i;o SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



taire bounded on the top of a rock, and stood looking 

 at us breast on at about 200 yards, perhaps a 

 little more. I covered him with great care, and 

 shot him through the heart. He fell straight down 

 into the bed of the torrent below, breaking off one 

 of his horns as he fell. We were all delighted when 

 we got down to him, neither Celestin nor Antoine 

 having, they said, seen anything like him before. His 

 horns measured 6j inches in a straight line and 6 

 inches sweep. Antoine went up and found the other 

 horn on a bush. He then carried the izard as he was 

 down to the path, where I cut off his head for safety 

 sake. He was an old solitaire, one hind foot wanting. 

 Much pleased we trudged home. 



Wednesday, 22nd May. Went to the Vallee 

 d'Arras. No words can describe the savage beauty of 

 this glorious valley. At the mouth it is about a mile 

 broad, and gradually narrows. Its greatest length 

 must be 10 or 12 miles. The sides fall in vast 

 precipices, broken into by one or more cornices, the 

 lower of which are wooded and the upper bare. The 

 bed of the valley is densely wooded. Pine and silver 

 fir on the north side, with a few beech. On the south 

 side beech predominates. Box is the common under- 

 cover. The north side is somewhat higher than the 

 south, and the walls of the valley, which resemble the 

 ruins of a gigantic castle 7000 or 8000 feet high, and 

 miles in length, are the spurs of the Rojo (red 

 mountain), Salerous, Cotatoire, and Aronebo Mountains. 

 The highest unbroken precipice is that on Aronebo, 

 which must be 2000 feet. There is only one accessible 

 exit on the north side, viz. that by the Salerous, by 

 which tourists pass by the Breche from Gavarnie to 

 Torla. We beat the lower slopes of the S.W. side and 

 saw nothing but squirrels, though the men found tracks 



