1804.] Trip from Bayonne in France, to St. Sebaftian in Spain, 211 
reals of vellon, equal to about ten guineas. 
If he have moie than this fum, he forfeits 
the whole he has ; andif the fum be confi- 
derable, he is brought back, and treated 
 i0 all refpeéts as a profeffed fmuggler. 
Qur party, however, had nothing to 
fear on this fcore, nor did we fee any of 
the guards. 
From the fummit of this mountain the 
defcent is about a league toa pretty val- 
Jey, weil peopled and cultivated, through 
which runs the Nive, whofe banks were 
at this moment covered with Ba/que wo- 
men, bufy in the hay and wheat harveit, 
while their hufbands, brothers, and other 
male relatives were employed with their 
Hocks ang herds on the furrounding hills, 
or in the numerous iron and copper mines 
of the neighbourhood. 
The clean, healthy looks of thefe fe- 
males, the lively colours of their drefs, 
in which the green and the ‘{cailet pre- 
dominated, their a€tivity and chearfulne(s, 
joined to the profpeét of the-vale, and the 
ferenity of the evening, rendered this part 
of our journey delightful. 
After moving for a couple of miles 
th ough this fcenery, down the Nive, we 
came, aoout 7 in the evening, to Les Al- 
dules, the village where we were to pafs 
the night. : 
Our conspany was too numerous to be 
all accommodated with beds in the little 
inn; but the worthy prieft of the village, 
hearing of our difficulties, fent a perfon to 
“offer us the ufe of his houfe, where thofe 
who were in want of it found a comfort- 
able lodging. He crowned his kindnefs 
with a prefent of game, wine, and EFaz- 
de-vie d-Andaye: but he could not fhare 
them with us at fupper, in confequence of 
the regulation then fubfifting in France, 
which reftri€ted an ecclefiaftic from talt- 
ing any thing in a public-houfe, within 
a league of his own dwelling. 
_At four in the following morning we fet 
off for Saint Jean Pied-du-Port, and fol- 
lowing the courfe of the Nive for a league 
and a half, we came to the place where 
the copper-mines were working. 
We had previoufly pafled other mines 
abandoned feveral years before. ‘Thefe 
mines are by tradition faid to be very an- 
cient, having been wrought by the Ro- 
mans, and by the Englifh. The entrance 
is on the fide of a hull, near the bed of 
the river, and the works are carried on 
under ground, in various ramifications, to 
a great extent. 
We employed half an hour in a vifit to 
he ipot where the ore was found. The 
paflages were tolerably ftraight, and high 
enough to allow a man to walk upright. 
On the floor were fixed rail-ways to re= 
ceive the wheels of the {mail carriages 
which are loaded with the mineral and 
puthed along by men. 
The great vein of copper had been loft 
a year Wefore our vifit; but others fmaller 
and lefs rich had been difcovered and 
wrought. The profits, however, of the 
enterprife had been fo much diminifhed of 
late, that the company of undertakers had 
refolved to continue their fearches only to 
a certain future period, and, if not more 
fuccefsful, then to relinquifh the works. 
The copper-ore was united with a con- 
fiderable propurtion of fulphur. Some fil- 
ver-ore had allo been found; but not ‘in 
fuch a quantity as to bear the expence of 
profecuting the extraction and purifi< 
cation. 
After a very hofpitable entertainment 
in the houfe of the conduétars of ‘the 
mines, we purfued our journey for three 
leagues more down the river, to the north- 
ward, to a large village called Baigorry, 
which gives name to the valley. This 
place prefents nothing remarkable at pre- 
fent. Formerly there was in the neigh- 
bourhood a foundery of cannon belonging 
to France; but ithad been abandoned for 
feveral years paft, as well as the mines 
from which the iron had been extraéted. 
In the inn at Baigorry, we found a 
French officer of engineers, one of thofe 
employed to act in conjunétion with others 
appointed on the part of Spain, in finally 
determining and marking out on the 
ground the boundaries which were in fu- 
ture to feparate the two kingdoms. 
Hitherto thefe boundaries, excepting a¢ 
fome remarkable points, fuch as the two 
extremities of the Pyrenees, and the prin- 
cipal paflages acrofs them, had been but 
indiftinétly afcertained, infomuch that a 
tract in the middle of the mountains, of 
fome leagues in breadth, had been jconfi- 
dered by the inhabitants as common, and 
ufed by both parties as fuch for pafturage. 
The fcheme now adopted, and partly 
executed was to erect two rows of flones 
on the principal heights, along the whole 
range of the Pyrences, leaving between 
thefe rows, which were to be as nearly 
parallel asthe nature of the ground would 
permit, a {pace of one league in breadth, 
which fhould be confidered to be neutral 
ground, and within which the foldiers of 
both countries might be found, without 
being treated, on the one hand as enemies, 
or onthe other as deferterg, 
say Fa The 
