Publisher's Synopsis
Without the illustrations, which confirm that the book really is about the upper Lot valley, one might almost imagine that the authors were describing a poverty-stricken and pestilential third-world country, polluted by mining operations and inhabited by a superstitious and largely illiterate population. The Decazeville miners' strike of 1886 had recently occurred, and the sinister and violent socialists of the region also make an occasional appearance in the book: indeed the authors are warned that they should carry a revolver at all times to protect their lives.
