Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/139

Rh PYRENEES 127 The Eaux-Bonnes, hot and cold, containing sodium and sulphur, are employed especially for disorders of the chest and respiratory organs. The Eaux-Chaudes, of like composition, are efficacious in catarrh, rheumatism, and skin diseases. Those of Cambo on the Nive, some hot and sulphurous, some chalybeate and cold, are much frequented by the Basques on the eve of St John. The waters of St Christau, near Oloron, containing copper, are effica- cious in skin diseases. The manufactures of the department in- clude woollen caps and sashes, the fez worn by the people of the district, nets, Beam linen, cord slippers, chocolate, and there are also tanneries and flour-mills. The only shipping port is Bayonne, which town is also the meeting-place of the roads to St Sebastian and Pamplona in Spain. Within the department there are 258 miles of Government roads and 7460 of departmental or parish roads. There are also 142 miles of railroad, connecting Bayonue with Toulouse, Dax with Puyoo (for Pau), Bayonne with Biarritz, Puyoo with St Palais, and Pau with Laruns (Eaux-Bonnes). The population in 1881 was 434,366 (57 per square kilometre), almost entirely Catholic. There are five arrondissemeuts Pau, Bayonne, Oloron, Orthez (population of town, 4657), and Mauleon (2038), divided into 40 cantons and 558 communes. Basses - Pyrenees constitutes the diocese of Bayonne, and is attached to the superior court of Pau and belongs to the district of the 18th Army Corps (Bordeaux). 2. HAUTES-PYRENEES, a department of southern France, on the Spanish frontier, was formed in 1790, half of it being taken from Bigorre and the remainder from Armag- nac, Nebouzan, Astarac, and Quatre Vallees, districts which all belonged to the province of Gascony. It lies between 42 40' and 43 37' N. lat. and between 19' W. and 39' E. long., and is bounded on the S. by Spain, on the W. by Basses-Pyrenees, on the N.W. by Landes, on the N.E. by Gers, and on the E. by Haute -Garonne. Except on the south its boundaries are conventional. Some of the Pyrenean peaks in this department reach or exceed the height of 10,000 feet, the Vignemale (10,820 feet) being the highest in French territory. The imposing corries, with their glaciers and waterfalls, and the pleasant valleys attract a large number of tourists, the most noted point being the famous .Gavarnie. The northern portion of the department consists of plains, or rather fertile valleys, clothed with corn-fields, vineyards, and meadows. To the north-east, however, the cold and wind-swept plateau of Lannemezan (about 2000 feet), the watershed of the streams that come down on the French side of the Pyre- nees, presents in its bleakness and barrenness a striking contrast to the plain that lies below. The department is drained by three principal streams, the Gave de Pau, the Adour, and the Neste, an affluent of the Garonne. The sources of the first and third lie close together in the Cirque of Gavarnie and on the slopes of Troumouse, whence they flow respectively to the north-west and north- east. An important spur of the Pyrenees, which carries the Pic de Neouvielle and the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, pro- jects to the northward between these two valleys. From the Pic du Midi the Adour descends, which, after watering the pleasant valley of Campan, leaves the mountains at Bagneres and then divides into a multitude of channels, which irrigate the rich plain of Tarbes. Beyond Hautes- Pyrenees it receives on the right the Arros, which flows through the department from south to north-north-west ; on the left it receives the Gave de Pau. This latter stream, rising in Gavarnie, is joined at Luz by the Gave de Bastan from Neouvielle, and at Pierrefitte by the Gave de Cauterets, fed by streams from the Vignemale. The Gave de Pau, after passing Argeles and the grotto of Lourdes on its left and the chateau of Lourdes on its right, leaves the mountains and turns sharply from north to north -north -west ; it has a greater volume of water than the Adour, but, being more of a mountain torrent, is regarded as a tributary of the Adour, which is navigable in the latter part of its course. The Neste d'Aure, de- scending from the peaks of Neouvielle and Troumouse, re- ceives the Neste de Louron from the pass of Clarabide at Arreau and flows northwards through a beautiful valley as far as Labarthe, where it turns to the north-east; it is important as furnishing the plateau of Lannemezan with a feeding canal, the waters of which are partly used for