A sous-préfecture, on the Adour, founded by the Romans, with the name of Aqua Tarbellicæ, on account of its hot mineral waters, of which the chief spring, called Fontaine de Nesle, in the middle of the town, falls into a large basin, in front of a kind of triumphal arch, among clouds of steam, the temperature being 160°. The supply is most abundant, especially in spring time. It is very clear; contains sulphates of soda and lime, &c.; and is used not only by the sick, for rheumatism, paralysis, old wounds, &c., but by the town's people, to wash and make their bread with.

Another spring at Baignots, close by, has large bath rooms over it, and a temperature of 90° to 145°. Two bridges, one of wood and another on five stone arches, built 1857, lead over to Sablar faubourg, where the old church of St. Paul stands, which was a cathedral till the Revolution. The body having fallen in, 1646, was rebuilt 1719, but the original Gothic front, of the 13th century, offers several carvings of Scripture subjects, within and without. Another church, St. Vincent's, contains the effigy of the saint, and traces of the original basilica of the third century. The bishop's palace is now the Mairie, the diocese being united to that of Aire. Between the bridges are the walls and round towers of the old moated castle of the 14th century. The town walls are of a genuine Roman character; and a Roman way went hence to Toulouse. Dax was once an English town, but was taken by the Count of Foix, 1441. Ducos, the conventionist, General Ducos, and Borda, the mathematician, were born here; and here the jambons de Bayonne are cured.

The Gothic church of St. Paul-les-Dax, in the neighbourhood, deserves notice for the curious and fantastic carvings upon it. At Tarcis (17 kil.), is another mineral spa. To the south-east of it, up the Arrigan, is the town of POUILLON (population, 3,200), which is equally noted for a warm mineral spa, and contains the old feudal château of Lamothe. Indeed, one has only to dig a few yards into the soil round Dax, and you are sure to come to warm springs, of more or less value, for curative purposes.

Saubusse (3 miles), on the Adour, has a poplation of 1,000, and mineral and mud baths, at spot called Bains de Joannan, in which chlorides of sodium and lime prevail. The Pyrenées in view.

St. Géours (3 miles), among forests of pine, is an entrepôt for the Marensin, as the tract here bordering on the Gulf of Gascony (maris sinus) is called. Population, 1,500.

lation, 1,083. St. Vincent-de-Tyrosse (3 miles). Popu

[To the north-west is the decayed port of VIEUX BOCAULT, among sand-hills (some 200 feet high), on the Bay of Biscay, which was of importance between 1360, when the course of the Adour was turned into it, and 1560, when it was made to take its old course. Its name is derived from bouche, a mouth. A lake here is called Etang de Moison, after an old skipper, who was so unwilling to believe that the river was turned another way, that he kept his vessel at anchor in the stream, till there was no water left to carry him out to sea. A little west is

Cape Breton, once a good port, when the Adour ran by it to the Bay of Biscay, from which sand-hills now hide it. Some say it was founded by Brutus as Caput Bruti. Part of a Knight Templars' house is seen among the ruins. Population, 900. The enterprising sailors of this part of France discovered and gave name to the Island of Cape Breton, in 1491, now part of British America.]

La Benne (73 miles), near the unhealthy Etang dOrx. Through a fine forest, close to the sea, to

Le Boucaurt (64 miles), a little pilot village, near the embouchure of the Adour, which forms a harbour here. At 13 mile beyond is Bayonne, with the Pyrenées in view.

It is entered by a wooden bridge over the Adour, from the suburb of ST. ESPRIT (population, 7,000), which contains Vauban's Citadel upon the heights over the town. Until 1831 the Jews of Bayonne were obliged to retire to this quarter at sunset. Here they found refuge when driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Circus has been rebuilt and enlarged for bull-fights, which were first

crosses the Adour.

repeated annually in the Spanish manner.

