The outline is not only irregular in form, but various in its hue; some of the loftiest heights of the foremost range being patched with snow, while, still more distant and shining in the sun, appear the dazzling peaks of eternal ice, piercing the deep blue sky wherein they dwell.
[Footnote 31: For the whole account of the Hautes Pyrenees, I am indebted to my brother, Mr.Dudley Costello, who made the excursion while I remained at Pau.] This table-land is traversed for several miles over a broken common, variegated with heath and fern, and intersected here and there by brawling streams, which take their course to swell the tributaries of the distant Gave.

At the eastern extremity of the common, another wide forest of chesnut appears, where the road rapidly descends with many windings to the plain of Bigorre.

One of these turns offers the loveliest picture it is possible to imagine.

The foreground is formed of steep, rough banks, through which the road winds its sinuous track, the thick yet graceful foliage of the chesnut rises like a frame on either hand, and spreads also in front, while the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, with snow on its summit, and the Pic de Montaigu, with its sharp, dark outline, complete the distance.

To give life to the scene, there are the peasants and market-women on their way to the fair of Tarbes,--the former wearing the characteristic brown _berret_, and the latter the black or scarlet-peaked hood, which gives quite a clerical air to their costume.