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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 Dôme, lying to the north of Mont Dore and Cantal.
With these a salamander, scarcely distinguishable from the recent species, has been found, and the remains of many insects. The extinct volcanoes of Auvergne and Cantal, in central France, seem to have commenced their eruptions in the Lower Miocene period, but to have been most active during the Upper Miocene and Pliocene eras.
In France the quality of the dinner is the first question of national importance, after the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine! The railway takes us direct to Aurillac, chef-lieu of the Cantal, and ancient capital of Haute Auvergne.
Before going to the Hotel du Cantal I went to Garofoli's place to see if I could find out something about him so that I could take back some news to poor Mattia. When I reached the yard I saw, as on my first visit, the same old man hanging up dirty rags outside the door. "Has Garofoli returned?" I asked. The old man looked at me without replying, then began to cough.
In a similar manner the volcanic eruptions of the Haute Loire and Ardèche, lying to the eastward, and separated from those of the Cantal by the granitoid ridge of the Montagnes de Margeride, belong to two successive periods referable very closely to those of the Mont Dore and the Puy de Dôme groups.
The enormous quantities of milk afforded by these dairy farms are sold in part at Aurillac for home consumption. By far the larger proportion is used in the cheese- makers' huts, or 'burons, on the surrounding hills. The pleasant, mild-flavoured Cantal cheese has hitherto not been an article of export.
The numerous schools for dairy-farming that now exist in France, and the new State-paid teachers of agriculture, will most likely ere long revolutionize the art of cheese-making throughout the department. We may then expect to find Cantal cheese at every English grocer's. Many more interesting facts I learned, my host chatting leisurely.
Jean Cayrol, a native of Cantal, had been brought up amid the wild mountains of Auvergne. His father was a small farmer in the neighborhood of Saint-Flour, scraping a miserable pittance from the ground for the maintenance of his family. From the age of eight years Cayrol had been a shepherd-boy. Alone in the quiet and remote country, the child had given way to ambitious dreams.
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