88 WANDERINGS AND PONDERINGS 



Chapter VI. 



[Walks in Wales.] 



It has always seemed to the Insect-Hunter something like a 

 drawback to the full enjoyment of a lofty Welsh view, that it 

 so frequently wants the horizon. Mountain follows mountain, 

 more and more distant in every direction, and more and more 

 indistinct, till those in the extreme distance are not to be 

 distinguished from the exhalations with which the air seems 

 ever to be loaded. I speak now of bright sunny days. 

 When the weather is overcast, of course you see no moun- 

 tains : in cloudy weather one may stay at Capel Curig, at the 

 very foot of Snowdon, for a month, without once seeing its 

 triple head. This fact of the haziness of the air does not so 

 much affect views from lower situations, where hill rises over 

 hill, until some giant mountain shuts out the distance ; and it 

 is on this account that these less extensive views are often so 

 much more satisfying. 



Passing through the town of Hay, on the Brecon road, the 

 Black Mountain presents a noble spectacle to the right; the 

 variety of its profile seems endless, as it stretches out its 

 promontories into the more level country ; but as you advance, 

 your attention becomes fixed on the majestic Beacon, which 

 now occupies all the horizon before you. There is a grand 

 and mighty confusion in Snowdon, and its giant neighbours, 

 Glyder Vawr, David, Llewellyn, and others, which contest 

 the point with it as to superiority in height ; but the Brecon 

 Beacon has no compeers, its bifid head rises majestically 

 above every thing around it, in placid and unquestioned pre- 

 eminence. The height of the Beacon, I think, cannot have 

 been correctly taken, as it is visible at so great a distance ; 

 I have seen it in clear weather, and traced its singular outline 

 with accuracy at more than forty miles' distance, even from 

 low ground. 



A very remarkable character of Welsh, and, I suppose, all 

 mountainous scenery, is its excessive liability to change. 

 One cause is the frequent variation in the purity of the atmo- 

 sphere : sometimes hills at less than two miles' distance terminate 

 the view, and present their outline as the horizon ; if the air is 



