Ten kilometres from Laruns is Eaux-Bonnes. Their virtues have been known for ages. The Béarnais who so well played their parts at the ill-fated battle of Pavia were transported thither that they might benefit from these "waters of the arquebusade," as the generic name is known. A further development came under the leadership of a certain Comte de Castellane, préfet of the department under the great Napoleon. He indeed was the real exploiter, applying some of the ideas which had been put into practice in the German spas. He set to with a will and beautified the little town, laid out broad tree-lined avenues, and made a veritable little paradise of this rocky gorge. The little bourg is therefore to-day what the French describe as "_amiable_," and nothing else describes it better. The town itself is dainty and charming enough, but mostly its architectural characteristics are of the villa order. The church is modern and everybody is "on the make." It is not that the population are swindlers,--far from it; but they have discovered that by exploiting tourists and "_malades imaginaires_" for three months in the year they can make as ample a living as by working at old-fashioned occupations for a twelvemonth. A sign on one house front tells you that a "Guide-Chasseur" lives there, and that he will take you on a bear hunt--_prix à forfait_; which means that if you don't get your bear you pay nothing to your guide; but you have given him a fine ten-days' excursion in the mountains, _at your expense_ for his food and lodging nevertheless, beside which he has had the spending of your money for the camp equipment and supplies. He really would make a very good thing, even if you did not have to pay him a bonus for every bear sighted, not shot, mind you, for all the guide undertakes to do is to point out the bear, if he can. Another very business-like sign may be seen at Eaux-Bonnes,--that of a transatlantic steamship company. They gather traffic, the steamship agents, even here in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees, and Amerique du Sud especially is still depopulating southern France. Eaux-Chaudes is another neighbouring thermal station. As its name implies, it is a _source_ of hot water, and was already famous in the reign of Henri IV. The little community points out with pride that the archives record the fact that this monarch "took the waters here with much benefit." The little Pyrenean village of Gabas lies high up the valley under the shelter of the Pic du Midi d'Ossau. It is not greatly known to fame; it is what the French call a hamlet with but a few chimneys. A late census gave it twenty-three inhabitants, but probably the most of these have departed in the last year or so to become _femmes de chambre_ and _garçons de café_ in the big towns.