Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/131

Rh P U Y P U Y 119 owing to its variously-coloured materials and elegant shafts ; Yiollet le Due considers one of its galleries to belong to the oldest known type of cathedral cloister (8th and 9th centuries). Connected with the cloister are remains of fortifications of the 13th century, by which it was sepa- rated from the rest of the city. Near the cathedral the baptistery of St John (4th century), built on the founda- tions of a Roman building, is surrounded by walls and numerous remains of the period, partly uncovered by recent excavations. The church of St Lawrence (14th century) contains the remains of Du Guesclin. Le Puy possesses fragmentary remains of its old line of fortifications, among them a machicolated tower, which has been restored, and a few curious old houses dating from the 1 2th to the 1 7th century. Of the modern monuments the statue of La Fayette and a fountain in the Place de Breuil, executed in marble, bronze, and syenite, may be specially mentioned. The museum, named after Crozatier, a native metal-worker to whose munificence it principally owes its existence, con- tains antiquities, engravings, a collection of lace, and ethno- graphical and natural history collections. Among the curiosities of Puy should be noted the church of St Michel d' Aiguille, beside the gate of the town, perched on an Isolated rock like Mont Corneille, the top of which is reached by a staircase of 271 steps. The church dates from the end of the 10th century and its chancel is still older. The steeple is of the same type as that of the cathe- dral. Three miles from Puy are the ruins of the Chateau de Polignac, one of the most important feudal strongholds of France. The population of Puy in 1881 was 18,567. The trade is chiefly in cattle, woollens, grains, and vege- tables. The principal manufacture is that of laces and blondes (in woollen, linen, cotton, silk, gold, and silver threads), which is carried on by 130,000 workwomen in the neighbourhood, the yearly turnover being 1,000,000. The town is connected by rail with St Etienne and Lyons, and also with Brioude on the line from Clermont-Ferrand to Nimes. It is not known whether Le Puy existed previously to the Roman invasion. Towards the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century it became the capital of the country of the Vellavi, at which period the bishopric, originally at Revession, now St Paulien, was transferred hither. Gregory of Tours speaks of it by the name of Anicium, because a chapel " ad Deum " had been built on the mountain, whence the name of Mont Adidon or Ani, which it still retains. In the 10th century it was called Podium Sanctse Mai-ire, whence Le Puy. In the Middle Ages there was a double enclosure, one for the cloister, the other for the town. The sanctuary of Notre Dame was much frequented by pilgrims, and the city grew famous and populous. Rivalries between the bishops (who held directly of the see of Rome) and the lords of Polignac, revolts of the town against the royal authority, and the encroachments of the feudal superiors on municipal prerogatives often disturbed the quiet of the town. The Saracens in the 8th century, the Routiers in the 12th, the English in the 14th, the Burgundians in the 15th, suc- cessively ravaged the neighbourhood. Le Puy sent the flower of its chivalry to the crusades in 1096, and Raymond d* Aiguille, called d'Agiles, one of its sons, was their historian. Many councils and various assemblies of the states of Languedoc met within its walls ; popes and sovereigns, among the latter Charlemagne and Francis I., visited its sanctuary. Pestilence and the religious wars put an end to its prosperity. Long occupied by the Leaguers, it did not submit to Henry IV. until many years after his accession. PUY DE DOME, a department of central France, four- fifths of which belonged to Basse-Auvergne, one-sixth to Bourbonnais, and the remainder to Forez (Lyonnais), lies between 45 17' and 46 16' N. lat. and 2 23' and 4 E. long. It is bounded on the N. by Allier, on the E. by Loire, on the S. by Haute-Loire and Cantal, and on the W. by Correze and Creuse. The chief town, Clermont- Ferrand, is 217 miles south of Paris in a direct line; and the department tak,es its name from a volcanic cone (4800 feet) which overlooks it. A meteorological observatory lias stood on the summit, on the site of an old