Part 8

The 1/320,000 military map will not be of great use to the traveller. It can only show him the main roads if he is motoring or cycling, and present him with a general view of the country for which the clearer 1/200,000 map will serve his purpose better.

The 1/80,000 military map is the best for minute details, and if a man desires to ramble off and explore some special districts of this great range, it is the 1/80,000 map which will be of most use to him, though its value will be supplemented and greatly extended by using it in conjunction with the colour 1/100,000 map of the Ministry of the Interior or Home Office.

This last, as the reader will have seen, is the staple map, upon which every form of travel depends. If no other be purchased, this at least is always indispensable.

It is well here to summarize briefly certain points in the reading of this map, which do not immediately appear on one’s first acquaintance with it.

First, the map is on too small a scale to show a certain number of features, which, though unimportant in the general landscape, are essential to the traveller on foot. This is true of rocks, for instance; open rock, extending over a considerable surface, will always be marked, but hidden ledges, especially small ones, are more often not marked, and this may lead to disaster if one trusts the map too exactly. For instance, in the sheet numbered xi. 37, a range will be seen rising to the left of the main road, which bisects the map from north to south: I mean the range running from the Spanish frontier to the Pic-du-Ger. This ridge is intersected by two profound valleys, and the whole of it is a mass of greater or smaller limestone ledges, more or less masked in the density of the forests. Yet it is impossible to indicate these on such a scale, save here and there by sharp hatching. These limestone ledges are in this particular case such, that unless one knows the paths extremely well, it is impossible to cross the ridge at all, but one would have no idea of that from merely consulting the map. On the other hand, every rivulet, however small, is distinctly marked, and that is something of a guide when one has tried to ascertain one’s position in a valley. This map has a further advantage of marking in the clearest way the paths by which the various ports are approached, and after a considerable use of it in many places, I can say that when you have lost the path, the indication afforded you by the 1/100,000 map is invariably right—upon the French side. However unreasonably the line seems to acting upon the map, if it lies to the left of a stream, or beneath a particularly clearly marked rock, then it is to the left of that stream, or beneath that rock that you must cast about if you want to find it, and if you find another path in another direction, you may be certain it is but a random track, which will mislead you, however clearly it may appear for the moment. When, in first using these maps, my companions and I neglected such information, it invariably led to trouble. For instance, in the lower crossings of the Sousquéou, the map gives the path everywhere on the north, or right bank of the stream. There is a spot just before the first rocky “gate” of this ravine where all indication of further travel upon the right bank disappears, and on the contrary a fine-made path crosses over by a strong bridge to the further or left bank. We thought the map must be in error, and crossed by the bridge, with the result that we spent a whole day cut off by a bad spate from the further side, and were for some hours in peril; for the bridge once crossed, this false path disappeared within half a mile. If we had pinned ourselves to the map, kept to the north bank, and cast about in circles, we should have found the path again but a hundred yards or so further on, running precisely as it was indicated on the survey. The importance of the 1/100,000 map in thus giving all tracks accurately will hardly appear to the reader unused to the Pyrenees, but it will be seen clearly enough when we come later to speak of travel upon foot in the mountains.

It is a defect of the 1/100,000 map that heights, though accurately marked, cannot always be as accurately referred to the exact spots standing near the figures. This is because the heights are marked in pale blue ink, and the ambiguity is accentuated by that absence of contour lines which is the chief fault of the series. The method of marking is to point a small blue point close to the figures, and this dot marks the exact spot to which the figures refer. Where the figures are printed in a white space, and where there are no other features to interfere with them, this small blue spot is plain enough, but where they come upon woodland or steep shading, or other print, it is almost impossible to discover the dot. Thus, for instance, in the xi. 37 sheet to which allusion has just been made, a little lake will be found right upon latitude 42° 50′, just before its intersection with longitude 2° 40′. The height of this lake is given as 2170 metres, and the small blue point to which that altitude exactly refers is unmistakably marked at the southern extremity of the lake; but immediately to the right of those very figures, one of the highest peaks of the Pyrenees, the Bat Lactouse, marked 3146 metres, presents no point of which one can be certain. The frontier happens to cross this peak, and the little blue spot has got lost in the chain of black dots marking the frontier and in the print of the name of the mountain.

