mastaba Farun, long supposed to be his pyramid, but had a pyramid called "the most beautiful of buildings" at Sakkara, which was opened in 1881 (see Recueil des Travaux, by M. Maspero, iii., for those opened at Sakkara). In the VIth Dynasty the "pyramid of souls," built by Ati (Rauserka), is unknown. That of Teta, "the most stable of buildings," was opened at Sakkara in 1881, as well as that of Pepi (Rameri), "the firm and beautiful." The pyramids of Rameren, "the beautiful rising," and of Neferkara, "the firm life," are unknown, Haremsaf's pyramid was opened at Sakkara in 1881. Of the last two kings of the VIth Dynasty we know of no pyramids. In the VIIth or VIIIth Dynasty most probably the brick pyramids of Dahshur were erected. In the Xith Dynasty the pyramid, "the most glorious building," of Mentuhotep II. is mentioned, and the mud pyramid of one of the Antef kings is known at Thebes. In the XIIth Dynasty the pyramids, the "lofty and beautiful" of Amenemhat I. and "the bright" of Usertesen II. are known in inscriptions, while the brick pyramid at Howara may be most probably assigned to Amenemhat III., who appears to have built the adjoining teinple. Of the architectural peculiarities of some particular pyramids some notice must now be given. The great pyramid of Gizeh (Khufu's) is very different in its internal arrangements from any other known (see vol. ii. p. 385 sq. and vol. vii. p. 771 sq.). The greater number of passages and chambers, the high finish of parts of the work, and the accuracy of construction all distinguish it. The chamber which is most normal in its situation is the subterranean chamber; but this is quite unfinished, hardly more than begun. The upper chambers, called the "king's" and "queen's,' were completely hidden, the ascending passage to them having been closed by plugging blocks, which concealed the point where it branched upwards out of the roof of the long descending passage. Another passage, which in its turn branches from the ascending passage to the queen's chamber, was also completely blocked up. The object of having two highly-finished chambers in the mass may have been to receive the king and his co-regent (of whom there is some historical evidence), and there is very credible testimony to a sarcophagus having existed in the queen's chamber, as well as in the king's chamber. On the details of construction in the great pyramid it is needless to enter here; but it may be stated that the accuracy of work is such that the four sides of the base have only a mean error of six-tenths of an inch in length and 12 seconds in angle from a perfect square.1 these come the pyramids of Dahshur, which are in a simple and The second pyramid of Gizeh has two separate entrances (one in the side, the other in the pavement) and two chambers (one roofed with slabs, the other all rock-hewn); these chambers, however, do not run into the masonry, the whole bulk of which is solid so far as is known. This pyramid has a part of the original casing on the top; and it is also interesting as having the workmen's barracks still remaining at a short distance on the west side, long chambers capable of housing about 4000 men. The great bulk of the rubbish from the work is laid on the south side, forming a flat terrace level with the base, and covering a steep rock escarpment which existed there. The waste heaps from the great pyramid were similarly tipped out over the cliff on its northern side. Thus the rubbish added to the broad platform which set off the appearance of the pyramids; and it has remained undisturbed in all ages, as there was nothing to be got out of it. The third pyramid was cased around the base with red granite for the sixteen lowest courses. The design of it has been enlarged at one bound from a small pyramid (such as those of the family of Khufu) to one eight times the size, as it is at present; the passages needed therefore to be altered. But there is no sign of gradual steps of enlargement: the change was sudden, from a comparatively small design to a large one. The basalt sarcophagus of this pyramid was ornamented with the panel decoration found on early tombs, unlike the granite sarcophagi of the two previous pyramids, which are plain. Unhappily it was lost at sea in 1838. Beyond these there are no true pyramids, but we will briefly Farther south are the pyramids of Abusir, the most complete account of which is in the work of Colonel Howard Vyse. Next come those of Sakkara. The construction of the step-pyramid or cumulative mastaba has been noticed above; its passages are very peculiar and intricate, winding around the principal chamber, which is in the centre, cut in