PUY DE PARIOU^ 



The first, or more recent volcanoes, resemble in every particular, 

 the existing voldanoes in various parts of the world ; and the cur- , 

 rents of lava niay be traced from their sides along the granitic plain 

 on which the volcanoes stand, and thence into the adjacent valleys 

 for many miles. The lava appears as fresh as the recent lavas from 

 Vesuvius, though it has been exposed to the action of the atmosphere 

 for some thousand years. The Puy de Pariou is the most perfect 

 of these volcanic cones. The following description of it is takea 

 from the 2d volume of my Travels : — " We were one hour in going 

 from La Barraque, a mountain village, to the foot of the Puy de 

 Pariou, where we left our char, and another hour in ascending to 

 ihe summit, as we halted several times to rest. As nearly as I could 

 estimate, the summit of this mountain rises about one thousand feet 

 above the plain, and is, therefore, about three thousand eight hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the sea. The crater, which is the best 

 preserved of any in Auvergne, is nearly circular. I walked round 

 it, and its circumference is about eight hundred yards. Its shape is 

 that of an inverted cone or funnel quite perfect. The edge or rim 

 of the crater is narrow, from which the descent or slope is very rapid 

 on each side : the depth of the crater from the highest part of the 

 edge (which is on the southern side) to the small plain at the bottom, 

 may be about three hundred and twenty feet; and from the western, 

 side, about two hundred and sixty English feet. The lava which 

 flowed from Pariou to La Barraque, and thence towards the plain 

 of Clermont, is generally supposed to have issued from the crater; 

 but had this been the case, the crater would not have been so entire 

 as it is ; and I am fully convinced, that the eruption of such a mass 

 of lava must have broken down one of the sides, as at Nugere, which 

 we afterwards visited, and the Puy de Vache. There appears, I 

 think, decisive marks of the lava having flowed from an opening on 

 the north-east side of the mountain, to which it may be traced. In- 

 deed on this side there are the indications of a much larger crater, 

 which has its escarpments turned towards the Puy de Pariou like 

 those of Mount Somma, which are turned towards Vesuvius. The 

 Puy de Pariou was, in all probability, a volcanic cone, formed within 

 the larger crater by its last eruption of scoriae. 



" The annexed cut, from a drawing I made near the foot of the 

 mountain, represents the external shape of the Puy de Pariou, and 

 the dotted hues show the form and the relative depth of the crater, 

 the bottom of which, a a, is about three hundred and twenty feet be-s^ 

 low the highest part of the rim c. The current of lava, h b, is on 

 the north-east side of the present mountain. The internal shape of 

 Pariou approaches to quadrilateral, or is that of a cone compressed 

 on each side, and somewhat elongated from north to south. The 

 bottom of the crater is nearly flat; there was a little water, from the 

 recent melting of the snow, remaining in some of the hollows : in- 

 deed we were told at Clermont that we should find the crater filled 



