A MIDSUMMER DRIVE THROUGH THE PYRENEES ***
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A MIDSUMMER DRIVE THROUGH THE PYRENEES
by
EDWIN ASA DIX, M.A.
Ex-Fellow in History of the College of New Jersey at Princeton
Illustrated
New York & London G.P. Putnam's Sons The Knickerbocker Press
1890
[Illustration: A DIFFICULT BIT ON THE ROUTE THERMALE.]
"How comes it to pass," wondered a traveler, over twenty years ago, "that, when the American people think it worth while to pay a visit to Europe almost exclusively to see Switzerland and Italy; when in 1860 twenty-one thousand Americans visited Rome and only seven thousand English; so few should think it worth while to visit the Pyrenees? It is certainly the only civilized country we have visited without finding Americans there before us. Is it accident or caprice, or part of a system of leaving it to the last,--which 'last' never comes? The feast is provided,--where are the guests? The French Pyrenees form one of the loveliest gardens in Europe and a perfect place for a summer holiday. 'La beauté ici est sereine et le plaisir est pur.'"
The query is still unanswered to-day. The stream of summer journeyings to Europe has swollen to a river; it has overflowed to the Arctic Ocean, to the Baltic, to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The Pyrenees--a garden not only, but a land of sterner scenery as well,--almost alone remain by our nation of travelers unvisited and unknown.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
IN PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER II.
A BISCAYAN BEACH
CHAPTER III.
BAYONNE, THE INVINCIBLE
CHAPTER IV.
SAINT JOHN OF LIGHT
CHAPTER V.
THE CITY OF THE ARROW-PIERCED SAINT
CHAPTER VI.
AN OLD SPANISH MINIATURE
CHAPTER VII.
AN ERA IN TWILIGHT
CHAPTER VIII.
"THE LITTLE PARIS OF THE SOUTH,"
CHAPTER IX.
THE WARM WATERS AND THE PEAK OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER X.
THE GOOD WATERS OF THE ARQUEBUSADE
CHAPTER XI.
OVER THE HIGHWAY OF THE HOT SPRINGS
CHAPTER XII.
MIRRORS AND MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER XIII.
A COLOSSEUM OF THE GODS
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