the rock, very high, and with a tombchamber built in the bottom of it, which is closed with a great plug of red granite, a circular stopper fitting into a neck in the chamber roof. A doorway faced with glazed tiles bearing a king's standard existed here; the tiles were taken to Berlin by Lepsius. The other pyramids of Sakkara are of the VIth Dynasty, of Unas, Pepi, Haremsaf, &c. They are distinguished by the introduction of very long religious texts, covering the whole inside of the chambers and passages; these are carefully carved in small hieroglyphics, painted bright green, in the white limestone. Beyond 1 With respect to the construction of this and other pyramids, see Howard Vyse; on measurements of the inside of the great pyramid and descriptions, see Piazzi Smyth; and on measurements in general, mechanical means, and theories, see Petrie. On the vexed question of inscriptions on the pyramids it will suffice to say that not one fragment of early inscription is known on the casing of any pyramid, either in situ or broken in pieces. Large quantities of travellers' "graffiti" doubtless existed, and some have been found on the casing of the great pyramid; these probably gave rise to the accounts of inscriptions, which are expressly said to have been in many different languages. The mechanical means employed by the pyramid-builders have Works referred to above.--Colonel Howard Vyse, Operations at the Pyramids, PYRENEES, a range of mountains stretching with a by it about 13,000 square miles. For the most part the | feet high. The wildness which thus in general marks the crest of the main chain constitutes the Franco-Spanish scenery of the Pyrenees is even greater on the Spanish frontier; the principal exception to this rule is formed than on the French side. by the valley of Aran, which, belonging orographically to France but politically to Spain, is closed at the head by a transverse ridge running north and south and connecting the eastern and western halves of the chain. The whole range is remarkable for its regularity. The main chain is on the whole easy to trace; its continuity is unbroken, and the variations in its height are mostly confined within narrow limits. The same regularity is seen in the arrangement of the valleys. Except that of Aran, all the principal valleys are given off at right angles, or nearly so, like the pinne of a fern-frond, on both sides of the chain, and they are again subdivided by similar minor valleys at right angles to them. In all these respects the Pyrenees contrast in a very marked manner with the Alps. They have none of the great longitudinal valleys so characteristic of the latter range, none of the great lakes by which such valleys are occupied, and but few passes like those which are found in plenty leading across the great chains of the Alps at a level much below that of the adjoining peaks. In this last particular, indeed, the Pyrenees are conspicuously deficient. Between the two extremities of the range, where the principal highroads and the only railways run between France and Spain, there are only two passes practicable for carriages,— the Col de la Perche between the valley of the Tet and the valley of the Segre, and the Col de Somport or Port de Canfranc (where it is now proposed to pierce the range by a railway tunnel) on the old Roman road from Saragossa to Oloron. This latter pass marks the western extremity of what are known as the Central Pyrenees, which extend eastwards to the valley of Aran and include the highest summits of the whole range-Pic de Néthou or Maladetta (11,165 feet), Posets (11,047 feet), Mont Perdu (10,994 feet, Reclus; other authorities, 11,430 feet). In the Atlantic Pyrenees to the west of that pass the average height gradually but steadily diminishes till we come to the Mediterranean, while in the Eastern Pyrenees, with the exception of one break at the eastern extremity of the Pyrénées Ariégeoises, the mean elevation is maintained with remarkable uniformity, till at last a rather sudden decline occurs in the portion of the chain known as the Albères. Narrow as the range is, the inclination of a straight line drawn from the base to the crest on the French side is not more than 3°, or a rise of about 6 in 100. On the Spanish side it is said to be somewhat steeper, but this has not been definitely ascertained. This fact, however, gives no idea of the general character of the Pyrenean slopes. The descent from the crest to the plains is marked by a succession of terraces terminating in abrupt precipices. On the French side a long cliff marks the northern limit of the chain for the greater part of its length, and this feature is