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which is circular, is flat at the bottom, as
represented by the dotted line a a ; there
was a little water from the recent melting
of the snow remaining in some of th e hollows,
indeed we were told that we should
find the crater filled with snow. The
snow was gone, and grass was growing in
some parts, others were covered with loose
masses of scoriæ. About one-third down
there is a projecting inner rim ; it is probable
that this was the bottom o f the crater
at one time, but it sunk down in a subsequent
eruption. Owing to the, great
porosity of the soil, the crater of Pariou
seems doomed to perpetual sterility, there
is no tree or shrub within it, while that of
Vesuvius, after a cessation of eruptions for
only four centuries, was covered with large
chesnut trees.
Nearly the whole of this mountain
seems composed of scoriæ. On the top of
the crater on the south, 1 saw some very
light white pumice, but the greater part is
a dark red scoria, with specular iron ore in
its cells and fissures. Some contorted scoriæ
near , the summit contained augite ;
lower down I obtained dark scoriæ with
adhering crystals of felspar partly fused, and
others in which the fusion was more perfect.
Near la Barraque there were a number of
men excavating the beds o f lava for loose
stone : I observed fiorite in some of the
fissures, and many of the stones were
tinged green, probably by copper.
From the summit of Pariou there is an extensive
view to the east and north-east, over
a very fertile part of France : the view on
the south is obstructed by the Puyde Dome.
The cattle that pasture on these sterile
mountains are driven home at night, and
water is so scarce, that the peasants fetch
it in barrels from the distance o f a leaOg ue,^
both for the cattle and for domestic use.
The present state o f the crater o f Pariou,
and of the bed of lava that divides into
two branches, and may be traced for several
miles into the valley of Clermont, leave
no room for doubt respecting the former
activity of volcanic fire in this part of
Auvergne. We have here a crater as
perfect as that of any recent volcano, and
most of the minerals of which the mountain
and the lava from it are composed, are the
same as those found in the lavas of Ftna
and Vesuvius, or those of the volcanoes in