DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 47 



separated by the lofty ridge of Mount Pechineya. The distance from 

 Cauteretz to the lake is about ten miles ; half of the way may be accom- 

 plished on horseback, the remainder must be performed on foot. 



The gorge leading to Lac d'Estom is full of wild and romantic beau- 

 ties, its mountain boundaries on either side being often perpendicular, 

 and streaked with snow ; but the grand old pine forests which guard the 

 way leading to the Pont d'Espagne are almost entirely wanting here, 

 and the rude monotony of the scene becomes wearisome to the jaded 

 pedestrian. The lake itself has a somewhat higher elevation than the 

 Lac de Gaube, is smaller, and more closely hemmed in by the mountains, 

 but offers a scene of singular wildness, not without its charm. The 

 principal sheet of water is fed by a stream proceeding from a smaller 

 lake 2000 feet higher, and this one, lying among perpetual snow, pre- 

 sents the singular features of a smooth, frozen surface of ice even under 

 the heat of a July sun. It is only during the early days of August that 

 its icy covering fairly melts, to be renewed, for the next eleven months, 

 in the beginning of September. 



The ascent to the smaller lake, known as Lac Soubiran, is difficult 

 and dangerous, and I did not attempt it ; but Dr. Taylor assured me 

 that he had verified the above account, and seen the lake completely 

 frozen over on the 6th July, 1843. The relative popularity of the ex- 

 cursions to the Lac d'Estom and Lac de Gaube may be judged of by the 

 fact that, on our excursion to the latter, we were joined by, or encoun- 

 tered on the way, some five-and-twenty co-excursionists, among whom 

 were nuns and priests, Spanish hidalgos and German burgomasters, 

 English dandies and Erench flaneurs ; while I performed the trip to 

 the Lac d'Estom accompanied only by my boy guide, and without meet- 

 ing a single person on the route. I was obliged to leave my guide with 

 the ponies at the termination of the last portion of the path passable for 

 an equestrian, and make my way alone, guided by the torrent to the 

 lake from which it issued. Here I was suddenly accosted, as I crept 

 round a jutting rock, by a mountain shepherd, whose wild dress and 

 wilder patois, however they harmonized with the scene around, at first 

 view inspired fear rather than satisfaction. He proved, however, a 

 very civil and intelligent companion, assisted me in collecting Diato- 

 maceae, by scraping off the scum which adhered to the surface of the 

 stones, no doubtvery much pitying my unaccountable pleasures in carefully 

 bottling such rubbish : afterwards took me to his hut or cave, and there 

 regaled me upon milk and brown bread, the first, fresh from his moun- 

 tain herd, and the second, though somewhat hard and stale, sufficiently 

 palatable after the toilsome march I had just accomplished. He told 

 me that he rarely saw a stranger in these mountain solitudes, where he 

 resided for about four months of the year, pasturing his cattle upon the 

 slopes around ; and that he went down once a fortnight to Pirrefitte, a 

 distance of sixteen miles, and 5000 feet below, to hear the news of the 

 world, and to bring up upon his back the bread and meat sufficient for 

 the consumption of himself and a fellow- shepherd. 



The stones of the stream, as it issued from the Lac d'Estom, were 



