THREE DAYS IN CAERXAKVONSHIIIK. 63 



altogether the scene reminded us of those expressive lines of Scott. — 



"It seemed some mountain rent and riven, 

 A passage for the stream had given, 

 So high the cliffs of limestone grey 

 Hung beetling o'er the torrent way, 

 Yielding along their rugged base, 

 A flinty foot-path's niggard space, 

 Where he who winds 'twixt rock and wave, 

 May hear the headlong torrent rave, 

 And like a steed in frantic fit, 

 • l"hat flings the froth from curb and bit, 



May hear her chafe, her waves to spray, 

 O'er every rock that bars her way." 



ROKEBY. 



On the rocks we met with Hypnum ruscifolium and plumosum, and 

 Bacomitrium aceculare, and the trees which cover the sides of the glen 

 produce OiihotricJium Brucliii, and a profusion of Dicranum scoparium, 

 (Dillenii.) We were agreeably surprised to find Orthotrichum Hutchinse 

 growing on the rocks in this romantic ravine; it was in beautiful fruity 

 but we were only able to procure a single tuft. Hypnum heteropterum 

 and a small form of Notliecium myosuroides were obtained from the shady 

 rocks. Just before reaching the point from which we obtained a view of 

 the falls, a species growing on some loose rocks attracted our attention. 

 It proved to be a mixture of Gampyhpus longipilus and flexuosus. Mr. 

 Wilson, who appears to have doubted the specific distinctions of the two, 

 regards it as an important fact. — Perhaps I cannot do better than intro- 

 duce a quotation from his letter: — "It is interesting, because it supplies 

 additional proof of the specific diversity of G. longipilus and flexuosus, which 

 seem here to have grown intermixed, and therefore under precisely the same 

 local influence." 



Turning an angle of the dell a scene of magnificent grandeur lay before 

 us. — The falls of Caunant Mawr — the glittering waters come dashing head- 

 long through a dark cHasm, then turning suddenly aslant, rush with fierce 

 impetuosity down the face of the huge boulder, and fall in a boiling torrent 

 into the pool beneath : a scene worthy the glowing pen of a Scott, or the 

 '^pencil pregnant with celestial hues" of a Turner. 



On the left the precipitous side of the glen is covered with tall trees, 

 on the right the steep bank clothed with various species of beautiful ferna 

 and numberless Hieracia, and in the back-ground peak above peak suddenly 

 up-swelling to their culmination. Amongst the mosses growing within reach 

 of the spray we noticed Bacomitrium pratensum, or, as Braun has charac- 

 teristically named it, B. cataradarum, of a large size, and with bright brown 

 capsules. In the stream above the falls we gathered Fontinalis squamosa, 

 and on the rocks in its vicinity Andrcea Bothii occurred in fruit, and a 