BAYONNE,

123 miles from Bordeaux, 487 miles from Paris. HOTELS.-Commerce; St. Étienne; Des Bains; Du Midi; Du Grand d'Espagne; De Providence. Omnibuses from the station to the town, 25 centimes; 25 centimes for each package.

Post Office, end of Rue du Gouvernement. Population, 25,620. High water, at full and change, 3h. 30m., the tide rising 14 feet.

English Consul, F. Graham, Esq., of whom passports for Spain may be had.

A sous-préfecture in department Basses-Pyrenées (part of Gascony), seat of a bishopric, fortress of the first class, on the Spanish frontier, and a thriving Port, on the Adour, where the Nive joins it, about three miles from the Bay of Biscay. It has a good harbour (as the name signifies in the Basque language, Baia and Ona), at their junction, close to Pont Mayour, but the mouth is obstructed by a dangerous bar, near which the Duke of Wellington crossed the Adour, February, 1814, on a bridge of boats.

The town was founded in the 10th or 11th century; and having come to the English, was taken from them, 1451, being the last place they retained in France, except Calais. It is defended by high and strong ramparts, and divided by the rivers into three parts, viz., Grand and Petit Bayonne, and the suburb of St. Esprit, which stands on the right bank of the Adour, and contains the Citadel (as above mentioned), which commands the town and country around. There is a noble prospect hence over the town, the wide estuary of the Adour, and the forests at its mouth, the Nive, Biarritz, &c., with the snowy peaks of the Pyrenées to the south. Underneath is the English cemetery, where several officers of the Coldstreams are buried, who fell when Bayonne was invested, 1814. A bridge of boats crosses this part of the. Adour, and two bridges cross the Nive.

The main street is good, but the rest are narrow; houses of stone, three or four stories high. Place Grammont is the best and the liveliest spot; there is a beautiful walk along the Allées Maritimes, a sort of jetty, one mile long, near the quays, with good prospects. The Bayonnaise women are considered pretty.

The small Cathedral (in course of restoration) is of the 13th to 16th centuries, and is 256 feet long,

but hemmed in with houses. The large cloisters were built by the English. Notice a new altar of 1854, the handsome pavement in the sanctuary, and the cross of St. Francis de Sales. The diocese is as old as the 4th century. The new church of St. André is in the style of the 13th century.

Observe also the Hôtel de Ville, douane, and theatre in one pile, surrounded by arcades; the old château, built in the 12th century, by its last counts, with round towers of the 15th century, now a barrack; the Château Neuf, between the Adair and Nive; the arsenal armoury; new military hospital, built 1841, on the site of a convent; the mint and naval dock, &c. There are a chamber of commerce and navigation school. In Rue Lormaud, No. 8, is an inscription to a "beinfacteur de Bayonne," who left property for repairing the cathedral.

A large proportion of the population is Jewish, that body being very wealthy, in consequence of the flourishing condition of the smuggling business which is carried on with Spain by the contrabandistas.

General Harispe, Lafitte, the banker, Admiral Bruix, and Duverger de Hauranne, the friend of Jansenius, were natives. The bayonette, they say, was invented here; and here at Château de Marrac (burnt 1825), Napoléon kidnapped Charles IV. of Spain, with his queen and his son, Ferdinand, 1808. Its frontier position has necessarily made it a place for many interviews between French and Spanish personages, of historical importance.

Manufactures-eaux-de-vie d' Hendaye, glass bottles (sand being plentiful), hams (cured at Othez, Dax, &c.), chocolate, sugar, &c.; and a trade with Spain in timber, wool, wines, drugs, resin, fish, &c.

Conveyances to Biarritz, Pau, St. Sebastian (in SPAIN), on the way to Madrid. A railway runs in this direction, past Irun, St. Sebastian, Tolosa, Bilboa, Vittoria, Burgos, Valladolid, &c., to Madrid, 390 miles long. (See BRADSHAW's Hand-Book to Spain). Madrid time is 25 minutes later than Paris. There is a steamer on the Adour.

