292 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xili. (4) 



flat, sandy, pine-clad district of the Landcs, and were enter- 

 ing the broken country of the river Adour, when the 

 huge hne of peaks came into view, disappearing again in 

 the distance to the eastward. We were approaching the 

 mountain wall, and I left the train at Bayonne, in the country 

 of the Basques, within a few short miles of the Spanish 

 frontier. 



The Pyrenees are not in all places accessible by railway. 

 On the southern side there is very little communication 

 at all, while on French soil the hne running from east to 

 west is generally at some distance from the chain. At 

 certain points, however, convenient branch lines run to 

 the southward, bringing the traveller to the very foot of 

 the mountains ; and in this way, by following the main 

 line eastward and by making continual digressions from it 

 to the south, my companion, Henry Simmons, and I 

 were enabled to visit some of the finest scenery of these 

 mountains. 



We left Bayonne and the Atlantic coast behind us, and 

 by evening reached the town of Pau. This historic place, 

 the first centre from w^hich we attacked the range, stands 

 beautifully on the plains ; and from the terrace of the town 

 we could take in at a single glance one of the finest 

 sections of the chain. A hne of peaks of all shapes, 

 battlemented, snow-capped, and indented, stretched un- 

 broken from east to west before us. The next morning 

 we travel southward to the foot of those huge masses 

 until finally our train is buried in the beautiful woodland 

 that fills the lower valleys of the western chain. The 

 railway suddenly comes to an end ; and we take a coach 

 and journey southward through deep gorges and beneath 

 magnificent slopes to the httle watering-place of Eaux- 

 Chaudes. This place is further south than the Alps, and 

 the warmer temperature does two things : it raises the 

 snow line by 1500 feet, and seems to give to these valleys 