particularly well defined in the department of Aude, where a steep precipice marks the division between the true Pyrenees and the Corbières, a minor chain remarkable for the complexity of its geological structure, stretching in that department from south-west to north-east. Besides these longitudinal precipices marking the steps in the descent from the summit-line to the plains, the transverse valleys almost everywhere form profound ravines, at the bottom of which brawl the innumerable mountain-torrents ("gaves," as they are locally called) that form the principal feature in the hydrography of the range. Frequently they form lofty cascades, surpassed in Europe only by those of Scandinavia. The highest is that of Gavarnie at the head of the Gave de Pau, 1515 A peculiar and very striking feature in the Pyrenean valleys is the frequency with which their upper end assumes the form of a semicircle of precipitous cliffs. Such basins are called "cirques," and the most noted is that at the head of the valley just mentioned, the Cirque de Gavarnie. The origin of this form of valley is still a matter of discussion among geologists. Geologically the Pyrenees consist, like the Alps, of a core of granite overlaid by sedimentary strata of various age down to the Tertiary period. The granite is exposed chiefly in the east and centre, and appears in the west only in comparatively small isolated patches. Above the granitic core Cambro-Silurian rocks are very extensively developed, especially in the west, and it would appear that the first upheaval on the site of the present Pyrenees took place after the deposition of the rocks of this age, since those of the next epochs in geological history, the Old Red Sandstone, the Carboniferous, and probably also the Permian, are almost entirely unrepresented. The Secondary rocks down to the Lower Cretaceous were deposited perfectly conformably upon one another, probably against the slopes of a gentle ridge rising out of the water. Among these, Triassic rocks occupy a considerable area in the west on both slopes of the mountains; those of Jurassic age are likewise found on both slopes, but at different points; while the Lower Cretaceous form an almost continuous band on the north and one quite continuous on the south. After the deposition of the last-mentioned strata a second upheaval took place, and then another period of quiet deposition, during which the Upper Cretaceous and Eocene beds were laid down, was brought to a conclusion by the grand upheaval which elevated the Pyrenees into one of the great mountain-chains of Europe and imparted to them the general outline of their present relief. The last deposits of the Eocene sea in this quarter, represented on the French side by the conglomerates of Palusson, have been raised by this upheaval up the slopes of the mountains, and are succeeded by the Miocene lacustrine molasse, which lies perfectly horizontally at their base. The next and last upheaval was one that did not affect the Pyrenees separately, but raised the whole area on which they stand, causing the emergence from beneath the sea of the region of the Landes and draining the lake that washed the foot of the Pyrenees on the east, thus establishing the present land connexion between France and the Iberian Peninsula. The later rocks of the Pyrenees are to a large extent limestones, among which are conspicuous the characteristic hippuritic limestone of the southern Chalk and the nummulitic limestone of the southern Eocene. For the most part the highest peaks belong to the granitic core of the mountains. But this is not always the case. In some instances limestone rocks have been carried up to the very crest of the mountains, as in Mont Perdu and in Marboré; the name of the latter, meaning "marble," indicates the nature of its constituent rock. Such limestone summits have a characteristic square massive form, very different from the sharp peaks of the granite and the schists. As in other limestone regions, caves are numerous in the Pyrenees, and several of these are of great interest to geologists and anthropologists on account of the traces of recent geological changes observable in them, and the remains of early man, both Paleolithic and Neolithic, which they have yielded. The metallic ores of the Pyrenees are not in general of much importance, though there are considerable iron mines at Vic de Sos deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the in Ariége and at the foot of Canigou in Pyrénées Orientales. CoalSpanish slopes, but the French side has numerous beds of lignite. Mineral springs are abundant and very remarkable, and specially noteworthy are the hot