PYRENEES, BASSES, a department in the south-west of France, lies between 42° 47' and 43' 35' N. lat., 0° 2' E. and 1° 45' W. long., and is bounded N. by the departments of Landes and Gera, E. by that of Hautes-Pyrendee, S. by the Pyrenees and Spain, and W. by the Bay of Biscay. Its greatest length from east to west is 88 miles; the breadth varies from 13 to 55 miles. The area is 2943.3 square miles. The population in 1841 was 451,683; In 1851 it amounted to 446,997, which gives 151.869 to the square mile, being 22115 below the average per square mile for the whole of France.
The department is formed out of the old principality of Besu; Basse-Navarre, the Basque districts of Soule and Labour [BASQUES, Pan nes], and a portion of Chalosse. It takes its name from its position on the slopes and at the foot of the Western Pyreneee, which bend out numerous offshoots to the north-west, dividing the surface of the department into a great number of velloys, each watered by a clear rapid stream that ultimately falls into the ADOIIR on the northern boundary. From the Basque word for running water these mountain rivers are called 'gay& The principal of them are the Gave-de-Pau, which drains the north east, and the Gave-d'Oloron (formed by the gavel that drain the valleys of Ave and Oman), which runs through the central districts. More to westward are the Bidouze and the Nive (this enters tho Adour at Bayonne), the Nivelle, which rises iu Spain and enters the Gulf of Gascogne at St.-Jean-de-Luz, and the Bidaasoa, which marks the boundary between France and Spain for a short distance before its entrance into the Bay of Biscay below Fuente rabbi. Timber and other articles are floated down all these rivers almost from their sources; such of them as fall directly into the sea have a tide navigation a few miles from their mouths.
The lower valleys of the department, the principal of which are those of Balgorry, Soule, Aerie, and Ossau, are fertile. The vale-heads in many instances have the form of an amphitheatre (locally called oule ' from the Spanish oils,' pot), inclosed by high mountains, and connected with the valleys by narrow gorges; some of them also present beautiful cascades. The high valleys and lower slopes of the Pyrenees afford excellent pasture, on which groat numbers of cattle, swine, sheep, mules, and light Navarrese horses are fed. The hill-sides
are In general covered with vineyards, which yield very good wine, and with plantations of fruit and chestnut-trees. The annual produce of wine is about 7,150,000 gallons, the beet kinds being those of Jurancon and Can. The high mountains are to a great extent covered with forests of pine, fir, and oak, which afford good ship timber. Along the Adour there is some marsh land, and in the north-west, and near the sea, there are some naked barren wastes. Of yvhcat the produce Is not enough for the consumption; other crops are rye, barley, oats, millet, chestnuts, and maize, which last forms the prin cipal article of food of the peasantry. The growing of flax and hemp, the trade in hams chiefly carried on in Pau and Bayonne, and the traffic in mules and cattle with Spain, aro the most important sources of wealth to the agriculturist The Pyrenees consist of primitive rocks (especially granite mingled with gneiss), which occupy however but a small space in this depart ment The transition rocks (grauwacke, grauweeke-slate, clay-slate, and transition limestone) form the principal component of the mountains, skirting the nucleus of primitive rocks by which they are supported. The secondary formations, especially the new red-sand atone, and the Alpine limestone which overlies it, form the predominant rocks ; the former is observed In the higher part of the mountains, where it usually exceeds the transition rocks in elevation ; the latter appears in the lower slopes and at the base of the mountains, extending northward in several parts to the banks of the Adour and the Gave do-Pau. The immediate vicinity of these rivers, and the north-eastern part of the department, which extends across the Oave-de-Pau, are occupied by the tertiary formations. Masses of secondary trap rocks aro found in tho lower part of the valleys watered by feeders of the Sire; the Gavesd'016ron, and the Gave-de-Pau. The formations of the cretaceous group are found on the flanks of the Pyrenees, but considerably altered in their mineralogical character by their vicinity to the granite.