1867.] The Ignigenous Bocks near Montbrison. 19 



laurels of Hutton, though much that Hutton believed was unsound, 

 and what was philosophical was not generally received until Sir 

 Charles Lyell proved its merit. Nor do we compare him with the 

 great field-geologists ; his mind is too restless in its hankering after 

 the interpretation of ancient hieroglyphics to be satisfied with 

 hoarding a mass of unread inscriptions. But we look upon him as 

 , the Founder of Modern Geology jn the sense of his being the man 

 who first clearly defined the principles of geological investigation, 

 and who has lent additional lustre to his system by himself leading 

 the way in the application of his precepts. The ' Principles of 

 Geology ' are now to his followers " familiar in their mouths as 

 household words, " and they look forward into the future for the 

 1 Principles of Paleontology,' trusting that it may produce as great 

 a revolution in the development of the offspring, as Sir Charles Lyell 

 caused so long ago in that of the parent. 



II. OX THE IGNIGENOUS ROCKS NEAR MONTBRISON. 



(With reference to the Antiquity of the Yolcanos of Central 



France.) 



By Charles Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Botany at the 

 University of Oxford. 



In the April number of the ' Quarterly Journal of Science ' for 

 1866 will be found a memoir of mine, " On the Antiquity of the 

 Yolcanos of Auvergne," in which, in opposition to the late Sir 

 Francis Palgrave and to certain divines who had followed in his 

 footsteps and adopted his views, it was attempted to show, that 

 even the latest of the eruptions proceeding from these mountains 

 must date from a period antecedent both to history and tradition. 



But as it must at the same time be conceded, on the testimony 

 of two bishops whose writings have come down to us, namely 

 Sidonius Apollmaris and Alcimus Avitus, that during the fourth 

 century after Christ, certain physical commotions took place in 

 the neighbourhood of Yienne in France, which were of a nature 

 sufficiently formidable to suggest the offering up of public prayers, 

 and even the institution of the Rogation-days, set apart ever 

 since in the Church for divine worship, those who denied the 

 recent date of the volcanic eruptions in that neighbourhood were 

 called upon to show, that there are no vestiges of the kind round 

 about the city of Yienne, which might by possibility be referred to 

 a period comparatively so modern as the one alluded to. 



I therefore pointed out in the above memoir, not only that, so 

 far as is known, volcanos are entirely absent from the immediate 



c2 



