HA RD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G OS SIP. 



99 



Saethau), covered with scores and scratches, which 

 tradition says were made by the Welsh Chieftains 

 sharpening their arrows and swords upon it, while 

 swearing allegiance to their king. A little way 

 down the path I espied a wire railing of very recent 

 date running some way up the hillside, so thinking 

 it would prove a fine help in the ascent, I commenced 

 my climb alongside it. The railing was composed of 

 upright iron posts with horizontal wires running 

 through them ; and, curious to note, the hollow 

 beneath the top wire of nearly every post was 

 tenanted either by a long-legged spider or an earwig. 

 What the former subsisted upon I cannot imagine, 

 for the situation seemed far too airy for many insects 

 to be about, and in fact I did not see a fly of any 

 kind, although I entertained hopes till the last post 

 of finding some rare Lepidopteron or Coleopteron 

 ensconced in the hollow instead of a spider ! 

 Finally reaching the top of the ridge, a fine bird's-eye 

 view of the surroundings presented itself to sight. 

 Down the valley to the north the stream wandered 

 through the coppices into the glen to the sea ; 

 towards the west hills upon hills appeared, the one 

 behind the other, many with earns on their summits ; 

 to the south the ridge I stood upon rose higher and 

 shut off any more distant prospect ; while to the east, 

 after noticing the road I had formerly left winding 

 on towards the Bwlch-y-ddeuvaen, the most promi- 

 nent object was a mountain on the other side of the 

 valley, composed of three peaks, the nearest of 

 which had a most singular appearance, looking just 

 as if Jove, seated up in the clouds, had recently 

 poured down a quantity of loose earth and stones in 

 the form of a conical heap ! The valley below, 

 stretching up towards the south-east, looked bare and 

 wild enough for anything ; a small stream ran along 

 at its bottom, and at the other side a mountain track 

 was traceable leading to a sheep pen about a mile 

 further up. One could well imagine what a fine 

 meeting-place this was for the sturdy British Chief- 

 tains of early days who assembled here to swear 

 fealty to their sovereign lord, and death to their 

 country's enemy, while sharpening their weapons 

 upon the far-famed Arrow Stone ; but much as I 

 should have liked to have still further realised the 

 scene by inspecting this relic of bygone days itself, 

 and standing on the exact spot where these inter- 

 esting ceremonies were enacted, I was unable to 

 find the stone, for boulders of all sorts and sizes 

 were to be met with all over the place, and after 

 some little search I had to give up the idea of finding 

 the right one as hopeless. I then turned my steps 

 towards the Llyn ; keeping pretty high up above the 

 stream on its southern side, I pressed on over the 

 greensward with which the hillside was covered, 

 having occasional brooks to cross, but meeting with 

 no serious impediment. The scenery here was very 

 wild and lonely, and, indeed, well bears out the de- 

 scription I have read of its being one of the wildest 



valleys in Wales. There was not a living thing to be 

 seen, but an occasional mountain-linnet, which I 

 put up in my progress ; the severe desolation of the 

 scene was no doubt enhanced by the presence of the 

 east wind, which would keep any birds or animals 

 there might otherwise be hid away in their various 

 retreats. The valley turned off continually to the 

 right, and I rounded point after point, and crossed 

 ridge upon ridge without catching a glimpse of the 

 wished-for Llyn. Nothing was to be seen but bare 

 mountains on both sides, and the little stream running 

 along at the foot of the valley, without anything in the 

 way of vegetation larger than a bed of rushes every 

 now and then by the side of its course. It is a grand 

 feeling to stand alone in a valley surrounded on all 

 sides by these staid and solemn mountains, where all 

 is hushed and still, especially to one just fresh from 

 the noise and stir of a great city, where all is 

 change continually. Here one sees around one rugged 

 crags and grassy slopes which have slumbered on 

 from age to age unaltered. Men come and go, build 

 great cities, become mighty nations, which rise to 

 great honour and decay away again till they are 

 almost lost to sight, while these remain the same ; 

 truly and well have they been called the " everlast- 

 ing hills." And yet they are nofalways so, through 

 the successive cycles of time they do change ; these 

 hill-tops are slowly, but surely, being crumbled away 

 by the successive frosts and storms which they ex- 

 perience. These valleys are being deepened quite 

 imperceptibly to us, but none the less certainly, by 

 the little trickling streams which run along their 

 bottoms ; and countless other agencies are wearing 

 away and building up, so that in future ages our 

 valley will look very different to what it does now. 

 Again, if we look far back into the reons of the past, 

 we must think of the period when these hills were 

 buried deep in seemingly eternal snow and ice, or 

 again when the same portion of the earth's surface 

 was covered with a tropical growth, or was succes- 

 sively under either the deep or shallow waters of a 

 torrid or a frigid sea. All these changes our moun- 

 tains have experienced, passing slowly and imper- 

 ceptibly from one condition to another, in what we 

 can only try to realise as the " eternity of the past ; " 

 although to our present perceptions, and compared to 

 our human and finite achievements, the hills, above 

 all things, seem indeed everlasting in their changeless 

 endurance. 



(To be continued.) 



P. Machaon. — Are there two broods of P. 

 Machaon in the year ? I heard this question asked 

 the other day, but it did not get a satisfactory 

 answer, so I now ask it again, and hope some of the 

 learned readers of this paper will answer it fully. If 

 there are two broods, at what time of the year are the 

 eggs of each hatched ? — Enquirer. 



F 2 



