•ir;*-'|::1:M4'i;>;i:;fti!;4;^i'v ; ^ THE ^, :TRENEES CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Nixon Grlffls Cornell University Library DP 302.P8B44 3 1924 028 463 945 ... Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028463945 THE PYRENEES BY THE SAME AUTHOR PARIS HILLS AND THE SEA EMMANUEL BURDEN, MERCHANT ON NOTHING AND KINDRED SUBJECTS ^n "^v. THE GATE OF THE ROUSILLON THE PYRENEES BY H. BELLOG WITH FORTY-SIX SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR AND TWENTY -TWO MAPS METHUEN & GO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.G. LONDON 900335 First Published in igog TO GILBERT MOORHEAD IN PIOUS MEMORY OF PAMPLONA, ELIZONDO, THE CANON WHO SHOT QUAILS WITH A WALKING-STICK, THE IGNORANT HIEEARCH, THE CHOCOLATE OF THE AGED WOMAN, THE ONE-EYED HORSE OF THE FZHa BLANCA, THE MIRACULOUS BRIDGE, AND THE UNHOLY VISION OF ST GIRONS. PREFACE THE only object of this book is to provide, for those who desire to dcf as I have done in the Pyrenees, a general knowledge of the mountains in which they propose to travel. I have paid particular attention to make clear those things which I myself only learned slowly during several journeys and after much reading, and which I would like to have been told before I first set out. I could not pretend within the limits of this book, or with such an object in view, to write anything in the nature of a Guide, and indeed there are plenty of books of that sort from which one can learn most that is necessary to ordinary travel upon the frontier of France and Spain ; but I proposed when I began these few pages to set down what a man might not find in such books : as^—what he should expect in certain inns, by what track he might best see certain districts, what diffi- culties he was to expect upon the crest of the mountains, how long a time crossings apparently short might take him, what the least kit was which he could carry into the hills, how he had best camp and find his way and the rest, what maps were at his disposal, the advantages of each map, its defects, and so forth. The little of general matter which I viii THE PYRENEES have admitted into my pages—a dissertation upon the physical nature of the chain, and a shorter division upon its political character— I have strictly limited to what I thought necessary to that general understanding of a mountain without which travel upon it would be a poor pleasure indeed. If I have admitted such petty details as the times of trains, and the cost of a journey from London, it is because I have found those petty details to be of the first importance to myself, as indeed they must be to all those who have but little leisure. I have in everything attempted to set down only that whith would be really useful to a man on foot or driving in that country, and only that which he could not easily obtain in other books. Thus I have carefully set down directions as minute as possible for finding particular crossings and camping grounds, for the finding of which the ordinary Guide Book is of no service. My chief regret is that the book will necessarily be too bulky to carry in the pocket ; for it is meant to be not so much a lively as an accurate companion to the general exploration of those high hills which have given me so much delight. 9 CONTENTS PAGE I. The Physical Nature of the Pyrenees . i II. The Political Character of the Pyrenees 48 III. Maps ...... 80 IV. The Road System of the Pyrenees . 108 V. Travel on Foot in the Pyrenees . 146 VI. The Separate Districts of the Pyrenees . 199 I. The Basque Valleys . 200 II. The Four Valleys (Beam and Aragon) . 214 III. Sobrarbe ..... 230 IV. The Tarbes Valleys and Luchon . 247 V. Andorra and the Catalan Valleys . 259 VI. Cerdagne . 276 VII. The Tet and Aribge . 283 VIII. The Canigou . .291 VII. Inns of the Pyrenees . 300 VIII. The Approaches to the Pyrenees . 324 Index ....... 333 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Gate of the Rousillon . Frontispiece FACING PAGE The Upper and Lower Slope The Pic d'Anie from Oloron SI The Culminating Point of the Range 78 The Gates of Andorra no The enclosed Valley of Bedous 139 On the Upper Aston . 149 Near the Fontargente 172 Mist on Sousseou 182 The Pic du Midi d'Ossau 221 The Summit of the Marbor:^ 232 The Ridge of the Maladetta 255 The Embalire from the Spanish Side 266 The Wall of the Cerdagne . 278 LIST OF MAPS FACING PAGE General Sketch Map of the Pyrenees I The Four Valleys The Sobrarbe . The Passage over the Col de la Cruz and the Col de Gistain 241 The Tarbes Valleys and Luchon 248 The Catalan Valleys and Andorra 258 The Cerdagne 276 The ARiioE and Tet Valleys 283 The Canigou . 