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remains of a free constitution, and to restore
the old regime, with tithes, and feudal
privileges.
The junction of the Rhone and Saone
takes place about a mile below Lyons.
The quantity of water in the Rhone varies
much with the seasons, owing to the melting
of the ice and snow on the Alps, from
whence it descends. When we were at
Lyons, the water was comparatively low ;
it was about as broad as the Thames at Battersea,
but much more rapid in its course.
I hired a coupé, or chariot, of our landlord,
M. Levrat, at the Hotel du Parc, with
two stout horses, to convey us to Clermont
: the distance is about ninety English
miles, over a mountainous country. The
price was five napoleons, as it was a six
days’ journey for the carriage, going and
returning, and the landlord paid all expenses
for the horses on the road. Tiie
whole of our first day’s journey was rainy.
After crossing the Saone, the road began
to ascend among the granitic hills, that
form branches from the range of the Forez
mountains. The scenery reminded me of
Devonshire. We stopped to dine at a
villao&-e called Duern, and were ushered
C O A L N E A R L Y O N S . 289
into a room with a comfortable coal fire.
The coal was hard and shining, and burnt
with a clear flame, like the coal of Staffordshire.
We were informed that the pits,
which are situated about a league west of
Duern, were worked at the depths of 400
and 500 feet. After dinner we passed over
the coal field, but the rain still continued
to fall heavily, which prevented me from
examining it more fully. The coal strata
occupy a basin or trough, to the bottom
of which they dip on each side. The beds
of granite, on the east, appear also to
dip in the same direction. The granite
abounds in felspar, which, by decomposition,
passes into red earth, succeeded by
coarse sand and conglomerate. We passed
by a coal pit at the bottom of the valley,
which is not worked at present, being full
of water, but we were told that it is 160
feet deep. In ascending the other side of
the basin, we came to a coarse conglomerate
rock, and after that to granite.
The conglomerate may be regarded as interposed
between the granite, and the
series of coal strata. The granite, which
was exposed to the atmosphere, was much
disintegrated.
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