springs, in which the Alps, on the contrary, are very deficient. The latter, among which those of Bagnères de Luchon and Eaux-Chaudes may be mentioned, are sulphurous and mostly situated high, near the contact of the granite with the stratified rocks. The lower springs, such as those of Bagnères de Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées), Rennes (Aude), and Campagne (Aude), are mostly selenitic and not very warm. The amount of the precipitation, including rain and snow, is much greater in the Western than in the Eastern Pyrenees, which leads to a marked contrast between the two halves of the chain in more than one respect. In the first place, the Eastern Pyrenees are without glaciers, the quantity of snow falling there being insufficient to lead to their development. The glaciers are confined to the northern slopes of the Central Pyrenees, and do not descend, like those of the Alps, far down in the valleys, but have their greatest length in the direction of the mountain-chain. They form in fact a narrow zone near the crest of the highest mountains. Here, as in the other great mountain ranges of central Europe, there are evidences of a much wider extension of the glaciers during the Ice age. The case of the glacier in the valley of Argelès in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées is the best-known instance. The snow-line is stated to lie in different parts of the Pyrenees at from 8800 to 9200 feet above sea-level. | A still more marked effect of the preponderance of rainfall in the western half of the chain is seen in the aspect of the vegetation. The lower mountains in the extreme west are very well wooded, but the extent of forest declines as we go eastwards, and the Eastern Pyrenees are peculiarly wild and naked, all the more since it is in this part of the chain that granitic masses prevail. There is a change, moreover, in the composition of the flora in passing from west to east. In the west the flora, at least in the north, resembles that of central Europe, while in the east, though the difference of latitude is only about 1°, on both sides of the chain from the centre whence the Corbières stretch north-eastwards towards the central plateau of France it is distinctly Mediterranean in character. The Pyrenees are relatively as rich in endemic species as the Alps, and among the most remarkable instances of that endemism is the occurrence of the sole European species of Dioscorea (yam), the D. pyrenaica, on a single high station in the Central Pyrenees, and that of the monotypic genus Xatardia, only on a high alpine pass between the Val d'Eynes and Catalonia. The genus most abundantly represented in the range is that of the saxifrages, several species of which are here endemic. Orhy alone, in the south of the valley of Mauléon, reaches In their fauna also the Pyrenees present some striking instances of endemism. There is a distinct species of ibex (Capra pyrenaica) confined to the range, while the Pyrenean desman or water-mole (Mygale pyrenaica) is found only in some of the streams of the northern slopes of these mountains, the only other member of this genus being con fined to the rivers of southern Russia. Among the other peculiarities of the Pyrenean fauna are blind insects in the caverns of Ariége, the principal genera of which are Anophthalmus and Adelops. See Murray's Handbook of France; A. Leymerie, Description géologique et paléontologique des Pyrénées de la Haute Garonne (to which a general account of the chain is prefixed), Toulouse, 1881; De Chausenque, Les Pyrénées, 1854; for The climate of the department is essentially that of the the vegetation, Bentham, Catalogue des Plantes indigènes des Pyrénées et de Bas- rainy; the best seasons are summer and autumn, the heat Languedoc, Paris, 1826, and Grisebach, Vegetation der Erde, Leipsic, 1872; and PYRÉNÉES, the name of three departments in the south of France. 1. BASSES-PYRÉNÉES, a department of south-western France, at the angle of the Bay of Biscay, was formed in 1790, two-thirds of it from Béarn and the rest from three districts of Gascony-Navarre, Soule, and Labourd -which together constitute the Basque region of France. The department lies between 42° 46′ and 43° 36' N. lat. and between 0° 6′ E. and 1° 47′ W. long., and is bounded on the N. by Landes and Gers, on the E. by Hautes-Pyrénées (which has two enclaves, forming five communes, within this department), on the S. by Spain, and on the W. by the ocean. The name is due to the fact that the peaks of the Pyrenees on its southern frontier are lower than in the neighbouring department. Their height increases gradually from west to east. The peak