e bear is
found, whose light fulvous-coloured body and black paws pronounce him a
different animal from the _ursus arctos_. If he be the same species, as
naturalists assert, he claims at least to be a permanent variety, and
deserves his distinctive appellation of _ursus pyrenaicus_.

Wolves abound; Spanish wolves, long famed for their fierceness; the
common whitish-brown wolf (_canis lupus_), and a darker and still larger
variety--in short, a black wolf, designated the "wolf of the Pyrenees,"
though it is equally a denizen of the other mountain _sierras_ of
Portugal and Spain.

The European lynx (_felis lynx_), and the wild cat, both skulk through
the Pyrenean forests; the former now only rarely seen. Along the naked
cliffs leaps the "izzard," which is identical with the chamois of the
Alps (_antelope rupicapra_); and in the same localities, but more rarely
seen, the "bouquetin," or "tur" (_aigocerus pyrenaicus_)--a species of
ibex, _not_ identical with the _capra ibex_ of Linnaeus and the Alpine
mountains.

Birds of many European species frequent the lower forests of the
Pyrenees, or fill the sheltered valleys with their vocal music; while,
soaring above the mountain summits, may be seen the great vulture-eagle,
or "lammergeyer," watching with greedy eye the feeble lambkin, or the
new-born kid of the ibex and izzard.

With such knowledge of their natural history, it was with feelings of no
ordinary interest that our young hunters turned their faces towards that
vast serried rampart that separates the land of the Gaul from the
country of the Iberian.

It was by the Val d'Ossau, literally the "valley of the bear," that they
made their approach to the mountains,--that valley celebrated as the
residence and hunting-ground of Henri of Navarre: but now, in modern
days, noted for its valuable thermal springs of _Eaux Bonnes_ and _Eaux
Chaudes_.

Up this mountain gorge went our heroes, their faces turned southward,
and their eyes carried high up to the Pic du Midi d'Ossau--the mountain
of the bears--an appropriate name for that beacon which was now
directing their course.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

AN ODD AVALANCHE.

It is needless to say that the young Russians were delighted with the
scenes that met their eyes in this fair southern land; and many of them
are found faithfully described in their journal. They noted the
picturesque dresses of the Pyrenean peasantry--so different from the
eternal blue blouse which the