258 ARRIVE IN FRANCE. 



however, whether he believed us to be mighty Nimrods or 

 descendants of Munchausen. 



The next morning we started to cross the Pyrenees. 

 The road was broad, unobstructed, and of easy ascent. 

 It is considered by far the best road across this range. 

 We found it lined with a picturesque succession of wood 

 and crag, and the large oaks that appeared among the 

 forests, gave an aspect of freshness and beauty to the 

 side of the mountain which is not to be found in any other 

 range of equal elevation. The scenery of the Pyrenees 

 is not so sublime in its character. An exalted kind of 

 beauty, it certainly possesses ; but it lacks those enormous 

 piles of rock, and those tremendous precipices, which are 

 necessary to convey an idea of sublimity. We obtained 

 a glorious view of the country stretching away from the 

 foot of the range. The varied succession of towns, villages, 

 and vineyards, with here and there, the spires of a mon- 

 astery, or convent arising like "visible prayers," from 

 among groves of trees, and over all, a sky of living blue, 

 made up a scene as romantic and beautiful as the traveller 

 may wish to behold. Late in the afternoon, we arrived 

 at the foot of the range on the opposite side, and stood 

 upon the soil of France. 



I will not detain my reader with an account of what 

 I saw in la belle France it has nothing to do with my 

 hunter life. At Bayonne, we disposed of our animals, 