From Bayonne by rail (leaving the road into Spain) beyond Anglet, you come to

Biarritz (6 miles). Hotels.- · D'Angleterre, excellent accommodation, moderate charges; Les Ambassadeurs, excellent table d'hôte (Spanish); Des Princes; Dumont; De l'Europe; De l'Ocean.

English Church service; and resident Physicians

This favourite bathing-place of the ex-Emperor and Empress after their marriage is on the Bay of Biscay, here lined with picturesque limestone cliffs, 50 to 120 feet high, hollowed into caves, as the Chamber of Love, near the Pharos, on Cape St. Marten, &c. The country people ride en cacolet, that is, in a pannier on one side of a horse, the other being filled by the driver. Population, 2,770. It is laid out with streets and squares, and has the usual conveniences of a frequented resort. Here Bismarck met the Emperor, October, 1865, before the battle of Sadowa.

The Villa Eugenie, and the new church, are at Côte du Moulins (or des Fous), on a pretty bay, divided by the promontory of Atalaye (and its old castle) from petit port and Vieux Port. Both this and Côte du Moulin are abundantly supplied with lodging-houses, machines, &c., and there is good bathing on fine soft sand. At BIDART (11 kil. from Bayonne), the Basque nationality begins to appear.

with

St. Jean de Luz (8 miles), a fortified town of 2,660 souls, at the Nivelle's mouth, once of greater importance, and now growing into a bathing-place. At the Château Louis XIV.'s marriage the Infanta Maria Theresa was celebrated, 1660. There are other old houses to be seen. The line in its progress passes by URRUGNE (5 kil.), near Montagne d'Arrhune, in the Lower Pyrenées mountains, and the Bidassoa, which divides France and Spain. The heights were defended by Soult against Wellington, who passed this way, October, 1813, into France. A bridge crosses the river at BEBOBIA (the last French post town and custom-house) towards Irun; which the rail turns from to go on to

Hendaya (8 miles), or Andaya, at the mouth of the river, on the French side, with Fuentarabia (truly Spanish) on the opposite. Hence to

Irun (14 mile), and the line for Madrid.

(a) Up the Nive you pass Ureury (20 kil.), near Cambo Spa, which Napoléon visited, 1808; then Irassari (20 kil.); then St. Jean Pied-de-Port (12 kil.), the old capital of Navarre; beyond which, in a gorge of the Pyrenées, is Roncevaux, or Roncesvalles (in Spain), where Roland and his brave peers were killed by the Saracens, 778. At Oroquieta, in this neighbourhood, Don Carlos was defeated in the rising of 1872.

ROUTE 64.

From Morcenx to Mont-de-Marsan, St. Sever, Tarbes, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Picdu-Midi, &c.

Distance to Bagnères, about 72 miles.

Morcenx Station on the Bordeaux and Bayonne rail (Route 63). Thence, passing Arjuzanx (8 miles) on the Bez, to

Aroengosse (2 miles). Population, 900. Ygos (4 miles). Population, 1,400. A factory for essence of turpentine here, from the pine woods. St. Martin-d'Oney (5 miles). A viaduct, 3,270 yards long, crosses a brook; and Mont-deMarsan is 8 miles further, 92 from Bordeaux.

MONT-DE-MARSAN.

HOTELS.-Des Ambassadeurs; De la Couronne; De France.

Ortolans are eaten in August. Population, 5,570. Chief town of department Landes (in the old province of Gascony), in a sandy hollow on the Douze, where the Midou joins it, thus forming the Medouze. After its first foundation by Charle magne, on a slight eminence (from which it obtained the name of Montagne de Mars), it was ruined by the Normans in the 11th century, and then rebuilt once more by the Counts de Marsan, 1140, taken by the Protestant leader, Montgomery, 1560, and united to the crown, with Henry IV.'s other possessions. The rivers form a little port at Place de Commerce, and are crossed by five or six bridges.

