418 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



load of rarities as amply repaid us for the wetting we 

 sustained. 



My sojourn at Cauteret extended to above three weeks, 

 and during this time I explored nearly every mountain and 

 valley which lay within a day's journey. For beauty of 

 scenery and variety of vegetation the environs of Cauteret 

 are equalled only by Bagneres de Luchon. Situated in a 

 species of " cirque/' into which converge the three valleys of 

 Lutour, Combascon, and Mahourat, each traversed by its 

 tumultuous Gave, at a height of nearly 3,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, and surrounded on every side by precipitous forest- 

 clad mountains, which do not admit the summer sun of these 

 southern climes to shine upon it before nine in the morning, 

 and shut out its beams by three or four in the evening, while 

 in the distance, on the east and west, rise still loftier and 

 snowy peaks, Cauteret stands, the very beau ideal of savage 

 mountain scenery, and affords every variety of locality which 

 a botanist can desire. The rocks around are chiefly 

 granitic, with here and there masses of micaceous schist, and 

 on the summits the limestone, which caps nearly all the 

 mountains in the Pyrenees. The principal stream, called the 

 Gave de Marcadaou, takes its rise on the Pic, of the same 

 name (on the Spanish frontier), crosses the Plateaux de 

 Marcadaou, and descends the steep and wild Gorge de Ma- 

 hourat (sometimes called the Val de Jeret), to receive its two 

 tributaries a little above Cauteret. At the top of this gorge, 

 about six miles from Cauteret, it is crossed by the Pont 

 d'Espagne, before mentioned ; and about two miles on the 

 left of the bridge lies the lonely Lac de Gaube, above which 

 tower the glaciers and snows of the Vignemale, the highest 

 mountain in the French Pyrenees. It was the labour of 

 three or four days, after parting with my friend, Dr. S., to 

 fully explore the Gave de Marcadaou, with its cascades, « 

 rocks, and its forests. I have as yet examined but few o 

 the Cryplogamia from this locality. One of the most in te ' 

 resting is the Leskea pilifera of Swartz, a plant which W» 



