40 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND. 
[CH. II. 
is the great stumbling-block of continental geologists, we 
are fully agreed. On this, however, I have made a convert 
of Bindon, and hope soon to convince Humboldt. 
“ I left Paris with most pressing invitations to visit it 
again on my return, having allowed myself time to attend 
to nothing there but my undergroundology, and dashed 
directly into Auvergne. At Clermont I made a con¬ 
siderable collection of petrified fruit baskets, and took the 
tour of the volcanic chain and summit of Puy-dc-Ddme. 
It is the finest thing by far in Europe; according to 
Humboldt it exactly resembles a similar chain in Mexico, 
and presents more than fifty craters nearly in a line from 
north to south, many of which are larger and finer than 
that of Vesuvius. The streams of lava also are not less 
decided ; one of them is three miles broad and six miles 
long. They are all post-diluvian, though there are no 
records of the time when they were in action ; they stand 
on, and have burst up through, an enormous mass and 
elevated plain of granite, which is covered first by trap 
and this again by lava. The portion of Clermont is, 
perhaps, the finest thing in France, and the mountains I 
have crossed between Clermont and Lyons, being entirely 
granitic, are yet beautiful, presenting that second-rate style 
of mountain scenery which we have in the best part of 
Monmouthshire. 1 am disappointed in Lyons, because 
I had heard too much of it. it is certainly a bad thing 
to have too good a character.” 
In this letter he alludes to the death of Sir Joseph 
Banks. Before starting on his journey he had called to 
take leave of this famous patron and encourager of travel¬ 
lers and science. He never saw him again alive, and it 
is this farewell interview which Count Brcuner has cleverly 
sketched. Sir Joseph was then much invalided with the 
gout, but, though a martyr to the complaint, he is said 
to have had such self-control that he never showed any 
irritability. Both at Christ Church and at Islip Buckland 
