Note 20 — Chapter III · THE GROWTH OF A PURPOSE.

Certain passages in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont, dated about 460 A.D., and in the works of Alcimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, about half a century later, have been interpreted as referring to volcanic eruptions somewhere in Auvergne. This, however, is disputed by many authorities. (See Geological Magazine, 1865, p. 241.)