Hot Springs, and other Natural Features of the Pyrenees. 441 



Corresponding to the great variety of flowering plants, 

 there is also in the Pyrenees a considerable variety of climates. 

 At the heads of valleys between Bagneres and Pan, the well- 

 known towns of Eaux Chaudes, Eaux Bonnes, Arrens, Bareges, 

 St. Sauveur, and Ste. Marie, are all less than three thousand 

 feet above the sea. Here peaches, maize, and flax reach their 

 limits, and the vine is no longer cultivated. Above them, 

 Gabas, Cauterets, Gavarnie, and Aragnouet, occupy the heads 

 of gorges, at an altitude of about four thousand feet. Apples 

 and pears arrive at maturity, oats and barley are cultivated, 

 and eyebright, London Pride, and other familiar British flowers, 

 are found upon the slopes. Upwards from this height to 

 about seven thousand feet, a cloud-stratum usually occurs upon 

 the hills, crowned with fir-forests, and at this point cultivation 

 ceases. The banks of columbines, blue-bells ; and wild moun- 

 tain-pinks are left for pastures to the flock 3 and herds, which 

 are guarded by a very ferocious breed of dogs. The cloud- 

 stratum passed through, the traveller, aloft, finds himself once 

 again in the brilliant sunshine, with the level of eternal snow 

 around him, at an altitude of nearly nine thousand feet above 

 the sea. Yivid-coloured iris, gentianellas, saxifrages, and 

 other hardy flowers, at the greatest elevations, face the 

 blinding rays of the sun, and the keen air from the surround- 

 ing snowy heights. Lammergeiers here assemble in flocks. 

 Six of these birds were counted together, at sunrise, from 

 the Pic du Midi de Bigorre; and one rose within gunshot 

 before us, from the rocks on the summit of the Col du 

 Vignemale. An ornithological fact may also be mentioned 

 here, not altogether unconnected with the fauna of the 

 Pyrenees. A cuckoo, evidently exhausted with its autumnal 

 migration, was caught by hand in Jersey, on the 4th of 

 August; and a second, equally exhausted, narrowly escaped 

 capture in a similar manner, at Eaux Bonnes, on the 14th of 

 the month. This probably indicates that there is a definite 

 time for these birds to emigrate — about the first week in 

 August — as well adhered to as that of their arrival in April. 



Slight shocks of earthquakes are occasionally felt in the 

 Pyrenees, which, although never very violent, occur at all 

 seasons of the year. One, felt at Eaux Bonnes, and at Bajez, 

 in the Yal D'Ossau, at five o' clock on Sunday morning, the 

 13th of August, was not perceived at Argeles, nor at Bagneres 

 de Bigorre, although these towns are no great distance from 

 Eaux Bonnes. The phenomenon of earthquakes in the Pyre- 

 nees appears to be connected with the erosive action of water 

 on the marble rocks of which a part of the range is composed, 

 as well as with the thermal springs, of which the name in these 

 mountains is truly legion ! The town of Ax (or " Eaux," from 



