296 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (4) 



at times in the sunlight with all the colours of the rainbow. 



The principal cascade is, with one exception, the loftiest 

 in Europe : descending in the summer months in one un- 

 broken fall of nearly 1400 feet (Plate XV.) 



As was natural at Gavarnie, we succumbed to the pre- 

 vailing contagion and made arrangements to climb a 

 mountain. In the hotel passage hung the tarif for the 

 various peaks, and having decided to try Mont Perdu, a 

 guide and porter were chosen, and the afternoon found 

 us climbing the steep slopes near the entrance to the 

 " cirque." Towards sundown we were high above the 

 village and the valley, and approaching the first traces of 

 perpetual snow. The pine trees became scarcer, and we 

 could now see more and more of the adjacent peaks, the 

 backbone of the Pyrenees. Opposite, but several miles 

 away, the famous Brechc de Roland stood out on the sky- 

 line and marked the frontier of Spain. From where we 

 now stood it looked but a mere cleft in the mountain 

 line ; but we were able to realize more forcibly the huge 

 size of this famous breach as we passed through it on our 

 descent from the summit of Mont Perdu the following day. 



It was becoming dusk as we climbed the long snow 

 couloir, at the head of which we were to spend the night. 

 Away below the snow disappeared over a precipice into 

 the gloom, and as we carefully followed the upland steps 

 cut in the couloir by our leading guide, we felt more than 

 one misgiving as to our position. Zigzagging up the 

 frozen steep, and hardly daring to look round, we at 

 length came to its upper end and scrambled on to the 

 rocks. In a few minutes, passing a bed of edelweiss on 

 the way, and clinging to the iron bars placed at the most 

 critical points by the French Alpine Club, we found our- 

 selves at the hut of the Tuquerouye — a stone cabin stand- 

 ing on the ridge between the. vast chasm we had just 

 emerged from and another abyss in front of us. We 



