar in 52 B.C., destroying upwards of 4,000 of 

 his best troops. A most interesting lecture was brought to a close 

 by a brief visit to the quaint hill-village of La Roche Blanche, 

 with its old cave dwellings in the limestone cliff, inhabited within 

 the memory of living man. The lecture was fully illustrated 

 throughout by a series of excellent views taken by the lecturer 

 when touring in the South of France during last Summer. 



