DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 197 



within a few hundred yards of the Hotel; and the beauty and rarity of 

 this elegant cryptogam would well repay the collector who visited St. 

 Sauveur with no other object than to procure it from its native haunts. 

 It is a doubtful native of Britain, and is omitted by Newman in his last 

 edition of the British Perns. Other authors have admitted it, but with 

 hesitation, into the British Plora ; and young specimens of several of 

 our ordinary Asplenia bear so close a resemblance in general form to 

 the present plant, which in its native state fruits in profusion, and has 

 a very characteristic habit, that it is probable that the specimens said to 

 be collected in a few English and Irish localities were only immature 

 fronds of larger species. Specimens thus referred to, A. fontanum, have 

 been collected in the immediate neighbourhood of Cork, but, not pre- 

 senting any appearance of fructification their claim to be admitted 

 under this species must, for the present, be rejected. 



We availed ourselves of a fine morning, promising a favourable day, 

 to accomplish a visit to Gavarnie. This excursion, "en rigeur," with 

 all strangers is certainly the finest in the more accessible parts of the 

 Pyrenean range, and should on no account be omitted by those who de- 

 sire to obtain a correct idea of their peculiarities of scenery. Nothing 

 can be finer of its kind than the entire route from St. Sauveur ; and the 

 sublime grandeur of the Cirque at its termination makes the traveller 

 forget the toil of the ascent which he has been making for fifteen miles. 

 The road is a narrow but well-kept pathway, practicable for horses to the 

 very entrance of the Cirque, though in many parts cut out of the moun- 

 tain sides, and rather trying to the nervous equestrian, who can look 

 down from his horse into a precipitous defile whose depth is often con- 

 cealed by overhanging brushwood, and can only be guessed at from the 

 noise of the rushing torrent that reaches the ear in a faint murmur from 

 below. At about eight miles from St. Sauveur we caught a momentary 

 sight of the highest ridge of the mountains to the south, and remarked 

 a curious gap at the summit of the crest, appearing like a gateway in 

 the snowy line ; this was the Breche de Poland, which owes its exist- 

 ence, as the legend affirms, to the strength of arm and powerful sword of 

 this redoubtable hero. Though an opening 300 feet high and 350* feet 

 wide, it seemed at the distance at which we viewed it not larger than an 

 ordinary doorway. The ascent to the Breche is a most difficult and some- 

 what dangerous undertaking, and is only attempted by the more hardy 

 and adventurous pedestrian, yet the gap is used by the peasantry as a 

 pass into Spain, and often serves as a means of eluding pursuit to the 

 athletic smuggler. Its absolute elevation is about 10,000 feet. The 

 Breche is lost sight of as the half-way village of Gedre is approached, 

 the intervening ridges shutting out the view of the higher mountains. 



At this village I made the acquaintance of a native botanist, M. 

 Bourdell ; he is schoolmaster of the commune, and occupies his leisure 

 in collecting and drying the plants of the surrounding mountains. I 

 obtained from him, for the small sum of about twenty shillings, 250 care- 

 fully preserved and correctly named specimens ; he seems well deserv- 



yol. iv. 2d 



