218 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. JORBES. [CHAP. 



mate towards the Vielles Nidges. I estimate the span 

 of his wings at three and a half or four feet at least. 

 The geological structure of the Pic de Bergons is exactly 

 what I anticipated from the examination of its base as 

 seen from the road to Gavarnie : alternating traps, slates, 

 and limestone, the latter extremely slaty at the summit.' 



To Miss FORBES. 



'ARGELES, HAUTES PYRENEES, August 5. 



' . . . I write to you from a place which, from its 

 situation, may be considered a paradise. It is just 

 where the mountains are lowering themselves into the 

 plains, and where a southern climate is combined with 

 the freshness and variety of mountain scenery. All the 

 little hills are covered with chestnut trees, and trellised 

 with vines, while the cottage gardens are filled with 

 beautiful peach and fig trees, the latter covered with 

 fruit. . . . This morning I have come on fast from 

 Cauterets, one of the most beautiful and (unfortunately) 

 fashionable of the Pyrenean watering-places, the environs 

 being most romantic, and more in the style of the Alps 

 than any part of the Pyrenees with which I am acquainted. 

 The pine grows in characteristic abundance, and in this 

 I confess I have a great delight, for it is a far finer 

 mountain tree than the oak, or beech, or even chestnut, 

 which abound elsewhere. There is some most savage 

 scenery near Cauterets, and splendid waterfalls but all 

 this profits nothing so long as " Mordecai the Jew sits at 

 the gate," and one is subjected to all the misery of fashion- 

 able infestation, much discomfort, and exorbitant charges. 

 . . . From what I have seen, which is yet but a small 

 part, I am disposed to say (although with Dr. Chalmers 

 1 will not give a " final deliverance ") that anyone who 

 has seen the Alps well, need not die of despair if he does 

 not see the Pyrenees (which otherwise of course he must 

 do). But observe, I include the Italian Alps, which I 

 think among the noblest, and without which he could 

 not have a conception of the mixture of Alpine and 

 Italian scenery which surrounds me here. For example, 



