of the Vaudois. In front of the parsonage extends
a green field planted with walnut and other trees, part of which is
walled off as the burying-ground of the hamlet. Alongside, in a deep
rocky gully, runs the torrent of the Biasse, leaping from rock to rock
on its way to the valley of the Durance, far below. This fall, or
cataract, is not inappropriately named the "Gouffouran," or roaring
gulf; and its sullen roar is heard all through the night in the
adjoining parsonage. The whole height of the fall, as it tumbles from
rock to rock, is about four hundred and fifty feet; and about halfway
down, the water shoots into a deep, dark cavern, where it becomes
completely lost to sight.

The inhabitants of the hamlet are a poor hard-working people, pursuing
their industry after very primitive methods. Part of the Biasse, as it
issues from the defile, is turned aside here and there to drive little
fulling-mills of the rudest construction, where the people "waulk" the
cloth of their own making. In the adjoining narrow fields overhanging
the Gouffouran, where the ploughs are at work, the oxen are yoked to
them in the old Roman fashion, the pull being by a bar fixed across
the animals' foreheads.

In the neighbourhood of Palons, as at various other places in the
valley, there are numerous caverns which served by turns in early
times as hiding-places and as churches, and which were not
unfrequently consecrated by the Vaudois with their blood. One of these
is still known as the "Glesia," or "Eglise." Its opening is on the
crest of a frightful precipice, but its diameter has of late years
been considerably reduced by the disintegration of the adjoining rock.
Neff once took Captain Cotton up to see it, and chanted the _Te Deum_
in the rude temple with great emotion.

Palons is, perhaps, the most genial and fertile spot in the valley; it
looks like a little oasis in the desert. Indeed, Neff thought the soil
of the place too rich for the growth of piety. "Palons," said he in
his journal, "is more fertile than the rest of the valley, and even
produces wine: the consequence is, that there is less piety here."
Neff even entertained the theory that the poorer the people the
greater was their humility and fervour, and the less their selfishness
and spiritual pride. Thus, he considered "the fertility of the commune
of Champsaur, and its proximity to the high road and to Gap, great
stumbling-blocks." The loftiest, coldest, and most barren s