rgue
group. South of the Mont Lozere, where the Pic Finiels reaches 5584 ft.,
lies that portion of the range to which the name Cevennes is most
strictly applied. This region, now embraced in the departments of Lozere
and Gard, stretches south to include the Aigoual and Esperou groups.
Under various local names (the Garrigues, the mountains of Espinouse and
Lacaune) and with numerous offshoots the range extends south-east and
then east to the Montagne Noire, which runs parallel to the Canal du
Midi and comes to an end some 25 m. east of Toulouse. In the south the
Cevennes separate the cold and barren table-lands known as the Causses
from the sunny region of Languedoc, where the olive, vine and mulberry
flourish. Northwards the contrast between the two slopes is less
striking.

The Cevennes proper are formed by a folded belt of Palaeozoic rocks
which lies along the south-east border of the central plateau of France.
Concealed in part by later deposits, this ancient mountain chain extends
from Castelnaudary to the neighbourhood of Valence, where it sinks
suddenly beneath the Tertiary and recent deposits of the valley of the
Rhone. It is in the Montagne Noire rather than in the Cevennes proper
that the structure of the chain has been most fully investigated. All
the geological systems from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous are
included in the folded belt, and J. Bergeron has shown that the gneiss
and schist which form so much of the chain consist, in part at least, of
metamorphosed Cambrian beds. The direction of the folds is about N. 60
deg. E., and the structure is complicated by overthrusting on an
extensive scale. The overthrust came from the south-east, and the
Palaeozoic beds were crushed and crumpled against the ancient massif of
the central plateau. The principal folding took place at the close of
the Carboniferous period, and was contemporaneous with that of the old
Hercynian chain of Belgium, &c. The Permian and later beds lie
unconformably upon the denuded folds, and in the space between the
Montagne Noire and the Cevennes proper the folded belt is buried beneath
the horizontal Jurassic strata of the Causses. Although the chain was
completed in Palaeozoic times, a second folding took place along its
south-east margin at the close of the Eocene period. The Secondary and
Tertiary beds of the Languedoc were crushed against the central plateau
and were frequently overfolded. But by this time the ancient Palaeozoic
c