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tion. The summit of Trivaen is crowned by two upright stones, twelve or fourteen feet in height, about a yard and a half asunder, and each somewhat more than a yard across at the top. To stand upright on one of these and look down the side of the mountain, would inspire even a tolerably stout heart with terror; to fall from hence would be inevitable destruction. But my companion leapt from the top of one to that of the other. I am not easily alarmed by passing among precipices, and my head is, I believe, as steady as that of most persons, but I must confess I felt my blood chill with horror at an act which seemed to me so rash. The force necessary for the leap, without great management in its counteraction, would have sent him a step farther than he intended to have gone, and thrown him headlong down the precipice. He informed me that a female of an adjacent parish was celebrated for having often performed this daring leap.

We descended from the summit, and crossing a mountain vale, ascended the side of

GLYDER BACH,

The lesser Glyder. This mountain, though considerably higher than Trivaen, is neither so steep, nor on its exterior so rocky. On its summit there are several groups of columnar stones, some standing upright, others laid across, and, in short, in all directions. On measuring them, we found many of them to be from sixteen to twenty feet long, and twelve or fourteen broad. In one place there is a particularly large one, laid over some others, and projecting far beyond them. My companion walked to the end, and evidently moved it by jumping on it. "Many of the stones (says Mr. Pennant in his account of this mountain) had shells bedded in them; and in the neighbourhood I found several pieces of lava. I therefore consider this mountain

GLYDER BACH- GLYDER FAWR.

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to have been a sort of a wreck of nature, formed and flung up by some mighty internal convulsion, which has given these vast groups of stone fortuitously such a strange disposition, for had they been the settled strata bared of their earth by a long series of rains, they would have retained the same regular appearance that we observe in all other beds of similar matter."*

From hence we passed to the summit of

GLYDER FAWR,

The greater Glyder, and observed in our way several of the same kind of insulated masses of rock scattered in different directions around us. From this situation we had a grand and unbounded prospect. On one side, the immense mountains of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire appeared, with their towering precipices in such rude order that they seemed "the fragments of a shattered world;" these were intersected by green meadowy vales and deep glens. On the other side, towards the town of Caernarvon, we had the whole of the Isle of Anglesey in sight, and at a great distance northward we saw the Isle of Man, resembling a faintly formed cloud. All the intervening space in that direction betwixt us and the sea was filled up by the varied scenery of mountains and vales, interspersed with their lakes and streams. Glyder Fawr is the most lofty of all the Caernarvonshire mountains except Snowdon and Carnedd Llewelyn; and in all the scenery of the vale of Llanberis it forms a prominent feature. Having admired this delightful prospect for some time, we descended, and shortly aftewards arrived at the bank of Llyn y Cwm. About eight o'clock, after a fourteen hours' ramble among crags and precipices, we found our

*Pennant's Tour, ii. 160,

selves once again in the vale of Llanberis, and not a little fatigued with our day's excursion.

As it was not probable that I should remain another night here, after resting myself about a quarter of an hour, I determined to make the best of my time, tired as I was, and watch the close of an

EVENING SCENE AT LLANBERIS,

Scarcely a breath of air

I strolled to the end of the lake. was to be felt. A white fog was extended in long dense streaks, low down in the vale. The evening clouds appeared across the end of the lakes, tinged with various hues of red and orange from the refracted rays of the departing sun. These were reflected in full splendour along the water. The rocks gave forth various shades of purple as the prominences were presented to the eye, or as the heath or verdure most prevailed. These colours after a while became a mass of dark greenish blue. The clouds lost their splendour; and the pool began to darken from the shades of the mountains. Scattered clouds now settled on various parts of the rocks, their light colours singularly contrasting with the sombre mountain tints. On turning round and looking from the pool towards the village, I was just able to distinguish it in the gloom, its place being marked by the smoke of the peat fires rising a few yards perpendicularly from the chimnies, and then spreading into a cloud, and hovering directly over it. The rocks and precipices softened by degrees into an uniform mass of shade. The general features now became entirely lost, and only the upper outline was distinguishable in the obscurity. The evening fogs soon after came on, and in a short time so enveloped the whole scene, that not a single former trace was visible.

The following is a catalogue of the plants that have been

PLANTS FOUND NEAR TUL DU.

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found near Tull Dû, and about the pool of Llyn y Cwm ; and I much doubt whether any other part of the kingdom, in so small a space of ground, will afford so many uncommon plants as are to be met with here.

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CHAPTER XI.

EXCURSION FROM DOLBADARN TO THE SUMMIT OF

SNOWDON.

Instructions to the Tourist—Height of Snowdon-Prospect from the Summit-Name-Royal Forest-Clogwyn y Garnedd-List of Snowdon Plants-Well near the Summit-Copper Mine-Further Instructions to the Tourist.

THE ascent of Snowdon from Dôlbadarn, in the vale of Llanberis, is so gradual that a person mounted on a Welsh pony may ride to the summit.

From the Royal Victoria Hotel, the tourist must cross the turnpike road, and passing along a road connected with the copper mine, proceed along the ridge immediately over the vale of Llanberis, till he comes within sight of a black and almost perpendicular rock, with a small lake at its foot, called Clogwyn du'r Arddu, the black precipice. This he is to leave about a quarter of a mile on his right, and then ascending a steep called Llechwedd y Rè, the rapid descent, must direct his course south-west to a well (a place sufficiently known to the guides), from whence he will find it about a mile to the highest peak of the mountain.

The perpendicular height of this mountain, according to late admeasurements, is 3571 feet (somewhat less than three quarters of a mile) from the level of the sea. On the summit is piled a heap of stones to which is fixed, perpendicularly, a plank of wood about fourteen feet in height.

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