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fcarcely any chimnies; the rooms of both floors vomiting the fmoke out of the win-dows.
Arrive at Vielle, the capital of this valley, and the paflage from the part of France we had left, to Barcelona ; a circumflance which has given it forne trilling refources.We were here informed, that we could not go into Spain without a pafiport: we waited,therefore, on the commandant, lieutenant-colonel and knight of Calatrava, who prdidrsover the whole valley, and its thirty-two towns; his houfe was the only one we had i'cenin this part that had glafs windows. In his anti-room, under a canopy of ftate, hungthe king’s picture. We were received with the Spanifli formahiy, and affured, that afew months ago there was an order to fend every foreigner, found without a pafiport,to the troops, which fliews well enough the number of foreigners here. On each fideof his excellency's bed was a brace of piltols, and a crucifix in the middle; we did notalk in which he puts the moft confidence.
At Bagnere we were told that the inn at Vielle was good. Wc found the lower floora flable, from which we mounted to a black kitchen, and, through that, to a bakingroom, with a large batch of loaves for an oven, w hich was heating to receive them. Inthis room were two beds for all the travellers who might happen to come; if too nu-merous, draw is fpread on the floor, and you may reft as you can. No glafs to thewindows, and a large hole in the cielir.g to clamber into the garret above it, where thewindows were without (butters to keep out either rain or wdnd. One of the beds wasoccupied, fo that my companion laid on a table. The houfe, however, afforded eggsfor anomlet, good bread, thick wine, brandy, and fowls killed after we arrived. Thepeople very dirty, but civil.-26 miles.
The 1 ith. Left Vielle, and took that route to Barcelona , which is by the parte (paflageacrofs the mountains) of Piafs ; another fomewhat fhorter being reprefented as exceed-ingly fteep and difficult, and the country to that city w'orfe. Pafs leveral of the thirty-two villages of the valley 6f Aran,-that croud on eachother, fo that the population muffbe very great. It refults here, from the divifion of property, and from the plenty ofcattle and fuel yielded by the mountains belonging to every pariffi.
Pafs Arteas and Jala ; crofs the river that falls into the Garonne ; there is a fine viewof the mountains over the former of thefe places, of wood, rock, and fnow. The treesfloating down the Garonne firike their ends againft the rocks in it, and make a moftlingular noife, very much like thunder. Pafs Salardeau and Tradoze, which is thelaft village of the valley, and near it the fource of the river Garonne to the left; but aftreanr to the right, which we pafl'ed, feems rather larger. All the villages we have feenappear equally wretched; chimnies too great a luxury to look for in any of them. Vaftrocks of granite are rolled promifcuoufly from the mountains, and innumerable fpringspour down their fides. We then mounted to the very top of the Pyrenees , much abovefome of the remaining fnow, and from the fummit have a tremendous view' of ridgesof mountains, one beyond another, in Catalonia , many of them with fnowy tops, to thediffance of fifty or fixty miles. It took us four hours and three quarters to get to thetop of the higheft ridge ; yet when we began to afeend, we muft have been, if we mayjudge from the rapidity of the Garonne for feveral hundred miles from hence to Bour-deaux on fome of the higheft land in Europe . No wood at the top, but pafturage,amongft rocks of micaceous fchiftus, for great herds of cow's and oxen that breathe thepure air of this elevated region.
The fprings we now meet with flow towards the Mediterranean ; pafs a church thatHands by itfelf in the defeent, and a beautiful cafcadeof five or fix different falls, whichpour down a torrent not lefs than five hundred feet amongft w'ood ; a vaft rock above
11 it;