gorge.  The scenery, similar somewhat to that at the entrance to the Cauterets gorge from Pierrefitte, is nevertheless wilder and more severe.  The occasional bright fields and frequent mountain streams, with their merry music, disappear; but the lofty heights, the gloomy firs, the mighty crags and boulders, and the snow-peaks beyond, remain.  After a great amount of very rough and steep ascending—­the Pic de Gaube (7644 ft.) the while standing conspicuously before us—­we reached the small hut that is intended as a shelter, near the fall.  Dismounting and taking the narrow path to the right over the stones, immediately above the hut, we obtained a capital view of this noisy cascade.  Other views were obtained by us from above, by clambering over the stones and boulders at the side of the torrent; but this is the best of all.  From the hut (mentioned above) one hour’s good walking, over anything but a pleasant track, brings one to the Pont d’Espagne, and it requires another forty minutes to reach the Lac de Gaube.

[Footnote:  The lake is full of excellent salmon trout, and there is a small inn on its shores, where visitors can stop the night in summer.  The Vignemale, from whose summit the view is wonderfully vast, rears up above the lake.]

As horses can be taken for the whole distance when the road is free from snow, our feelings at not being able to proceed can be better imagined than described!  By Mauhourat, whither we presently returned, the Pont de Benques crosses the Marcadau, and the track to the left leads up the valley of the Gave de Lutour.  We did not pursue it very far, as the workmen were busy repairing it, and it is also very rough and steep.  Several favourite excursions, however, are reached by it, among which may be mentioned the Cascade de “Pisse-Arros” (forty minutes from Cauterets), the “Fruitiere” (two hours from Cauterets), the Lac d’Estom, 5847 ft. (three hours from Cauterets), the Ravin d’Araille (three hours forty-five minutes), the Lake of Estom Soubiran, 7632 ft. (four hours thirty minutes), the Lake of Estibaoute, 7744 ft. (four hours forty five minutes), and the Col d’Estom Soubiran (six hours thirty minutes).

[Illustration:  LAC DE GAUBE.]

Instead of again crossing the bridge below La Raillere, we kept to the left, along what may have been once a Roman road, but which was now at any rate a track both unpleasant and dangerous.

For some distance, large boulders, soil, and smaller stones overhung it, and seemed as though the least rain or slightest push would bring them down.  Gradually this unpleasantness ceased, and as the road widened we passed a few villas and entered the “Parc,” which, according to the natives, is part and parcel of the Esplanade des Oeufs, the great summer resort in front of the Casino, from the back of which a pleasant path of very gentle gradient ascends for about a mile to the “Allees de Cambasque,” up the flank of the Peguere; and to the Cabanes (huts) de Cambasque beyond.