SUITE DB L'^TUDK, ETC., BY cfeANNE. 107 



rMjoT, on which one may, besides, recognize the smallest undulations of 

 the ground, which to the observer are flattened by the aerial perspection. 

 According to the chart it is not a compact plain which stretches from the 

 foot of the mountain, it is a series of vertically rounded plateaux, or of 

 flattened cones, the summit of which is at the gorge of each important 

 valley. 



" The two sheets of this chart, representing the districts of St Gauden's 

 and Tarbes, placed side by side, represent in a striking manner, to whoever 

 may have seen well-marked torrents, three vast cones of dijection which 

 dSbouche from the valleys of the Gave, at Lourdes — of the Adour, at Bagn^res 

 — and of the Neste, at Hfeches." 



The cones thus represented are furrowed by numerous water-courses from 

 the moimtains ; and they themselves to some extent intersect or cover one 

 another. Full details are given, with tabulated measurements, and 

 references to a coloured geological map of the district. And having 

 referred to difficulties which had been experienced by others in attempting 

 to account for all the phenomena, he goes on to say, — " That these cones 

 have come out from the gorge's entrance, which are guarded by them, a 

 single glance at the map suffices to show ; and an examination of the places 

 themselves leaves no doubt upon the subject. 



" The glacial origin of these vast deposits is not less certain. In each 

 valley it is possible to follow, from the moraines which remain intact on 

 the extremities of the cones, step by step, the progress of the rocky frag- 

 ments which little by little lose their glacial characteristics, become rounded, 

 diminished in size, reduced to ordinary gravel, or even to clay or glacial mud. 

 In the valley of the Adour, for instance, facing the village Santa Marie, are 

 two conjoined gorges, descending, the one from Tourmalet, the other from 

 the Col d'Aspin. Between these two gorges, and overlooking the con- 

 fluence, is a terrace or bank; the slope of which, seen from below, recalls 

 by its irregularity a gigantic railway embankment. If we trace this 

 embankment, following it along the road which leads to Luchon, we soon 

 discover, on the slope above this, a wood which imperfectly conceals a con- 

 fused mass of enormous blocks called the Moraine de Grip, recognized at once 

 as a moraine, such as may be seen near a glacier of the Alps. In this 

 picturesque spot the Adour has cleared for itself a passage among the 

 blocks, some of which, from their forms and size, may be compared to houses ; 

 the Pic dm, Midi and the Pie d!Arbizon, each at the bottom of one of these 

 gorges, look down from their azure pyramid on this scene of disorder, where 

 their ruins lie confounded. 



" On leaving this, on to Bagnferes, there may be seen, on the two sides of 

 the valley of Campan, the traces of a glacier : it must have gnawed, on a 

 former time, at the vertical wall which rises on the right ; while on the left 

 a series of terraces mark the different levels of the moraines, and the 

 torrential alluvia deposited along the glacier. 



" Even at Bagnferes we are still in a country full of glacial ground : half- 

 rolled blocks, in size to be compared to a sheep or sack of com, lie about 

 everywhere ; they encumber the bed of the Adour, form heaps along the 

 highways, and enter into the construction of the walls. Towards the sum- 

 mit of the cone — that is to say, on the hills of the right bank — they are 

 very numerous, and also quite as large as in the valley ; but on leaving this 

 point they diminish rapi(fiy in size, following the same law of decrease in 

 the clay of the hills as on the floor of the vaUey : twenty kilometres below, 



