OCTOBEE. 443 



aiming to take off the water, and so closely did our 

 encounter approximate us to the verge of the cliff, 

 that the water was very near taking off the pair of us ! 

 Chance having thus brought us together, we agreed 

 to travel for the next day in company; but I soon dis- 

 covered that I had got a so^Eless companion, for as 

 Sir WALTER SCOTT says of the Palmer in Marmion, so 

 might I say of my friend of the waterfall 

 " His sandals were with travel tore," 



and could scarcely be said to be in tenantable repair, 

 while his diminutive person, armed with huge um- 

 brella, and graced with sketch book and concave 

 glasses, gave him a characteristic and somewhat ludi- 

 crous appearance. Having been the day before at the 

 Falls of Festiniog, I obtained his direction to them, 

 proceeding early the following morning up the roman- 

 tic vale, and thus obtained specimens of the pretty 

 Gnaplialium sylvaficum, as well as of a rare Riibus that 

 grows above the bridge between the two falls of the 

 Cynfael. The Mountain Ash (Pyrus aucuparia), pro- 

 fusely adorned with pendant fruit of the most brilliant 

 red, here presented itself, I think more beautifully 

 than I have any where before seen it, shrouding the 

 steep rocks excavated to a fearful depth by the " fierce 

 footsteps" of the mountain torrent. 



" The Mountain Ash 

 No eye can overlook, when mid a grove 

 Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head 

 Deck'd with autumnal berries that outshine 

 Spring's richest blossoms." * 



In the deep chasm, cut out by the river, stands an 

 isolated pinnacle of rock, cracked and riven as if by 

 some tremendous storm or convulsion of nature, and 



* WORDSWORTH. 



