398 WILD FLOWERS OF 



thence extended a magnificent accumulation of ridges 

 heaped upon and behind each other in the wildest 

 confusion, intermingled with dark chasms and deep 

 glens, the grand appearance of which I can only com- 

 pare to that of a vast field of ice broken up by a 

 sudden storm. A coloured vapour from the descend- 

 ing sun harmonized the surfaces of these deep azure 

 " delectable mountains," and deepened their inequali- 

 ties with a chiaro-scuro effect that I have seldom 

 witnessed, and I gazed upon the sublime prospect till 

 the sun went down, and the shrill shriek of the even- 

 ing breeze, borne up the ravines of the mountain with 

 a warning voice, urged me to retire ere night should 

 give a dangerous obscurity to the morasses I had to 

 traverse on my return. 



I may here, while among the mountains, mention a 

 plant peculiar to alpine lakes, that continues to flower 

 in the autumnal floral reign the "Water Lobelia (L. 

 Dortmanna). This rooted under the water, with its 

 starry tufted recurved foliage, lifts up its long slender 

 spikes with pale blue drooping flowers at the summit, 

 in many of the Welch llyns very plentifully. I have 

 never seen it in greater abundance and perfection 

 than in the Teivy lakes, above Strata Florida Abbey, 

 Cardiganshire. There I gathered it on an excursion 

 when dense mist rested on the mountain tops, and 

 the silent llyns cradled in vapour, seemed in their 

 gloomy hollows like steaming volcanic craters, rather 

 than basins of chrystal beauty devoted to the Oreades. 

 Hastily I descended the splashy sides of the hills, but 

 the misty wreathes closed upon me from behind, and 

 involved in fog and darkness among quaking turbaries, 

 gushing streamlets, broken deceptive ravines, and 