It is regularly built, and has many fountains and public baths, one is a cold ferruginous spring. The chief edifices are the préfecture, palais de justice, house of detention, the barracks, and a pepinière, or nursery of plants, &c., for the department, where there is a pleasant promenade. There is another on the site of Montneval castle, which Louis XIII. ordered to be razed in the religious troubles. It was at Mont-de-Marsan that Francis I. first saw his mistress, Mdlle. d'Heilly, who be came Duchesse d'Étampes; and here, 1527, he married Charles V.'s sister, Eleanor, in Ste. Claire's convent, which was afterwards burnt. The women are small, but pretty, and simply dressed. Trade in cloth, wine, eaux-de-vie. Conveyances: By rail and coach to St. Sever,

The country to the south presents an inviting contrast to that of the Landes, which still prevails on the north, west, and east. "Nothing is seen for miles but extensive marshy wastes without any sign of habitation, beyond here and there a turf hovel to afford shelter to the peasantry, who are employed to superintend the flocks of sheep, and whose aspect is sufficiently indicative of the malarious influence of the locality. A man, woman, and child frequently go together, walking on their stilts, the woman being usually employed in knitting; and, seen from afar, the group presents rather a grotesque appearance." (Lee's Companion to the Continent).

[At 22 kil. north-west of Mont-de-Marsan is ROQUEFORT, on the high road to Bordeaux, at the junction of the Douze and Estampon; on the rocks above which stand an old castle and a modern château.]

The first place on the Tarbes line is

Grenade-sur-l'Adour (8 miles), a little village on the Adour, where Marshal Perrignon was

born.

[About 6 kil. down the river is

ST. SEVER, a sous-préfecture of 4,820 souls, in a pleasant hollow; having an old church, which was part of a Benedictine abbey, founded 993; also, remains of the château of the Dukes of Gascony. It was taken from the English, 1426. There is a column to General Lamargue, a native. At Peulvan (near the town), and Peyrelongue (8 kil. off), Druid stones are seen. Hotel.-Des Voyageurs.

An ancient convent is now the priests' seminary. The diocese of Dax is united to that of Aire. At 50 kil. south is Pau (Route 65).

The direct road to Tarbes is by way of Madiran (28 kil.) and Vic-en-Bigorre (26 kil.); or up the Adour, following the rail to Riscle (9 miles); Castelnau d'Est or de Rive Basse (5 miles) in Hautes Pyrenées; Maubourguet (4 miles); to Vic-en-Bigorre (5 miles), where the line from Agen comes in. It is a pretty village (population, 3,800) on the Salat, in Hautes Pyrenées, with a ruined castle and walls.

The next station is Andrest (4 miles), about 6 miles from

TARBES,

A station 59 miles from Mont-de-Marsan. HOTELS.-Du Grand Soleil; De l'Europe; De la

Paix.

Population, 15,770. Chief town of department Hautes Pyrenées, seat of a bishopric, &c. It was formerly called Turta, and was the capital of the Bigerrones, who gave name to the surrounding district of Bigorre, which, as part of Guienne, was held by the English till the time of Charles VII. It stands on the Adour, in the midst of a rich and wide plain (1,000 feet above sea), watered by the numerous branches of that river and the Garonne, and crowded with villages and fragments of rock washed from the Pyrenées-with the Pic du Midi de Bigorre in view, on the south.

The roads to the watering-places and passes of the mountains strike out here, as from a centre; and a convenient market is, therefore, held every other week, attended by the country people; when corn, potatoes, cheese, salt provisions, tools, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, mules, linens, and other necessaries are sold. Here you may see the Béarnais, with his white blouse, blue berret or cap, and curly hair; the women with their red capulets; the Spanish muleteer; and a variety of picturesque costumes.

The town is regular and well-built. Streams of water run through the streets, which are lined with houses constructed of brick and pebbles, or of native marble, roofed with slate. Each has its