292 DEVASTATIONS AND RESTORATIONS. 



inhabitants to remove to higher habitations, consisting of mere huts 

 erected to meet immediate requirements. 



" Pleasant rambles lie around Luz. Three valleys invite you to wander 

 — one leading to Pierrefitte, another in which St Sauveur is situated, and 

 the third opening to Gavarnie. The last two are watered by rivers which 

 meet at Li;z and flow down the Pierrefitte gorge. 



" Luz was formerly the chief town of the district, comprehending the 

 adjacent mountains, and the three valleys from which they arise. The 

 district formed a small republic. Laws were enacted, and the registers 

 were kept by tallies, called totchmx, meaning cut sticks. This custom being 

 unknown to an official who was sent from Paris to Luz at the close of the 

 last century, on the part of the Government, he desired that the registers 

 of the commune might be brought to him, and was not a little surprised to 

 hear that a man was waiting outside his house with the registers in 

 question, in the form of two waggon-loads of totckoux. Primitive simplicity ! 

 And, although many governments have ruled Luz since the taUey days, the 

 people of her valleys continue rude and simple." 



From Luz he took a morning stroll before breakfast to St Sauveur. 

 " The situation of this place (says he) is very remarkable : the little town 

 of one street, standing upon a shelf of slaty limestone, overhanging the blue 

 Gave, and commanding views of the vaUey of Barfeges, or Lavedan, the 

 entrance of the Val Bastan, and the Pas des Echelles, leading to Gavarnie." 

 In the afternoon he ascended the Pic de Bergous, a Pic ascended by many 

 visitors, which, though rising 6916 feet above the level of the sea, is but a 

 pigmy among the giant summits which form the crest between France and 

 Spain. It is (says Weld) to the Pyrenees what the Kigi Kulm is to Switzer- 

 land. " The lower slopes of the Pic are cultivated ; for in this southern 

 clime, elevations which in more northern latitudes would be clothed with 

 heath, yield crops of golden com. Above this cultivated zone the path 

 winds among a great variety of trees, and above them it zig-zags up the 

 cone of the peak. Herdsmen's huts, at this elevation, dot the mountain 

 sides, fragile structures, which lool as if a storm blast would uproot, and 

 send them reeling down the steep. The climb near the summit is rather 

 tough, but my pony made light work of it, and in about three hours from 

 the time that I had left Luz he was cropping the herbage on the top of the 

 Pic. Not a cloud obscured the panoramic view, which embraces a multi- 

 tude of mountain masses. The Br^che de Eoland is seen distinctly, 

 appearing like a tiny notch in a mighty wall. To the left rose the snowy 

 summits of the Marborfe, Tremouse, and Mont Perdu • on the right the 

 Vignemale, streaked with glaciers ; and to the north-east the grand rugged 

 Pic du Midi De Bigorre. These are the giants towering over a host of 

 cones and pinnacles, furrowed and riven by winter storms ; and the picture 

 is filled up by dark dells, purple glens, green valleys, and gleaming 

 streams, winding through pastures, corn-fields, and woods, which at this 

 elevation seemed like a rich mosaic." 



From Luz several other interesting excursions were made, the natural 

 scenery and interesting incidents of which are all described with graphic 

 power. In one of these, an excursion to the Brfeche de Roland, he passed 

 through the Cerque de Tremouse, his description of which I require to site 

 to give to my readers a definite idea of the cerques or oules, or basins, of the 

 Py renees, to which reference has been made ; and I shrink, as I would from 

 an act of vivisection, from attempting to extract it from the setting in which 



