one of
the most extensive sheets of basalt with which we are acquainted in the
European area, and it is only a remnant of a vastly greater original
sheet.[9]

[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Mont Demise, near Le Puy, seen from the S.E.
(After Scrope.)--1. Building standing on old breccia, rocks of the Col;
2. Road to Brioude; 3. Croix de la Paille; 4. Orgue d'Expailly (basalt);
5. Spot where human bones were found.]

(_g._) _Newer Volcanoes of the Haute Loire (the Velay and
Vivarais)._--Subsequently to the formation of the lava-streams above
described, and probably after the lapse of a lengthened period, the
region of the Haute Loire and Ardeche became the scene of a fresh
outburst of volcanic action, during which the surface of the older
lavas, or of the fundamental granite, was covered by numerous
crater-cones and lava-streams strewn along the banks of the Allier and
of the Loire for many miles. These cones and craters are not quite so
fresh as those of the Mont Dome group; those of the Haute Loire being
slightly earlier in point of time, and, as Daubeny shows, belonging to a
different system. So numerous are these more recent cones and craters
that Scrope counted more than 150 of them, and probably omitted many.

The volcanic phenomena now described have a special interest as bearing
on the question whether man was an inhabitant of this region at the time
of these later eruptions. The question seems to be answered in the
affirmative by the discovery of a human skull and several bones in the
volcanic breccia of Mont Demise, in company with remains of the elephant
(_E. primigenius_), rhinoceros (_R. tichorhinus_), stag, and other large
mammifers. The discovery of these remains was made in the year 1844, and
the circumstances were fully investigated and reported upon by M.
Aymard, and afterwards by Mr. Poulett Scrope, upon whose mind no
possible doubt of the fact remained. From what we now know of the
occurrence of human remains and works of art in other parts of France
and Europe, no surprise need be felt at the occurrence of human remains
in company with some extinct mammalia in these volcanic tuffs, which
belong to the Post-Pliocene or superficial alluvia antecedent to the
historic period.[10]

(_h._) _Mont Dome Chain._--We now come to the consideration of the most
recent of all the volcanic mountain groups of the region of Central
France, that of the Puy de Dome, lying to the north of Mont Dore and
Cantal. We have see