Notice of Active and Extinct Volcanos. 23d 



ed or mixed with slag, scoriae, pumice, olivine and otherexuvioe 

 of known and active volcanos ; displaying frequently a struc- 

 ture now spherical, ovoidal and concentric, now prismatic 

 and columnar, and fronting streams and bounding vallies with 

 ranges of columns, equalling or rivalling the regularity of the 

 famous colonnades of FingaPs cave, and the Giant's Cause- 

 way ; these are a few of the most striking features of these 

 countries, which are so affluent in proofs of their igneous ori- 

 gin, that there is nothing needed but to select carefully and ju- 

 diciously, those proofs which will be the most decisive, espe- 

 cially with respect to minds not familiar with such contempla- 

 tions. 



The volcanos of the Auvergne, &c. are regarded as of differ- 

 ent ages ; some appear to have been active before the forma- 

 tion of the present vallies, and some since ; where the cur- 

 rents of lava have been cut through, by those causes which 

 formed the present vallies, they are obviously older than. the 

 vallies, and where these currents have flowed into vallies, beds 

 of rivers, &c. they are as obviously of a more recent date. 



Although the local geographical names may be supposed to 

 allude to the former character of the country as Auvergne, 

 (Avernus,) Vallee d'Enfer, &c. still, it is thought that these 

 names convey no allusion to historical events, but rather to the 

 actual appearance of the surface. 



" Indeed, (says Prof. Daubeny,) the streams of lava are often 

 so little decomposed, so partially covered with vegetation, that 

 we imagine they must have been formed within the limits of au- 

 thentic history. The records, nevertheless, of the eruptions 

 are no where to be found, and the evidence we are in quest of 

 can be collected, it would seem, only from the volume of nature, 

 which in this instance speaks a language so intelligible." 



" The high antiquity of the most modern of these volcanos is 

 indeed sufficiently obvious. Had any of them been in a state 

 of activity in the age of Julius Caesar, that general, who en- 

 camped upon the plains of Auvergne, and laid siege to its prin- 

 ciple city, could hardly have failed to notice them. Had there 

 been even any record of their existence in the time of Pliny or 

 Sidonius Apollinaris, the one would scarcely have omitted to 

 make mention of it in his Natural History, nor the other to in- 

 troduce some allusion to it among his descriptions of this his na- 

 tive province. 



" The case is even stronger, when we recollect that the poet's 

 residence was on the borders of the Lake Aidat, which owed 



