296 DBVASIATIONS AND RBSTOBATIONS. 



by being dominated by the Marebor6, the towers of which seem like a 

 gigantic citadel protecting the approaches ; and the similitude to a huge 

 fortification is increased by the circumstance, that at each extremity of the 

 wall, and close to the Brfeche, is a hole which fancy suggests might have 

 been pierced for titanic cannon," 



Such are the High Pyrenees, and such, at this point, is the boundary 

 between France and Spain. 



The Brfeche has had associated with it the name of Eoland the brave 

 Paladin, who, according to the legend, mounted on his war-horse in hot 

 pursuit of the Moors, clove with one blow of his trusty sword a passage 

 through this mighty wall. 



It may be these pages will come under the eye of some who may be 

 ready to say, as did the disciples of our Lord that had indignation within 

 themselves, — Wherefore this waste ; pages filled with pictures, and these 

 not pictures by the author, but pictures by another 1 I read in my Bible, 

 a soft answer turneth away wrath ; and I reply, that this volume has been 

 prepared, primarily, for readers in our colonial territories, most of whom 

 live far from cities, and libraries, and booisseller's shops, to whom it is 

 desirable that some idea of the country in which the works under consider- 

 ation are being executed ; and this I could do only by giving in full the 

 graphic sketches I wished to cite. The physical geography of the Pyreeens 

 is very difierent from that of the Alps and the C^vennes, and I deemed it 

 proper that this should be shown. And being prevented by occurences, 

 over which I had no control, from availing myself of the facilities for my 

 visiting and seeing for myself the works of reboisement, and the localities in 

 which they are carried on, referred to in the preface, I could only do this 

 in the words of another. 



In the High Pyrenees are several p6rimfetres in which are carried on 

 works of reboisement. One of these is at Lourdes, another is at Bar6ges, the 

 famous watering-place, in the region now described. And on the day after 

 his ascent of the Brfeohe, Mr Weld made an excursion to Bareges, which, 

 says he, if not the most picturesque, is by far the most celebrated of the 

 Pyrenean brunnens. 



The road lies through the Val Bastan, continually ascending by the side of 

 the Gave of that name, which is one of the most riotous and desolating torrents 

 in the Pyrenees. Even in summer the Gave de Bastan is a very noisy water- 

 course ; though you would not imagine, from the variety of lovely flowers 

 gemming its banks, that the valley is yearly devastated by the floods which 

 pour down from the surrounding mountains after heavy rains. About a 

 couple of miles from Luz the valley contracts, and the vegetation is con- 

 fined to shrubs, among which the common box is very conspicuous. This 

 shrub is extremely common throughout the Pyrenees, flourishing on the 

 ledges of precipices, where it might be thought impossible for any plant 

 even to live. In such localities it never grows beyond the dimensions of a 

 shrub, but there are places in the Pyrenees in which in attains to those of 

 a tree. Of Barfeges, he writes : — " Nothing but dire necessity would tempt 

 you to stay at Barfeges more than a few hours ; for, independently of its 

 situation, which has scarcely a redeeming feature, almost every one you 

 meet is crippled, wounded, or in other respects diseased in body, and unlovely 

 in appearance. 



