BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 425 



vie, and they gave us of their wine, which they carried in the 

 usual bottle of the Pyrenees, namely a pig's skin, sewed up, 

 with one leg left on for the neck. Although the ascent was 

 considerable, the snow was sufficiently soft on the surface to 

 enable us to traverse it without difficulty, and also to fill my 

 shoes and make my feet very wet and uncomfortable. We 

 passed, in like manner, two or three other fields of snow 

 with intervening ridges of granitic rock. 



We were all considerably exhausted ere reaching the ter- 

 minal ridge, as may easily be supposed, and the moment our 

 companions set foot over the frontier, they threw themselves 

 on the ground, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and the 

 Spaniards were soon fast asleep. My first impulse was to 

 follow their example, but just then a tuft of the beautiful 

 Saxifraga Grcenlandica, growing in the chink of a rock, struck 

 m y eye. I sprung forward to gather it, when several other 

 plants presented themselves, and thus instead of reposing, I 

 was occupied in rambling about the rocks during my stay on 

 the summit. We had come, in fact, upon a veritable garden, 

 the beauties of which appeared the more striking, from the 

 barrenness which had surrounded us during the whole of our 

 ascent ; and we gathered here Saxifraga bryoides, S. andro- 

 sacea, S. exarata, Vill., S. muscoides, Pedicularis rostrata, 

 Potentilla Salisburgensis, nivalis and frigida, Gentiana alpina, 

 Sesleria disticha, Encalypta rhaptocarpa, besides several other 

 plants equally interesting. During the last hour's ascent, 

 we had been enveloped in brouillard, but a strong and in- 

 tensely cold south wind was blowing through the Port, 

 which chased all the clouds to the French side, and opened 

 out to view a scene so magnificent, that I could not help 

 pausing now and then in my interesting occupation to gaze 

 u pon it. We were at a height of something more than 

 9>50O feet above the level of the sea, and the two peaks on 

 our right and left, though very little higher than the ground 

 whereon we stood, prevented us from seeing anything in 

 those directions ; but before us were mountains— bleak, snow- 



vol. v. I I 