As a general rule, however, if you are in doubt as to what a figure may refer to, you are pretty safe in referring it to a peak, rather than to a pass or a group of houses in the neighbourhood. I have said that the accuracy of the map is undoubted for the French side; it is less certain upon the Spanish, where indeed its accuracy is not guaranteed. It is the best map to use upon the Spanish side (save for that restricted district over which Schrader’s contour map applies), but do not, upon the Spanish side, take the map against the evidence of your senses, as you will be wise always to do upon the French side. The map is notably wrong upon the Spanish side where unfinished works are concerned; it is not revised with the same frequency and care as upon the French side; for instance, the big new road from Sallent up to the French frontier goes in long winding zigzags, which make the total distance between eight and nine miles. The 1/100,000 map marks it in dots as though it were not finished, makes it far straighter than it is, and thus reduces the distance by nearly half.

Finally, the 1/200,000 map gives the best bird’s-eye view of the whole district, and is the only one showing contours, and penetrating further upon the Spanish side than any other. It will be my advice to those who desire to take a walking tour of some length in various parts of the range, to equip themselves with the whole set of the 1/200,000 maps (5 sheets), with the whole of the 1/100,000 map, but only with such of the 1/800,000 (the uncoloured map of the Ministry of War) as cover small districts of the nature of which one is in doubt. Those, on the other hand, who purpose spending their time in one or two valleys only, should, without fail, purchase the sheets of the 1/100,000 survey covering that district, and would do very well to add to these all the corresponding sheets of the 1/80,000 survey.

With these remarks, most that can be usefully told to my readers with regard to the maps of the Pyrenees has been told them, but perhaps a few final notes will not be without their use, thus: The English traveller must always remember that none of these maps comes up to the English one-inch Ordnance for accuracy and detail—the scale forbids this. Next, let him remember that the dates of revision of each map will differ, as do the dates of revision of ordnance maps in every country. For instance, I have before me, as I write, the 1/200,000 of Luz, purchased in this year (1908); no date of revision is attached to it, but the new road (which is at present an excellent carriage road, one of the best in Europe, up the Gallego to the French frontier) is marked, at first as a lane, afterwards as a mule track. On the 1/100,000 (Laruns sheet), purchasable this year, the new road is marked as existing for traffic, but not fully completed beyond a point about three miles from the frontier, and its true form is not given but merely indicated. It is evident that these sheets were revised at different times (the Laruns sheet bears a date six years old), and that we must always take the later of any two impressions, if we can obtain it. The highways of the Pyrenees upon the French side especially, both by road and by rail, are being extended with such rapidity that every year makes a difference to the accuracy of the information conveyed.

It remains to enumerate with their titles the maps covering the district: in England they may be most easily obtained from Messrs. Sifton & Praed, The Map House, St. James’s Street. This firm provides the 1/200,000 for the whole chain of the Pyrenees range mounted on canvas, the most useful map perhaps for motoring and cycling. Any sheet of the 1/100,000 can also be obtained from them, as all are kept in stock, but by far the most convenient form in which to carry them is to have them folded in the stiff cover issued by the French Government: to get them in this form, a few days’ notice in London will be needed. From the same firm the military maps can be procured in a similar manner, but I do not know whether all are kept in stock as a regular thing.

In ordering the sheets of the 1/200,000 (if one does not purchase them as a whole), reference is made not to numbers, but to names. There are five sheets, “Bayonne,” “Tarbes,” “Luz,” “Foix,” and “Perpignan,” the price of which in England is 10_s._; the whole series can also be purchased mounted.

