10O
valley, is of a prodigious magnitude. Watered meadow and cultivation rife more thanone-third the height. A foreft of oak and beech forms a noble belt above it; higher{hill is a region of ling ; and above all fnow. From whatever point viewed, this moun-tain is commanding from its magnitude, and beautiful from its luxuriant foliage. Therange which clofes in the valley to the ealt is of a character different from the others;it has more variety, more cultivation, villages, forefts, glens, and cafcades. Thatof Gouzat, which turns a mill as foon as it falls from the mountain, is romantic,with every accompaniment neceffary to give a high degree of picturefque beauty.There are features in that of Montauban , which Claude Loraine would not have failedtransfufmg on his canvafs ; and the view of the vale from the chefnut rock is gay andanimated. The termination of our valley to the fouth is linking ; the river Nelte poursin inceffant cafcades over rocks that feern an eternal refiftance. The eminence in thecentre of a fmall vale, on which is an old tower, is a wild and romantic fpot; the roarof the waters beneath unites in effect with the mountains, whole towering iorelts, finilh-ing in fnow, give an awful grandeur, a gloomy greatnefs to the fcene; and feein toraife a barrier of reparation between two kingdoms, too formidable even for armiesto pafs. But what are rocks, and mountains, and fnow, when oppofed to human am-bition?—In the recedes of the pendent woods, the bears find their habitation, and onthe rocks above, the eagles have their nefts. All around is great; the fublime of na-ture, with impofing majefty, impreffes awe upon the mind ; attention is rivetted to thefpot; and imagination, with all its excurfive powers, feeks not to wander beyond thefcene.
Deepens the murmurs of the falling floods,
And breathes a browner horror o’er the woods.
To view thefe fcenes tolerably, is a bufinefs of fome days ; and fuch is the climatehere, or at leall has been fince I was at Bagnere de Luchon , that not more than oneday in three is to be depended on for fine weather. The heights of the mountains is fuch,that the clouds, perpetually broken, pour down quantities of rain. ■ From June 26thto July 2d, we had one heavy Ihower, which lafted without intermiffion for fixtyhours. The mountains, though fo near, were hidden to their bales in the clouds.They do not only arrell the fleeting ones which are palling in the atmofphere, but feemto have a generative power; for you fee fmall ones at firft, like thin vapour rifing outof glens, forming on the fides of the hills, and increafing by degrees, till they becomeclouds heavy enough to reft on the tops, or elfe rife into the atmofphere, and pafsaway with others.
Among the original tenants of this immenfe range of mountains, the firft in point ofdignity, from the importance of the mifchief they do, are the bears. There are bothforts, carnivorous and vegetable-eaters; the latter are more mifchievous than theirmore terrible brethren, coining down in the night and eating the corn, particularlybuck-wheat and maize; and they are fo nice in choofing the fweeteft ears of the latter,that they trample and fpoil infinitely more than they eat. The carnivorous bears wagewar againft the cattle and Iheep, fo that no flock can be left in the fields at night.Flocks mull be watched by Ihepherds, who have fire-arms, and the affiltance of manyflout and fierce dogs : and cattle are Ihut up in {tables every night in the year. Some-times, by accident, they wander from their keepers, and if left abroad, they run aconfiderable rifque of being devoured.—The bears attack thefe animals by leaping ontheir back, force the head to the ground, and thruft their paws into the body in the
7 violence