DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 45 



detour, and, by resting the night at Pau, accomplished the journey of 

 sixty-eight miles in two days, without fatigue or inconvenience. 



The drive from Pau to Cauteretz is mostly through a level country, 

 producing rich crops of maize. It is not until approaching Argelez 

 that the proximity of the mountains gives the true Pyrenean character 

 to the landscape. 



The valley of Argelez is highly extolled for its sylvan beauties, and 

 is, doubtless, a lovely spot in the eyes of the agriculturist, teeming, as 

 it does, with the richest products of his labour ; but, to the seeker for 

 mountain scenes, it offers little to arrest his steps, as the immediate 

 circle of hills are only outliers of the great chain, and are of compara- 

 tively slight elevation. 



The valley is about ten miles in length, and two or three in width, 

 and is completely surrounded by grassy hills, which conceal from the 

 view all the higher peaks of the mountains. 



Although 1600 feet above the level of the sea, the situation is so 

 sheltered that the climate in winter is as mild as that of the plain below, 

 while the heats of summer are tempered by the shadows and breezes of 

 the neighbouring hills. I should doubt, however, if these circumstances 

 were equally favourable to health as to vegetation ; for, amid all its floral 

 and cereal luxuriance, we noticed that the peasants of Argelez were 

 pallid and aguish-looking, and that the goitre was not unusual among 

 the older women. 



At the southern extremity of the valley, near the village of Pirre- 

 fitte, I found growing in profusion the lovely A diantwni Camillas- Veneris, 

 vouching for the mildness of the air and equability of temperature. This 

 fern, which I have gathered in abundance on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and which is said to be widely distributed over the tropical 

 regions of the globe, is seen only sparingly in Britain, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the southern coasts ; and in Ireland it is almost confined to the 

 south Isles of Arran, where it finds a congenial atmosphere in the soft 

 mists and temperate winds that accompany the gulf-stream from the 

 shores of Mexico and Bermuda. 



At Pirrefitte the valley of Argelez narrows into a bifurcated gorge, 

 one branch of which leads to Luz, and, again dividing, passes upwards 

 to St. Sauveur and Bareges ; the other branch ascends to Cauteretz, and 

 through this we mounted, at a very slow pace, to this little Pyrenean 

 metropolis, distant from Pirrefitte about seven miles, 1900 feet above 

 this village, and having 3300 feet of absolute elevation. It is placed in 

 a small but beautiful basin, closely hemmed in on all sides but the one 

 by which we entered, by lofty mountains that rise abruptly from the 

 very doors of the houses, and tower into the sky until their snowy peaks 

 are lost in the clouds. 



The Peak of Monne, to the west, has an elevation of 9100 feet ; that 

 of Peguere, to the south, 7415 feet ; and that of Percante, to the east, 

 6500 feet. So completely is Cauteretz overhung by these lofty and 

 abrupt barriers, that, at the time of our arrival, not far from the longest 

 day of summer, the hour of sunrise to the valley was 8 a.m., and the hour 