The sheets of the 1/100,000 map may be referred to either by the names of their central towns, or by the index number of the series in which they are printed. It is difficult to say what numbers of these maps exactly cover the range, unless one knows how far from the watershed towards the plain the traveller intends to go. The smallest number sufficient to cover the actual watershed and the highest peaks is 16, or, for the whole frontier, 17. These sheets are by name (going from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, from west to east), St. Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne, St. Jean Pied-de-Port, Mauléon, Ste. Engrace, Laruns, Luz, Gavarnie, Bagnères-de-Luchon, Val-d’Arouge, St. Girons, Mont Rouch, Perles, Ax-les-Thermes, Saillagouse, Ceret, and Banyuls. Referring to their numbers in the series upon the index map, they are respectively viii. 35, ix. 35, ix. 36, x. 36, x. 37, xi. 37, xii. 37, xii. 38, xiii. 37, xiii. 38, xiv. 37, xiv. 38, xv. 38, xvi. 38, xvi. 39, xvii. 39, and xviii. 39. It will be observed that in the index map of the 1/100,000 series, the divisions running from north to south are marked in Roman numerals, those from east to west in Arabic numerals, and that the gradual increase in Arabic numerals from 35 to 39, corresponds to the gradual trend southward of the Pyrenean chain from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

Very few of my readers will be concerned with the main crest of the range alone; it will therefore be necessary to add to that list northward of the frontier (the lower Arabic numerals) the further sheet according to the district each may have chosen to travel in. A certain number of extra sheets are necessary to those who travel in the main chain only, for instance, “Perles” (xv. 38) includes within the limits of its sheet the frontier upon either side, but this frontier so nearly approaches the northern limits in one spot, that it will be quite impossible to travel in this part until we also add the sheet “Foix” (xv. 37), to the north of it. Even the little lake of Garbet, which is not three miles from the crest of the range, is half out of the map and half in.

Those who desire a complete collection of all the sheets of the 1/100,000 survey, extending from the furthest mountain over the Spanish side up on the foothills into the French plain, may remark the following lists: in series viii. 35; in series ix. 35 and 36; in series x. 35, 36, and 37; in series xi. 35, 36, and 37; in series xii. 36, 37, and 38; in series xiii. 36, 37, and 38; in series xiv. 37 and 38; in series xv. 37 and 38; in series xvi. 37, 38, and 39; in series xvii. 38 and 39; in series xviii. 39; in all twenty-five sheets will cover the mountainous region in this survey, and anyone who desires a complete map of the French Pyrenees, with as much of the Spanish side as the survey includes, should possess them all.

Schrader’s map is in six sheets upon the scale of 1/100,000 and with contours. It is essentially a climber’s map. Detailed maps of special districts of course exist in many shapes, but they must be sought for in the periodical reviews, and in monographs in which they have appeared. Finally, it may interest the reader to know that in the Casino of Bagnères-de-Luchon he may inspect a fully detailed relief map of the whole range on a scale somewhat larger than one inch to a mile, though the inspection of it rather satisfies curiosity than affords any guide to travel.

Schrader’s map is of the greatest value for one particular piece of touring, which I shall describe later in these pages. Meanwhile it may be as well to add a further note upon it here. It is by far the best, so far as it goes, of all the Pyrenean maps; it is due to private enterprise, and if the whole range had been done in the same way there would be no need to discuss any other type, it would amply suffice for all purposes. Unfortunately, whereas the range, within the limits laid down in this book, stretches in length from a degree east of Paris to nearly four degrees west of that meridian, covering, that is, four or five degrees of longitude, and stretches in latitude from 43° 25′ to at least 42°, Schrader’s survey covers only 1½° in longitude (namely, from 1° 10′ west of Paris to 2° 40′), and in latitude extends over no more than half a degree, namely, from 42° 20′ to 42° 50′.

As the reader may see by comparing these bearings with a general map, Schrader’s map is intended to include no more than the very high Pyrenean peaks: it is the result of many years of careful individual survey, begun before the war of 1870 and carried on to quite the last few years.

Like the French Home Office map, it is in the scale of 1/100,000, and, like it, it is printed in colours, but unlike the Home Office map, it shows the invaluable feature _of contours_. You have an exact plan of the country before you, and in clear weather, with the aid of this map, you can fall into no error in connexion with the relief of the land. The contours are at some distance, at 100 metres or 328 feet apart, but this in such country is an advantage; indeed, the cramping of the closer contours on the official 1/200,000 map, greatly detracts from their usefulness. Not only are contours marked, but all rocky places are given with the greatest care, and the impression of relief is helped by shading as well as contour lines. The only drawback of the map, apart from its restricted area, lies in the absence of any indication of woods. As to the steepness, to which woods are often a guide, his contours amply make up for the deficiency, but for camping it affords you no indication. On the other hand, all cabanes and all paths are very clearly marked.