of the Rhune, to the south of St Jean de Luz, rises only to 2950 feet; and on the border of the Basque country, which occupies the western half of the department, the mean height of the summits is not much greater. The peak of of summer being moderated by the sea. The winters are The department is mainly agricultural, 287,719 of its inhabitants being dependent on this industry (Reclus). In 1881, of a total area of 1,883,667 acres 129,132 were under wheat and produced 217,412 quarters; the other figures were-barley, 4188 acres, 7137 quarters; buckwheat, 455 acres, 761 quarters; oats, 12,800 acres, 22,327 quarters; maize, 161,736 acres, 354,055 quarters; meslin, 2600 acres, 3987; rye, 2308 acres, 3536; fax, 13,399 acres, 9348 quarters; potatoes, 7067 acres, 158,592 bushels; vineyards, 63,511 being that of Jurançon). From 25,205 acres were produced 642,760 acres, 4,019,466 gallons of wine (the most highly esteemed vintage bushels of dried vegetables, and 18,781 acres of chestnut trees yielded 314,480 bushels of chestnuts. There are 163,613 acres of pastures and grazing-lands, 132,342 of permanent meadows and lands. The live stock numbered 27,845 horses, 9110 mules, 15,409 orchards, 28,595 under green crops, and 612,000 acres of waste asses, 139,818 horned cattle, 434,130 sheep (giving 300 tons of wool, worth £18,000), 78, 310 pigs, 150,608 goats, and there were 16,000 hives of bees (producing 63 tons of honey and 16 of wax). One-half of the 386,000 acres of forest belongs to private persons, the other almost wholly to the communes or the department, scarcely any woods belonging to the Government. Forest management receives careful attention. The number of inhabitants employed in manufactures was 67,455. There are mines of anthracite, copper, iron, lead, zinc, silver, and kaolin in small quantity. The salt produced amounted to 9663 tons and is used partly for the famous Bayonne hams (so called, but really prepared in the neighbourhood of Orthez). The department has valuable mineral springs. The Are Ca The Eaux-Bonnes, hot and cold, containing sodium and sulphur, | Arreau and flows northwards through a beautiful valley as are employed especially for disorders of the chest and respiratory far as Labarthe, where it turns to the north-east; it is organs. The Eaux-Chaudes, of like composition, are efficacious in important as furnishing the plateau of Lannemezan with catarrh, rheumatism, and skin diseases. Those of Cambo on the Nive, some hot and sulphurous, some chalybeate and cold, are a feeding canal, the waters of which are partly used for much frequented by the Basques on the eve of St John. The irrigation and partly for supplying the streams that rise waters of St Christau, near Oloron, containing copper, are efficathere and are dried up in summer,-the Gers and the cious in skin diseases. The manufactures of the department include woollen caps and sashes, the fez worn by the people of the Baïse, affluents of the Garonne. This latter only touches district, nets, Béarn linen, cord slippers, chocolate, and there are the department. The climate of Hautes-Pyrénées, though also tanneries and flour-mills. The only shipping port is Bayonne, very cold on the highlands, is warm and moist in the which town is also the meeting-place of the roads to St Sebastian plains, where there are hot summers, fine autumns, mild and Pamplona in Spain. Within the department there are 258 winters, and rainy springs. The mean annual temperature miles of Government roads and 7460 of departmental or parish roads. There are also 142 miles of railroad, connecting Bayonne is 68° Fahr. On the plateau of Lannemezan, while the with Toulouse, Dax with Puyoo (for Pau), Bayonne with Biarritz, summers are dry and scorching, the winters are very Puyoo with St Palais, and Pau with Laruns (Eaux-Bonnes). The severe. A meteorological observatory has been built on population in 1881 was 434,366 (57 per square kilomètre), almost the Pic du Midi. entirely Catholic. There are five arrondissements-Pau, Bayonne, Oloron, Orthez (population of town, 4657), and Mauléon (2038), divided into 40 cantons and 558 communes. Basses-Pyrénées constitutes the diocese of Bayonne, and is attached to the superior court of Pau and belongs to the district of the 18th Army Corps (Bordeaux). 