e grain and
other agricultural produce of Auvergne and Velay. Its waters are in
local repute. On the bank of the Tiretaine there is a remarkable
calcareous spring, the fountain of St Allyre, the copious deposits of
which have formed a curious natural bridge over the stream.

Clermont is identified with the ancient _Augustonemetum_, the chief town
of the Arverni, and it still preserves some remains of the Roman period.
The present name, derived from Clarus Mons and originally applied only
to the citadel, was used of the town as early as the 9th century. During
the disintegration of the Roman empire Clermont suffered as much perhaps
from capture and pillage as any city in the country; its history during
the middle ages chiefly records the struggles between its bishops and
the counts of Auvergne, and between the citizens and their overlord the
bishop. It was the seat of seven ecclesiastical councils, held in the
years 535, 549, 587, 1095, 1110, 1124 and 1130; and of these the council
of 1095 is for ever memorable as that in which Pope Urban II. proclaimed
the first crusade. In the wars against the English in the 14th and 15th
centuries and the religious wars of the 16th century the town had its
full participation; and in 1665 it acquired a terrible notoriety by the
trial and execution of many members of the nobility of Auvergne who had
tyrannized over the neighbouring districts. The proceedings lasted six
months, and the episode is known as _les Grands Jours de Clermont_.
Before the Revolution the town possessed several monastic
establishments, of which the most important were the abbey of Saint
Allyre, founded, it is said, in the 3rd century by St Austremonius (St
Stremoine), the apostle of Auvergne and first bishop of Clermont, and
the abbey of St Andre, where the counts of Clermont were interred.

CLERMONT-GANNEAU, CHARLES SIMON (1846- ), French Orientalist, the son of
a sculptor of some repute, was born in Paris on the 19th of February 1846.
After an education at the Ecole des Langues Orientales, he entered the
diplomatic service as dragoman to the consulate at Jerusalem, and
afterwards at Constantinople. He laid the foundation of his reputation by
his discovery (in 1870) of the "stele" of Mesha (Moabite Stone), which
bears the oldest Semitic inscription known. In 1874 he was employed by the
British government to take charge of an archaeological expedition to
Palestine, and was subsequently entrusted by his own