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This might be compared to the cleavages
of a regular prism of the beryl, and I suspect
was the result of crystallization on a
great scale. We waited some time at a
little inn at la Barraque for a peasant who
officiates as a guide to the mountains.
From this place, which is situated on the
elevated volcanic plain before mentioned,
about 1500 feet above the town of Clermont,
there is a near and distinct view of
the upper part of the Puy de Dome, rising
in the form of a cupola. The summit of
this mountain, so celebrated by the barometrical
experiments of Pascal, is 1477
metres, or 4797 Fnglish feet above the
level of the sea, and 3451 feet above the
town of Clermont; though from the plain
on which it stands, the summit does not
rise more than from 1900 to 2000 fe e t;
yet the regularity of its form, and its abrupt
ascent, render its appearance very striking.
As a volcanic mountain, it is less into
teresting than many others, being one mass
of semivitrified felspathic granite, varying
in its texture and hardness, and has no discoverable
crater at the top, but its flanks
are covered in some parts with scoriaceous
lava, and there is one small crater
low down on the northern side, called
the N id de Poule, or hen’s nest, which
has a very regular form. In all probability
this crater was formed at a much later period
than the Puy de Dome. '
The road from la Barraque to the Puy
de Pariou passes near a great current of
lava, which has flowed from that mountain ;
this lava rises to the height of from thirty to
sixty feet above the plain ; from the surface
there are numerous projecting ridges,
which seemed like the fractured portions
of enormous waves, that had been congealed
and then broken by the progressive
motion o f the current. We passed over
this current twice ; it is covered with scoriæ,
and masses of basaltic lava. We were one
hour in going from la Barraque to the foot
o f the Puy de Pariou, where we left our
char, and another hour in ascending to the
summit, as we halted several times to rest.
As nearly as 1 could estimate, the summit
o f this mountain rises about one thousand
feet above the plain, and is therefore about
three thousand eight hundred feet above
the level of the sea. The crater, which is
the best preserved o f any in Auvergne, is
nearly circular. I walked round it, and
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