All heights and distances with which you will have to do in these hills upon either side are marked in metres, save in the popular talk, which measures distances by the time taken to traverse them. With this I shall deal in a moment. Let me first deal with what is a constant source of trouble to Englishmen on the Continent, the turning of the metrical system of measure into its English equivalent.

There are two ways of doing this. One is the application of quite easy and rough rules of thumb, the other is the more complicated process which aims at a fairly high degree of accuracy. It is the first of these of course which most people will want to know, and there are two simple rules, one for heights and one for distances.

The rule for heights is, divide by 3, shift the decimal point one place to the right, and you have the height in English feet, _within a certain limit of error_, which I shall presently detail.

The rule of thumb as applied to measures of distance is to take the number of kilometres (a kilometre is 1000 metres, and is, as one may say, the French mile), divide by 8, and multiply by 5, and you have the corresponding number of English miles _within a certain limit of error_, which I shall describe presently.

For all ordinary purposes these two rules are sufficient, though in both cases they somewhat exaggerate. They make a French distance measured in English miles a little too far, and a French height, measured in English feet, a trifle too high.

The exact constant of error is, in the case of the heights, 1.6 feet in every 100. Thus if your rough calculation gave you a height of 10,160 feet, the exact height ought to be just 10,000; you see upon the map in the blue figures referring to metres, “3048” (which happens by the way to be within two steps of the height of the Bac Lactous). You divide by 3, add a 0, and get 10,160, and you know by the constant of error that the true height is just exactly 10,000 feet.

The knowledge of this constant gives us a rough-and-ready method of getting a height within a very small degree of accuracy, and for any purposes where such accuracy is required, I recommend it. It consists in cutting off the last three figures, multiplying what is left by 4, and then again by 4, and subtracting that from your first rough calculation. It sounds complicated, but it does not take half a minute, and you will be well within two feet of any height; for most heights you are likely to calculate, you will be right within a few inches.

For instance, you see 2403, in blue figures upon the map dividing by 3 and shifting your decimal point, you at once get 8010; there is your rough calculation, which you know to be a trifle in excess of the truth. Cut off the last three figures and you have left 8, multiply 8 by 4, and then again by 4, and you have 128 as the amount of your error. The peak is by this calculation 7882 feet high, and rough as the rule is you are within 20 inches of the truth: the exact height of such a peak in English feet is 7883.7624....

However, if you want absolute accuracy, multiply the French measure by 3.2808992, and you will be sufficiently near the truth to save your soul.

As to distances, the exact proportion of error, when you turn miles into kilometres by dividing by eight and multiplying by 5, is 2 inches or so short of 50 feet too much in every mile; when, therefore, you are dealing with a hundred miles, you are very nearly, but not quite a mile out in this form of calculation. The error is, within a very small fraction, 1%.

If therefore you want an easy rule for turning your rough calculation into an accurate one, you cut off the last two figures and subtract from your total the figures thus left. For instance, 244 kilometres divided by 8 gives 30½, and that multiplied by 5 is 152.5; cut off the 52, leaving “1” on the left, subtract that 1 (making 151.5), and you are within a few yards of accuracy. As questions of distance count nothing in mountains compared with questions of height, I will make no mention of decimals, but proceed to a very different matter, which is the way of counting that the _mountaineers_ have, and this you will do well to heed blindly.

When you are tired and distracted and wondering perhaps whether you can push on, if you have the good luck to find a shepherd, he will tell you your distance to such and such a place in _hours_. The Spanish, the Gascon, the Béarnais, and the Catalan dialects all use the same words, so far as sound goes, for this kind of measure, and the Basque will never speak to you in Basque: it is part of the Basque tenacity never to do this. So if you find yourself in any part of the high hills where a man can talk to you of distances, you always hear the same sounds “Dos Oras,” “Quart’ Ora,” “Mi’ Ora,” and the rest. This habit, as every reader knows, is universal throughout the world wherever true peasants exist; but in mountains, whether they be Welsh or African, it is not only universal, but it withstands all the invasion of the modern world.