ON LANDSLIPS. 319 



notice here. I may now proceed, thereforej to allude to a 

 few of the natural landslips which I have visited. 



Natural landslips are commonly on a very large scale. 

 There are many noteworthy ones round about Abergavenny ; 

 and as the geological formation there is the old red sandstone 

 and marls, which are not readily caused to slip, the appear- 

 ance of these slips is all the more characteristic and pictur- 

 esque. They are to be found only on the steep mountain 

 side, where a spring of water comes out upon a bit of marl 

 which has to carry an enormous superimposed mass of rock. 

 A characteristic example of this sort of slip may be seen high 

 up on the south aspect of the Crickhowel mountain. It is well 

 shown on the old, inch. Ordnance Map. The slip is about a 

 quarter of a mile wide, and has gone down many hundred 

 feet — the rock riding upon the top having been broken up 

 into fragments and scattered in ruinous masses far down 

 below. Such a slip as this, as everything belonging to it 

 indicates, must have come down at once and for good — there 

 is nothing now left to slip any further. The Welsh name for 

 them is "Daren," which means ''noise ; " and no doubt such 

 a slip did make some noise when it felL There are some 

 other darens at the south end of the Black Mountain range ; 

 but the most remarkable slips I have seen are those of the 

 Skirrid Vawr, a mountain about four miles to the north- 

 east of Abergavenny, and in the same old red sandstone 

 formation. 



The Skirrid Vawr is an abrupt an^ solitary mountain, of 

 which the top, about a mile in length, and running nearly 

 north and south, is yet as narrow as the ridge of a steep 

 roof, but rising gradually from the south end to the northern 

 summit. 



At the south end and all along the western flank there are 

 a series of great landslips. The top, being for many feet in 



