green frogs leapt into the pools and runnels, burying themselves in the
mud at the shock of a footstep; but the tadpoles sported recklessly in the
sunny water, for as yet their legs as well as their troubles were to come.
I confess that this long morass by the sparkling Beuene, frequented by
the heron, the snipe, the water-hen, and other creatures that seek the
solitude, interested me more than the caverns which I had set out to see. I
nevertheless followed the old man into them, and tried to admire all that
he showed me; but there was not a stalactite six inches long the end of
which had not been knocked off with a stick or stone. The anger that
one feels at such mutilation of the water's beautiful work destroys the
pleasure that one would otherwise derive from these caves in the limestone.

A visit, however, to the now celebrated cavern known as the Grotte de
Miremont repaid me for the trouble of reaching it. It lies a few miles to
the north of Les Eyzies, in the midst of very wild and barren country. From
any one of the heights the landscape on every side is seen to be composed
of hills covered with dark forest and separated by narrow valleys. Here and
there the white rock stands out from the enveloping woods of oak, ilex, and
chestnut, or the arid slope shows its waste of stones, whose nakedness the
dry lavender vainly tries to cover with a light mantle of blue-gray tufts.
It is these sterile places which yield the best truffles of Perigord.
Sometimes trained dogs are used to hunt for the cryptogams, but, as in the
Quercy, the pig is much more frequently employed for the purpose. A comical
and ungainly-looking beast this often is: bony and haggard, with a long
limp tail and exaggerated ears. A collar round the neck adds to its
grotesqueness.

One has to climb or descend a steep wooded hill to reach the cavern, for
the entrance is on the side of it. The _metayer_ acts as guide, and his
services are indispensable, for there are few subterranean labyrinths so