irrigation and partly for supplying the streams that rise there and are dried up in summer, the Gers and the Baise, affluents of the Garonne. This latter only touches the department. The climate of Hautes-Pyr6nees, though very cold on the highlands, is warm and moist in the plains, where there are hot summers, fine autumns, mild winters, and rainy springs. The mean annual temperature is 68 Fahr. On the plateau of Lannemezan, while the summers are dry and scorching, the winters are very severe. A meteorological observatory has been built on the Pic du Midi. Of the total area of 1,119,292 acres 259,334 are arable, 214,782 under wood, 160,624 pastures and grazing-lands, 76,015 permanent meadows and orchards, and 39,135 vineyards. The mountain slopes are covered with pasture to a height of more than 6600 feet. In 1881 the live stock included 114,900 horned cattle (the milch cows of Lourdes and the oxen of Tarbes being the most esteemed), 18,000 horses (mostly of the Tarbes breed crossed with Arab blood), 11,830 asses, 3200 mules (part of which are bred for Spain), 222,300 sheep, 74,800 pigs, and 8718 goats. The more important cereals are successively, as the elevation increases, maize, wheat, and rye ; in the mountain districts oats, barley, and buckwheat are grown. In 1882 the harvest yielded 158,620 quarters of wheat, 197,931 of maize, 70,690 of rye, 47,586 of oats, 15,069 of barley, 27,586 of buckwheat, 61,241 of meslin, and 1,793,104 bushels of potatoes. The formerly extensive forests have suffered considerably from the weather and other causes. Vines, trained upon trees as in Italy, yield on an average 2,464,000 gallons of wine annually. On the lower slopes chestnut trees and fruit trees take the place of the vines. There are various quarries of fine marbles, which are sawn and worked at Bagneres, and numerous slate quarries. The mines of iron, nickel, lead, cobalt, manganese, and zinc are worked only irregularly. There is no coal, but a few hundred tons of peat are annually extracted. The mineral waters of Hautes- Pyrenees are numerous and much resorted to. The principal in the valley of the Gave de Pau are Cauterets (twenty-four hot springs containing sulphur and sodium), St Sauveur (two springs with sulphur anil sodium), and Bareges (twelve hot springs with sulphur and sodium), and in the valley of the Adour Bagneres (fifty-two hot or cold springs containing calcium sulphates, iron, and arsenic) and Capvern near Lannemezan (two springs containing calcium sul- phates). There are 2 paper-mills employing 101 workmen, 28 spin- ning or weaving factories employing 908 workmen (4000 spindles and 750 looms, of which 220 are power-looms). The light woollen materials known under the name of "bareges" and the knitted work of the department are widely known beyond its limits. A company has been formed for establishing cheese - factories in the mountains, as in Switzerland. There are also saw-mills, flour-mills, tanneries, and at Tarbes very important artillery establishments and a bell-foundry. The passes (ports) into Spain rise more than 6500 feet ; none of them are accessible to carriages, and only three Gavarnie, Our-. dissetou, and Plan to beasts of burden. Within the department there are 222 miles of Government roads, 2837 miles of other roads, and 129 miles of railroad. It is traversed from west to east by the line from Bayonne to Toulouse, which has branches from Lourdes to Pierrefitte for Cauterets, from Tarbes to Bagneres de Bigorre, and from Montrejeau to Bagneres de Luchon. It is crossed also by lines from Tarbes to Bordeaux and from Tarbes to Agen, which separate at Vic de Bigorre. The population in 1881 was 236,474. There are three arrondissements, those of Tarbes (chief town), Argeles (town, 1682 inhabitants), and Bagneres de Bigorre (7634 inhabitants), 26 cantons, 480 communes. Hautes - Pyrenees con- stitutes the diocese of Tarbes, and is attached to the superior court of Pau and to the 18th Army Corps (Bordeaux). 3. PYRENEES -ORIENT ALES, a department of southern France, bordering on the Mediterranean and the Spanish frontier, was formed in 1790 out of the old province of Roussillon and to some slight extent out of small portions of Languedoc. It lies between 42 20' and 42 56' N. lat. and 1 43' and 3 10' E. long., and is bounded on the N. by Ariege and Aude, on the E. by the Mediterranean, on the S. by Catalonia, and on the W. by Ariege. Its boundaries are almost all natural and on the north follow the line of the Corbieres (from 2500 to 3000 feet high), on the north-west and south-west that of branches of the