2. HAUTES-PYRÉNÉES, a department of southern France, on the Spanish frontier, was formed in 1790, half of it being taken from Bigorre and the remainder from Armagnac, Nébouzan, Astarac, and Quatre Vallées, districts which all belonged to the province of Gascony. It lies between 42° 40′ and 43° 37′ N. lat. and between 19' W. and 39' E. long., and is bounded on the S. by Spain, on the W. by Basses-Pyrénées, on the N.W. by Landes, on the N.E. by Gers, and on the E. by Haute-Garonne. Except on the south its boundaries are conventional. Some of the Pyrenean peaks in this department reach or exceed the height of 10,000 feet, the Vignemale (10,820 feet) being the highest in French territory. The imposing corries, with their glaciers and waterfalls, and the pleasant valleys attract large number of tourists, the most noted point being the famous Gavarnie. The northern portion of the department consists of plains, or rather fertile valleys, clothed with corn-fields, vineyards, and meadows. To the north-east, however, the cold and wind-swept plateau of Lannemezan (about 2000 feet), the watershed of the streams that come down on the French side of the Pyrenees, presents in its bleakness and barrenness a striking contrast to the plain that lies below. The department is drained by three principal streams, the Gave de Pau, the Adour, and the Neste, an affluent of the Garonne. The sources of the first and third lie close together in the Cirque of Gavarnie and on the slopes of Troumouse, whence they flow respectively to the north-west and northeast. An important spur of the Pyrenees, which carries the Pic de Néouvielle and the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, projects to the northward between these two valleys. From the Pic du Midi the Adour descends, which, after watering the pleasant valley of Campan, leaves the mountains at Bagnères and then divides into a multitude of channels, which irrigate the rich plain of Tarbes. Beyond HautesPyrénées it receives on the right the Arros, which flows through the department from south to north-north-west; on the left it receives the Gave de Pau. This latter stream, rising in Gavarnie, is joined at Luz by the Gave de Bastan from Néouvielle, and at Pierrefitte by the Gave de Cauterets, fed by streams from the Vignemale. The Gave de Pan, after passing Argelès and the grotto of Lourdes on its left and the château of Lourdes on its right, leaves the mountains and turns sharply from north to north-north-west; it has a greater volume of water than the Adour, but, being more of a mountain torrent, is regarded as a tributary of the Adour, which is navigable in the latter part of its course. The Neste d'Aure, descending from the peaks of Néouvielle and Troumouse, receives the Neste de Louron from the pass of Clarabide at In In Of the total area of 1,119,292 acres 259,334 are arable, 214,782 under wood, 160,624 pastures and grazing-lands, 76,015 permanent meadows and orchards, and 39,135 vineyards. The mountain slopes are covered with pasture to a height of more than 6600 feet. 1881 the live stock included 114,900 horned cattle (the milch cows of Lourdes and the oxen of Tarbes being the most esteemed), 18,000 horses (mostly of the Tarbes breed crossed with Arab blood), 11,830 asses, 3200 mules (part of which are bred for Spain), 222,300 sheep, 74,800 pigs, and 8718 goats. The more important cereals are successively, as the elevation increases, maize, wheat, and rye; in the mountain districts oats, barley, and buckwheat are grown. 1882 the harvest yielded 158,620 quarters of wheat, 197,931 of maize, 70,690 of rye, 47,586 of oats, 15,069 of barley, 27,586 of buckwheat, 61,241 of meslin, and 1,793,104 bushels of potatoes. The formerly extensive forests have suffered considerably from the weather and other causes. Vines, trained upon trees as in Italy, yield on an average 2,464,000 gallons of wine annually. On the lower slopes chestnut trees and fruit trees take the place of the vines. There are various quarries of fine marbles, which are sawn and worked at Bagnères, and numerous slate quarries. The mines of iron, nickel, lead, cobalt, manganese, and zinc are worked only irregularly. There is no coal, but a few hundred tons of peat are annually extracted. The mineral waters of Hautes-Pyrénées are the Gave de Pau are Cauterets (twenty-four hot springs containing numerous and much resorted to. The principal in the valley of sulphur and sodium), St Sauveur (two springs with sulphur and sodium), and Baréges (twelve hot springs with sulphur and sodium), and in the valley of the Adour Bagnères (fifty-two hot or cold springs containing calcium sulphates, iron, and arsenic) and phates). There are 2 paper-mills employing 101 workmen, 28 spinCapvern near Lannemezan (two springs containing calcium sulning or weaving factories employing 908 workmen (4000 spindles and 750 looms, of which 220 are power-looms). The light woollen materials known under the name of "baréges" and the knitted work of the department are widely known beyond its limits. A company has