I90I WM. BELLOWS — PYRENEES AND ANDORRA 295 



Stands at 5800 feet above sea-level. We were accordingly 

 anxious to see it. Climbing through the Pyreneean pines 

 we presently came to the lovely waterfall at the Pont 

 d'Espagne, bringing down the surplus waters of the lake. 

 Another climb, and we finally stood on the bleak shore of 

 this lonely Lac de Gaube and gazed across the water, to 

 where the Vignemale, the highest summit of the French 

 Pyrenees, rose with its glacier into the clouds above (Plate 

 XIV., fig. I.) 



Our next destination was the village of Gavarnie in the 

 Central Pyrenees, lying beneath the shadow of Mont 

 Perdu, and in the presence of that huge " cirque " or 

 amphitheatre of rock for which it is so rightly famous. 

 More than one huge " cirque " is to be met with in these 

 mountains, but that of Gavarnie is the finest. We follow 

 the Gave up its huge ravine, and in a few hours are in a 

 wild country, practically treeless, and walled in by barren 

 slopes. The road ascends, and towards dusk we are 5000 

 feet above the sea. Then we enter a desolate gorge, strewn 

 with huge boulders of fallen granite and known as Chaos 

 (Plate XIV., fig. 2,) and by evening the Httle village comes 

 in sight, with the frowning cliffs of the cirque towering 

 behind it. We have reached the head of the valley, and 

 the immense precipices of that amphitheatre of Hmestone 

 seem to bar all further progress southwards. 



Gavarnie has been described as the Chamonix of the 

 Pyrenees : and although its mountains hardly attain 1 1,000 

 feet above sea-level, there is dangerous climbing to be done 

 here, too, by those who wish it. The famous " cirque " 

 offers a semicircular wall or series of rocks, rising in stages 

 from 3000 to 5000 feet above the bed from which they 

 spring. The amphitheatre is two miles across at the base, 

 and measures nine miles along its upper crest. The 

 melting snows on the heights above form beautiful cas- 

 cades that come tumbling into the abyss below, gleaming 



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