Roman temple, since 1876. The highest point of the department, the Puy de Sancy (6188 feet), is also the most elevated peak of central France ; it commands the group of the vol- canic Monts Dore, so remarkable for their rocky corries, their erosion valleys, their trap dykes and argues of basalt, their lakes sleeping in the depths of ancient craters or confined in the valleys by streams of lava, and their wide plains of pasture-land. The Puy de Sancy, forming part of the watershed, gives rise on its northern slope to the Dordogne, and on the east to the Couze, a sub-tributary of the Loire, through the Allier. The Monts Dore are joined to the mountains of Cantal by the non-volcanic group of the Cezallier, of which the highest peak, the Luguet (5101 feet), rises on the confines of Puy de Dome and Cantal. On the north the Monts Dore are continued by a plateau of the mean height of from 3000 to 3500 feet, upon which are seen sixty cones raised by volcanic outbursts in former times. These are the Monts Dome, which extend from south to north as far as Riom, the most remarkable being the Puy de Dome and the Puy de Pariou, the latter having a crater more than 300 feet in depth. To the east of the department, along the confines of Loire, are the Monts du Forez, rising to 5380 feet and still in part crowned with forests. Between these mountains and the Domes extends the fertile plain of Limagne. The drainage of Puy de Dome is divided between the Loire, by its affluents the Allier and the Cher, and the Gironde, by the Dordogne. The Allier traverses the department from south to north, receiving on its right the Dore, which falls into the Allier at the northern boundary and lowest level of the depart- ment (879 feet) ; on its left are the Alagnon from the Cantal, the two Couzes from the Luguet and the Monts Dore, and the Sioule, the most important of all, which drains the north-west slopes of the Monts Dore and Dome, and joins the Allier beyond the limits of the department. The Cher forms for a short space the boundary between the departments of Puy de Dome and Creuse, close to that of Allier. The Dordogne, while still scarcely formed, flows past Mont-Dore-les-Bains and La Bourboule and is lost in a deep valley which divides this department from that of Correze. None of these streams are navigable, but boats can be used on the Allier during floods. The climate of Puy de D6me is usually very severe, owing to its high level and its distance from the sea ; the mildest air is found in the northern valleys, where the elevation is least. During summer the hills about Clermont-Ferrand, exposed to the sun, become all the hotter because their black volcanic soil absorbs its rays. On the mountains from 24 to 36 inches of rain fall in the year, but only half this amount (18 inches) in Limagne, around which the mountains arrest the clouds. Nevertheless the soil of this plain, consisting of alluvial deposits of volcanic origin, and watered by torrents and streams from the mountains, makes it one of the richest regions of France. Of a total area of 1,964,685 acres 925,146 are arable, 266,226 meadow and grass land, 232,210 under wood, 78,006 under vines, while 397,663 are moorland or coarse pasturage. Out of a total of 566,064 inhabitants 392,177 are engaged in agriculture. Puy de Dome possesses 18,500 horses, 1600 mules, 4850 asses, 16,100 oxen or bulls, 174,000 cows or heifers, 60,500 calves, 309,900 sheep, 90,500 pigs, 22,550 goats, and 25,900 beehives, which in 1881 pro- duced 95 tons of honey and 33 tons of wax. In 1882 there were produced 369,313 quarters of wheat, 493,134 of rye, 197,241 of barley, 320,138 of oats, 25,172 of buckwheat, 5,172,408 bushels of potatoes, and in 1881 234,504 bushels of dried vegetables, 1,986,208 bushels of beetroot, 33 tons of tobacco, 1625 tons of hemp, 21 tons of flax, 26,176 bushels of rape-seed, a great quantity of colza oil, and 13,054,052 gallons of wine. The Limagne produces fruits of all kinds apricots, cherries, pears, apples, and walnuts, and there are also plantations of mulberry trees. The department possesses numerous mineral treasures. The coal-mines, occupying a surface- area of 7660 acres, employ 1381 men, and in 1882 produced 188,234 tons. The most important, at Brassac on the Allier, on the borders of Haute-Loire, employ 1200 or 1500 men (in the two departments). Next come those of St Eloi near the department of Allier, and of