72 Mr. H. Sauuders on the 



cut off, for the Col de Tosas was now deep in snow^ while 

 progress westward was out of the question, but the carrier 

 of the mail from Bourg-Madame thought he might get us 

 across the Col de Puymorens on horses. In the meanwhile 

 we walked about as much as the weather would allow, on 

 both sides of the frontier ; but the birds we saw need not be 

 enumerated here. 



On May 25th we started early and drove to the village of 

 Porte, where, in rain and sleet, we took horses ; but as we 

 ascended the weather so far improved that an occasional 

 glimpse of the mountain peaks was obtained, and we could 

 at least see some birds. The road was absolutely filled with 

 soft snow to the tops of the cuttings and banks, over 8 feet 

 deep, and even when following the line of the descending 

 streams on either side of the watershed, where the snow was 

 thinnest, the horses sometimes floundered up to their girths. 

 Here the tracks of Ptarmigan and Alpine hare were plentiful; 

 Wheatears and Water-Pipits abounded, and there were 

 several Meadow-Pipits ; a Sparrow-Hawk was sitting on the 

 telegraph-wire; some Alpine Choughs passed in the mist, 

 while on the very summit (rather higher than 6200 ft.) 

 Turtle-Doves were migrating, and a Willow- Warbler was 

 crouching in a benumbed condition under the lee of a rock. 

 The last was put into Feilden's hat for protection, and soon 

 announced by its movements that it was recovering anima- 

 tion. Rapidly descending by very rugged paths, we passed 

 the track leading to Andorra on our left, and reached 

 Hospitalet, " a really miserable place/^ as Mr. Eagle Clarke 

 well remarks, with ''the narrow crooked passages which pass 

 for streets ankle- deep in manure, or filth cast from the 

 windows. ^^ Nothing speaks better for his ardour than the 

 fact that he and his companion passed several days — and 

 nights — in this squalid hamlet. As we waded from our 

 horses to a little auberge — not the hotel, but the house of 

 the postman — the wandering pigs were a good deal in the 

 way, and three ancient ladies who sat on three hillocks — each 

 with a distaflF in her hand like a representative of the Parcae — 

 were good enough to call to the swine in a language which 