been formed for establishing cheese-factories in the mountains, as in Switzerland. There are also saw-mills, flour-mills, tanneries, and at Tarbes very important artillery establishments and a bell-foundry. The passes (ports) into Spain rise more than 6500 feet; none of them are accessible to carriages, and only three-Gavarnie, Ourdissetou, and Plan-to beasts of burden. Within the department there are 222 miles of Government roads, 2837 miles of other roads, and 129 miles of railroad. It is traversed from west to east by the to Pierrefitte for Cauterets, from Tarbes to Bagnères de Bigorre, line from Bayonne to Toulouse, which has branches from Lourdes and from Montrejeau to Bagnères de Luchon. It is crossed also by lines from Tarbes to Bordeaux and from Tarbes to Agen, which separate at Vic de Bigorre. The population in 1881 was 236,474. Argelès (town, 1682 inhabitants), and Bagnères de Bigorre (7634 There are three arrondissements, those of Tarbes (chief town), inhabitants), 26 cantons, 480 communes. Hautes-Pyrénées constitutes the diocese of Tarbes, and is attached to the superior court of Pau and to the 18th Army Corps (Bordeaux). 3. PYRÉNÉES-ORIENTALES, a department of southern. France, bordering on the Mediterranean and the Spanish frontier, was formed in 1790 out of the old province of Roussillon and to some slight extent out of small portions of Languedoc. It lies between 42° 20′ and 42° 56' N. lat. and 1° 43′ and 3° 10' E. long., and is bounded on the N. by Ariége and Aude, on the E. by the Mediterranean, on the S. by Catalonia, and on the W. by Ariége. Its boundaries are almost all natural and on the north follow the line of the Corbières (from 2500 to 3000 feet high), on the north-west and south-west that of branches of the Pyrenees (from 8000 to 10,000 feet), and on the south-east | ment. In 1881 12,100 tons of pig-iron were produced. The mineral resources of the department also include a bed of bismuth south-south-east. The Of a total area of 1,018,632 acres 211,960 are arable, 172,980 under vines, 167,740 under wood, 193,367 pasture-land, 27,305 meadow-land, and 148,270 barren moors (garrigues). In 1881 the live stock numbered 7287 horses, 6261 asses, 4373 mules, 17,768 horned cattle, 121,016 sheep (125 tons of wool in 1878), 12,864 goats, 23,838 pigs, and fowls and game in abundance; there were also 6163 beehives, yielding 24 tons of wax and 19 tons of honey known as "miel de Narbonne." Thirty tons of cocoons (silk) were produced in the same year. The main source of wealth to the department is its wine, of which 48,840,000 gallons were produced in 1881; some kinds are strongly alcoholic and others are in request as liqueur wines (Rivesaltes, Banyuls). The harvest of 1881 yielded 26,551 quarters of wheat, 3793 of meslin, 37,930 of rye, 6896 of barley, 3448 of buckwheat, 34,480 of oats, 55,172 of maize, 1,655,168 bushels of potatoes, 67, 448 of dried vegetables, 22,640 of chestnuts, 110,336 of beetroot, 39 tons of hemp, 39 of flax, and 23,000 of olives. Market-gardening (artichoke, asparagus, tomatoes, melons) and fruit culture (peaches, apricots, plums, pears, quinces, pomegranates, almonds, apples, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts) yield abundant returns. The woods produce timber for the cabinetmaker, cork, and bark for tanning. In iron Pyrénées-Orientales is one of the richest departments in France. The greater part of the ore is transported to Aveyron, Gard, or Allier, but 25,000 tons are smelted in blast-furnaces and 1800 in Catalonian forges within the depart PYRITES (from Tup, fire), a name applied to the native By modern mineralogists the term "pyrites" has been extended to a number of metallic sulphides, and it is therefore now used rather as a group-name than as the specific designation of a mineral. Hence the typical pyrites is often distinguished as "iron pyrites," while other members of the group are known as "copper pyrites," "cobalt pyrites, "arsenical pyrites," &c. When, however, the term "pyrites" is used without any qualifying prefix it invariably denotes the original iron pyrites, a mineral which is often known to miners as "mundic," and to mineralogists as "pyrite," the final letter of the original word being omitted to bring the spelling into harmony with that of the names of many other minerals. Iron pyrites, though containing nearly half its weight of iron, is of no importance as an ore of that metal; but the mineral is extensively worked for the sake of the sulphur which it contains, whence it is sometimes known as "sulphur ore." Large quantities of this ore have been worked in the vale of Avoca, in county Wicklow, Ireland. But by far the |