SIR PAUL BAGHOTT'S LETTERS FROM SPAIN. 251 



I entered Gavernie as the sun had descended below the horizon, and 

 procured a bed, not in the house, but in a habitation appropriated to 

 herdsmen, and, occasionally, muleteers : the doors had once locks and 

 bolts, but now they had no fastenings. Having examined my dormitory 

 I returned to the inn to dinner, and partook of the izzard or chamois 

 of the Alps (I believe it to be the same animal), and a ptarmigan which 

 had been shot by a gentleman who had been residing in the house for 

 the last few days, enjoying the mountain sports with considerable 

 success. The game is here plentiful : a Frenchman had that morning 

 killed a brace of izzards, and the day previous four brace of ptarmigans, 

 and two brace of the cocq de Bruyere. I afterwards learned there were 

 two other English gentlemen in the house on a visit of curiosity, 

 accounting for my being deprived of a good night's rest. In the act of 

 mounting my horse at sun-rise the following morning, the English 

 gentlemen made their appearance. "Are you going into Spain, gentle- 

 men," said I ? " It is impossible," was the reply, "we are not provided with 

 passports." I proposed to obviate this difficulty by obtaining permission 

 from the Maitre de Hotel, who was the chief officer here to permit 

 these gentlemen to accompany me to the first village Bajarculo, escorted 

 by two gendarms, who would return with them the same evening to the 

 inn; this was consented to by the landlord, and we engaged three 

 other men who were armed with muskets and pikes to accompany us, 

 and commenced our route by winding up a zigzag path, until we reached 

 the amphitheatre, into which falls the cascade 1260 feet, supplied by 

 those eternal snows from the glacier called the Pass de Holland. We 

 still ascended a more misshapen track for some miles, until we gained 

 the summit, and entered on a plain of grassy down, on the centre of 

 which there is a stone which terminates the continent. 



Here, perhaps, I may never again gather such a subject or picture 

 to awaken my interest as presented itself to our view at that moment. 

 The " wonder" burst upon us instantaneously. Spain, which had been 

 concealed, was ready to receive us. We stood on the brink of a 

 crater of immense amplitude. Mountain rose on mountain, and ap- 

 peared to rival each other in majestic grandeur, separated almost by 

 impassable ravines, and rocky excrescences. The sun shone in re- 

 splendent blaze on the variegated hues of strata which composed these 

 scirros, while cararias of sheep, containing many thousands, were seen 

 in the distance feeding on carpets of grass, and golden verdure dispersed 

 in the hollows, and small plains guarded by the pastor and his faithful 

 dogs ; a string of mules which came winding up the narrow mountain 

 track laden with wool, appearing to approach us, animated the scene, 

 and stagheaded pines were growing out of a range of craggy misshapen 

 rocks near the summit of the mountain on which we stood. Forests 

 of firs were at the declivity of the hill stretching forward into a region 

 unknown to us. The many tributary streams that fell from the glens 

 had formed a brawling river at the foot of these enormous ranges, 

 which flowed in capricious windings, terminated the picture we had 

 been so enchanted with. 



At length we began to descend by steep unshapen paths for many 

 miles, till we reached a small hamlet containing a chapel and four or 

 five houses. Here we halted and fed our horses, and procured some 



