PYRENEES, HAUTES, a department in the south of France, lies between 42° 39' and 43° 34' N. lat., 30' E. and 0° 20' W. long., and is bounded N. by the department of Gers, E. by Haute-Garonne, S. by Spain, and W. by Baases-Pyr6n6es. Its greatest length is about 70 miles, and its greatest breadth about 45 miles. The area is 17434 square miles; the population in 1841 was 244,196; in 1851 it amounted to 250,934, which gives 143•522 to the square mile, being 31'062 below the average per square mile for all France.
The department is formed out of the districts of BIGORRE and Quatres-Vall6e,, and a portion of N6bouzan. The Quarre-rallies, or Four Valleys of Aure, Barousse, Magnoac, and Vesta formed part of the county of Armagnac, subdivision of Gaacogna Cmtelnau-de Magnoac was the chief place of the Quatre-Vall6ea, which now form the south-east of the department of Hantea-Pyr6n4es and the south west of Haute-Garonne.
The department takes its name from the Pyrenees, which attain their greatest height on the southern boundary, where Monte-Mala detta, Mont-Perdu, and the highest peak of the Vignemale group, reach respectively 10,863, 10,991, and 10,817 feet above the sea-level. Stretching northward from this great mountain barrier, the depart ment prevents a surface diversified by plains, hills, forests, valleys, gorges, high mountains, torrents, and waterfalls. Two lateral offsets of the Pyrenees extend northward and terminate in tho two ranges of hills that inclose between them the fine plain of Bigorre. Between this plain and the main range of the Pyrenees occur a great number of picturesque valleys, where the scenery comprises within little compass the quiet well-sheltered village, the snow-clad mountain, with rocky precipitous sides, or with slopes shaded by dark forests, and the whole echoing with the noise of waterfalls, or animated by the cheerful babble of the furiously-running 'gave.' Among the most noted of these valleys in that of Cauteretz, celebrated for its hot springs. In most instances, the valleys, which in their higher parts contract at intervals to mere gorges wide enough to afford a passage for the troubled waters of the gave, terminate in vale-heads that take the form of an amphitheatre. Of these vale-heads that called the must be specified. The road or path to this vale head from the village of Gbdrea pewee some savage mountain scenery, and among a chaos of massive blocks of stone, many of them large enough to afford singly sufficient material for building a cathedral.
On reaching the vale-head one Imes a vast semicircle of precipitous rock., about 1640 feet high, broken Into three stages or steps, on ono of which a glacier rests, forming part of the ice-field of the Mont Perlu group. From a lake among the glaciers on this lofty mountain, the Gave-de-Gavarnie, the head-water of Gave-de-Pan leaps down the savage side of the Cirque 323 feet at a single bound, and striking against one of the steps or ledges above mentioned is dashed into spray, which, struck by the rays of the inn, form. an infinite number of rainbows, some of a completely circular form. The broken waters from this point form several cascades (these again divide into a greater number on striking the next ledge), and at length, uniting at the bottom, after a total fall of above 1600 feet, roar in a torrent stream through a hollow vault worn out under the rock strewn floor of the Cirque of Gavarnie. Excursions are made over meta snow, and glaciers, from Gavarnle to the Tours-dn-Marbor6, and to the pass called a ooloseal gap in the monntain-wall 330 feet wide, and nearly 9000 feet above the sea, which Roland, of the famous sword, is fabled to bars made for his followers, and which is now frequented only by smugglers and adventurous tourists. There are many more practicable however than the Brocheale-Roland, at a height of 6000 to feet, but all of them are subject to tre mendous hurricanes, and such Is the danger in threading them, that it is a received axiom that among these stormy heights "the son must not wait for the father, nor the father for the son." The which Mande in front of the main mass of the Pyrenees, at the south of the plain of Bigorre, rises to the height of 9136 feet above the sea-level. It is ascended not without difficulty by the valley of BaAges and the gorge of Grip. In clear weather the view from its summit is truly magnificent : to the south ward the Pyrenean range extend. in a vast crescent mass, surmounted at different distances by tremendous peaked or rounded heights, whose are covered with snow heaps or with Ice-fields that contrast strongly with the sombre hno of the dark brown rocks near them. To the northward, all inequalities of surface seem annihilated, and a vast plain spreads itself out before the eye, comprising the depart ment. of lisases-Pyr6ratee, Gers, and Haute-Garonne.