St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-09-12
In the PVreHneeS.
Correspondence of the CALEDoNIAN0
Dear CALIFORNIAN:

Ii lnlS grand mountain CndlH WIG
u separates Spain from France wa
4 within the Swiss lines or belonged t
D syndicate of Swiss hotel-keeper
J your correspondent would need t
! apologize TO your readers if his pc
had guide book flavor. The Swis
and Tyrolese round of travel is
2 well beaten track, the name of ever,
place having a familiar ring. Yol
have only to speak on the Jung
frau" Mont Blanc, mont Rosa,
the "Matterhorn, "AnteIao," "To
farra," to find that newspaper CORES
pondents and Photographic illustra
lions have made their exact location
and general features familiar to the
least Travelled of your friends.
Europe's central playground needs
no introduction, and millions o.
foreign francs flow each summer into
the pockets of the clever Swiss, who
know so well how to advertise their
wares, and to cater to the tastes OIL
their guests. Few are the Americans
who have any personal acquaint-
ance with the Pvreneean summer
resorts. Luchon, Angeles, Luz, Cau-
terets, Gavarnie, Saint Sauveur,
Gambo, Faux, Bonnesloux, Chaudes,
Gabas with the mountains, under
whose shadow they lie. Mont
Perdu, the Maladetta, the "Pic
Nome, pic de Nethou," "Pic du
Midi d'Ossau," the "Vignemale, !"
all these places are as attractive, and
the mountains hardly less grand
than those of Switzerland and the
Tyrol, but their home is outside the
great highway of travel, and as a
consequence questionable.
When one is writing from such
untrodden paths a short lesson in
geography is. pardonable. l have
already told you of our trek" from
crowded and torrid Paris, over 500
miles across the intervening "veldt"
to this quiet and cool perch among
the mountains of southwestern
France. From East to West, for
about $50 miles, with an average
width Of SO miles, runs this wall of
granite and limestone, its average
height nearly 5000 feet and its highest
watch-towers over II 900 feet above
sea level. The Atlantic washes the
foot hills on the west and the Medi-
terranean those on the east, while.
like huge buttresses, lateral spurs
run north and south into the plains
which stretch toward Paris and
Madrid. 1t is between these, in we'll
watered and well-wooded valleys
and at different attitudes the water
ing places of the Pyrenees are locat-
ed, only one of note on the
Spanish side "Panticosa," but a
score and more on the French side
and these having a northern expo
sure are ofcourse much cooler. The
Midi-railWay, a part of the line from
Bayonne to Marseilles, runs parallel
to the French Pyrenees, skirting
their base nearly all the way to
Toulouse, and by various lateral
branches running south into the
mountains, it provides easy access
to all the principal summer resorts.
Gambo is connected by rail with the
main line at Bayonne, Faux Chaudes
and Faux BONES at Pau" eau
terets, Luz, st. Sauveur, Gavarne and
Angeles are reached by rail from
Lourdes; Bagneres de Bigorre from
Tarbes; Arreau from Lannemezan;
Luchon from Montrejean; and "Ax"
and "Andorra" from Toulouse. Ma.
tional highways with easy grades,
and kept in perfect order connect all
all these watering places in France
from Btarrltz on the Bay of Biscay to
Euchon $50 miles to the east, and |
doubt if there are any finer drives in
France than through these valleys
and over the mountain ranges which
separate them.
The so miles from Luchon to
Lourdes over the Col d'Aspin"
through Bagneres de Bigorre is that
bit OF the Pyrenees | would recon-
mend for carriage drive if time adj
mits OF only one. From a height of
5000 feet you command the finest of
the glacier fields and also the green
valleys which spring out of snow
banks, broaden as they stretch north
and are at length lost in the wide
plains through which wind the
"Garonne" and the "Adour" on their
way to the Atlantic. If mountain
eerlng is ones ambition, and it's
charm is measured by its danger,
there are here glaciers to be crossed
and peaks so difficult OF ascent, that
life insurance policies can be put to
as severe strain in the Pyrenees, as