VOLCANOS OF THE HAUTE LOIRE AND THE ARDECHE. 333 
We left at an early hour on a glorious September morning, and 
went along a steep road for several hours. When we had arrived 
at a height of about 1,000 feet above Le Puy, we saw a noble 
view of the surrounding country ; but the basin of Le Puy was 
clothed in a dense fog, out of which the summits of Corneille 
and St. Michel towered like black island rocks. The great 
statue of the Virgin seemed to be looking over a still lake 
below ; and the little church of St. Michel might have served for 
a lighthouse on a dark night for those who voyaged over its 
waters. Soon the sun dispersed the mist, and the scene was 
changed ; the lake vanished, and was succeeded by a panorama of 
churches, houses, and the busy haunts of men. 
The road the whole way to Pradelles passes over volcanic 
masses overlying granitic rocks, which are here and there exposed 
to view. We pass from the grapes and figs of Le Puy on to a 
wild sterile country, poorly cultivated, parts of which are heathy 
moorlands. Volcanic outbursts have been erupted through older 
sheets of basalts and lavas, all the way from Pradelles nearly to 
Brioude ; but they have none of the characters of those of the 
Puys de Dome in Auvergne — no craters, no modern lava streams 
running down the existing river valleys. This volcanic region 
appears to be of more ancient date than are the volcanos of the 
Puys de Dome ; everywhere the craters are degraded, and the 
ashes and scoriae are spread about by denuding forces. There 
is one crater fairly preserved on the left, not far from the 
hamlet of Castaros, where we had sent on horses ; but the grass 
covers the interior, and we saw no signs of a lava current having 
issued from its river or sides. Pradelles is a poor place and 
very dirty, so we recommend a halt at Peyrebelle in preference. 
The country round Pradelles is wild enough ; and that it was once 
wilder appears from the fact that Mr. Scrope counted 150 volcanic 
cones about Prezailles to the N.E. of Pradelles. Before arriv- 
ing at Peyrebelle, the house was pointed out to us where a 
dreadful series of murders were committed some forty years 
ago. The proprietor, Pierre Blanc, kept it as a roadside inn ; 
and when he found out that any of his lodgers were possessed 
of money he murdered them in their sleep, and, with the aid of 
his wife and servant as accomplices, threw their bodies down a 
pipe into a large oven, where they were consumed. At last 
they were detected, and were all executed, close to the scene of 
the murders. The oven has been taken away, and the pipe 
built up ; but the house still remains, and a dreary place it is. 
The hostel at Peyrebelle is rough, with the stable and cowsheds 
underneath the salon and sleeping apartments ; but we found 
the landlady obliging and the cuisine excellent, and I should say 
that a geologist might make this his head-quarters for exploring 
the Mezen and the country round the sources of the Loire. 
