engraving by Gustave Dore around 1850: evocation of an apocalyptic deluge following which various monstrous...

engraving by Gustave Dore around 1850: evocation of an apocalyptic deluge following which various monstrous animals have fallen on the mountain. Illustration of the book by Hippolyte Taine “” Journey to the Pyrenees””, in which the presence of fossil bones in this region is evoked. Extract from the text: “The Ocean moved, perhaps by the rise of America; from the southwest a sea came down on the chain. The shock fell on the black hipped barrier that was seen towards Gavarnie. It was a terrible destruction of marine animals. Their corpses form the shellfish banks that we cross as we ascend to the Breche; several layers of the Taillon and Mont Perdu are still fetides dead fields.”