Despite extensive tracts of uncultivated land, the department is mainly
agricultural. Maize and wheat are the chief cereals; potatoes, flax and
vegetables are also produced. Pasture is abundant, and horses, cattle,
sheep and pigs are largely reared. The vine is grown on the lower slopes
sheltered from the north wind, the wines of Jurancon, near Pau, being the
most renowned. Of the fruits grown, chestnuts, cider-apples, and pears are
most important. About one-thirteenth of the department consists of woods, a
very small proportion of which belong to the government, the rest to the
communes and private individuals.

The department furnishes salt, building-stone, and other quarry products.
There are mineral springs at Eaux-Bonnes, Eaux-Chaudes, Cambo-les-Bains
(resorted to by the Basques on St John's Eve), St Christau, and Salies. At
Le Boucau, 3 m. from Bayonne, there are large metallurgical works, the
_Forges de l'Adour_, and chemical works. The manufactures of the department
include woollen caps and sashes, cord slippers, chocolate, and paper, and
there are also tanneries, saw- and flour-mills. "Bayonne hams" and other
table delicacies are prepared at Orthez. There is a considerable fishing
population at Bayonne and St Jean-de-Luz. Bayonne is the principal port.
Exports consist chiefly of timber, mine-props, minerals, wine, salt and
resinous products. Coal, minerals, phosphates, grain and wool are leading
imports. The interior commerce of the department is, however, of greater
importance to its inhabitants; it takes the form of exchange of products
between the regions of mountain and plain. The railway lines of
Basses-Pyrenees, the chief of which is that from Bayonne to Toulouse via
Orthez and Pau, belong to the Southern Company. The Adour, the Nive and the
Bidouze are navigable on their lower courses. The department has five
arrondissements--Pau, Bayonne, Oloron, Orthez and Mauleon, divided into 41
cantons and 559 communes. It constitutes the diocese of Bayonne, comes
within the educational circumscription (_academie_) of Bordeaux and belongs
to the district of the XVIII. army corps. Pau, the capital and seat of a
court of appeal, Bayonne, Oloron, Biarritz, Orthez, Eaux-Bonnes, and St
Jean-de-Luz are the principal towns. The following places are also of
interest:--Lescar, which has a church of the 12th and 16th century, once a
cathedral; Montaner, with a stronghold built in 1380 by Gaston Phoebus,
count of Foix and viscou