186 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
proposed spending the night. Beyond these and one Jay we saw nothing 
during the full hour of our passing through the forest. The road was 
infamously bad, and we had to walk up several hills to ease the pony, so 
our progress was but slow. However, there is an end to even twelve miles 
of bad hilly road, and at six o’clock we drove up to the Hotel de la Nivelle at 
St. Pée, the hostelry we had decided on to patronize for the night, as being, 
according to information we had received, but an easy walk from the 
palombiére. The result of a conversation, however, was that the palombiere 
was a long way from St. Pee, but close to Sare, a village nearly five miles 
off, to which we could drive early next morning, and that the landlord 
could find us a first-rate reliable guide. Three-quarters of an hour brought 
us to Sare, where we stopped at the door of a large old farm house, and 
were received by a fat, jolly-looking Basque woman, who assured us that 
she could put us up well, and that as for a guide, her own husband should 
attend us at any hour in the morning, but that it was a good two hours’ 
walk to the palombiére. How pleased we were that we had come on to 
Sare instead of sleeping at St. Pee! At about half-past six next morning, 
in answer to a shout from the chief, some dozen or fifteen boys emerged 
from the house and its vicinity, each armed with a big white flag on a 
pole about five feet long; having received some instructions, they dis- 
appeared in different directions in the woods. After an interval of a 
few minutes the chief summoned his men and we all proceeded to the 
scene of action, it being now grey dawn. After ascending about one 
hundred yards from the house, we found ourselves on the ridge of a 
spur of the Pyrenees, running east and west, and about two thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. I will now endeavour to describe the 
general arrangements, premising that I am standing on the top of the 
ridge and facing to the north. In front and below are spread the valleys 
of the Nivelle, Nive, and Adour, with several villages dimly visible in the 
uncertain light. On the right and left fronts are chains of comparatively 
low hills, which converge towards where we stand; on the left, about a 
mile off, is the Rhune, 2953 ft. above the sea; while behind is a deep, 
thickly-wooded valley towards Spain. The ridge is more or less level for 
some two hundred and fifty yards, which space has been cleared of all wood 
with the exception of six huge oaks standing in line, but rises abruptly 
from the level to the eastward. At the height of about 40 ft. in each oak 
was fixed a spar from which depended a rope, with the lower end 
pegged to the ground and carrying a wooden travelling ring weighted 
with iron. ach spar also had a block and halyards, the standing part 
of the latter being fast to the wooden ring. The nets, 1% in. mesh and 
about fifty feet broad, have their upper corners hooked on to two of the 
wooden rings, and are thus hoisted into position ; the lower ends are drawn 
backwards, i.e. southwards, for about thirty feet and pegged down; the 