291 The Basque Valleys . 400 1 H ft H o A, < W U < w o llljll f =s f ^ 1 1 I THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE PYRENEES ^O use for travel or for plea- T' sure a great mountain system, the first thing necessary is to understand its structure and its plan ; to this understanding must next be added an understanding of its appearance, climate, soil, and, as it were, habits, all of which lend it a character peculiar to itself. These two approaches to the comprehension of a mountain system may be called the approaches to its physical nature ; and when one has the elements of that nature clearly seized, one is the better able to comprehend the human incidents attached to it. From an appreciation of this physical basis one must next proceed to a general view of the history of the district—if it has a history—and of the modern political character resulting from it. At the root of this will be found the original groups or communities which have remained unchanged in Western Europe throughout all recorded time. These groups are sometimes distinguishable by language, more often by character. Changes of 2 THE PYRENEES philosophy profoundly affect them ; changes of economic circumstance, though affecting them far less, do something to render the problem of their continuity complex : but upon an acquaintance with the living men concerned, it is always possible to distinguish where the boundaries of a country- side are set ; and the permanence of such limits in European life is the chief lesson a deep knowledge of any district conveys. The recorded history of the inhabitants lends to these hills their only full meaning for the human being that visits them to-day ; nor does anyone know, nor half know, any countryside of Europe unless he possesses not only its physical appearance and its present habitation, but the elenients of its past. These things established, one can turn to the details of travel and explain the communications, the difficulties, and the opportunities attaching to various lines of travel. In the case of a mountain range, the greater part of this last will, of course, for modern Englishmen, consist in some account of wilder travel upon foot, and the sense of exploration and of discovery which the district affords. Such are the lines to be followed in this book, and, first, I will begin by laying down the plan and contours of the Pyrenees. The first impression reached by modern and educated men when they consider a mountain system is one over-simple. This over-simplicity is the necessary result of our present forms of elementary education, and has been well put by some financial PHYSICAL NATURE OF PYRENEES 3 vulgarian or other (with the intention of praise) when he called it "Thinking in Maps," or, "Think- " ing Imperially ; for the maps in a rnan's head when he first approaches a new range are the maps of the schoolroom. Thus one sees the Sierra Nevada in California as one line, the Cascade Range as another parallel to it. The Alps and the Himalayas alike urrange them- selves into simple curves, arcs of a circle with a great river for the cord. The Atlas is a straight line cutting off the northern projection of Africa, the Apennines are a straight line running down the centre of Italy. Such are the first geographic elements present in the mind. The next impression, however, the impression gathered in actual travel, or in a detailed study, is one of mere cofifusion, a confusion the more hopeless on account of the false simplicity of the original premise. Deductions from that premise are per- petually at variance with the observed facts of travel or of study, the exceptions become so numerous as to swamp the rule, and an original misconception upon the main character of the chain prevents a new and more accurate synthesis of its general aspect. Thus, the conception of the Cascade Range upon the Pacific Coast of the United States as parallel and separate from the Sierras, confuses one's view of all the district round Shasta, and of all the watersheds of the Mohave where the two systems merge south ; or again, one who has only thought of the Alps as a mere arc of a circle misconceives, and is be- wildered by the nature, the appearance, and the 4 THE PYRENEES whole history of the great re-entrant angles of the Val d' Aosta with its Gallic influences ; the anomaly of the Adige Valley will not permit him to explain its political fortunes, and the outlying arms which have preserved the independence of Swiss institu- tions upon the southern slope will not fall into his view of the mountains.