THE VOLCANOS OF THE HAUTE LOIRE AND 
THE ARDECHE. 
By the Rev. W. S. SYMONDS, of Pehdock. 
[PLATE VIII .*] 
8 0 vast are the accumulations of volcanic materials of different 
ages in Auvergne which have burst out through the old 
granitic land that bordered the eocene and miocene lakes of the 
Limagne, that we are apt to ignore the granite masses which 
constituted the ancient country through which generally the 
volcanos of different ages burst. When, however, we visit the 
higher regions of the Forez, the Haute Loire, the Ardeche, and 
the Cevennes, we pay more attention to these mountain masses 
of crystalline rocks, they gain on our respect, and we wish to 
know something of the time of their elevation and their claim 
to antiquity. Mr. Scrope directed attention to the great frame 
of secondary rocks which surrounds the upheaved granite country. 
These secondary rocks include an extensive series of strata 
which are now known to be of Liassic, Oolitic, and Cretaceous 
ages. In some localities, as in the Cevennes, these limestone 
strata are tilted with the granite rocks, and attain to a very 
considerable elevation, while in others towards the north-west 
they decline with the granitic rocks. In the Ardeche, in the 
Coiron mountains, they occupy a wide and nearly horizontal 
table- land, and have been overflowed by basalt and protected 
from denudation. Here the upper beds are of lower Cretaceous 
age, and the question arises in the mind of the lover of physical 
geology, Did the Cretaceous and Jurassic seas once roll their 
waters over the country of the Auvergne, where now rise the 
heights of Monts Dome, Mont Dore, the Cantal, the Forez, 
and the Haute Loire ? or was this granite country an island even 
in those far distant epochs ? I have directed attention, in my 
paper on the Auvergne country, to the occurrence of Eocene 
species of mammalia in freshwater beds, at Grannat and Le 
* This plate, containing a sketch-map of the district, will be published 
with the concluding portion of the article. 
