stone projecting from the neighbouring hills. There also Mr. Banks exhibited 

 a collection of the Fossils of the Lower Coal Shales, which had been brought 

 for the purpose from Onllwyn. The tickets were speedily taken, and the 

 ladies having given up the pretty rose-coloured invitation cards of the club, the 

 day's route was commenced. 



Not a hundred yards from the station, after a sharp chase, a snake was 

 captured as it ran quickly along the grass. It was a young specimen of the 

 common, or ringed snake, Natrix torquata, about a foot long. It had not long 

 cast its skin, for its spots and colours were very clear and well marked ; but as it 

 was held up for admiration, it gave out such a disagreeable odour, that nobody 

 but a true lover of science could have continued to bear it. Snakes have this 

 power when alarmed or irritated, and this young creature exerted it. It is a 

 harmless snake, though, as it constantly kept projecting its long black tongue, 

 bifid one-third of the way down, it looked to the ladies monstrously suspicious. 

 The heat of this summer must be most favourable to snakes — and no less than 

 three were found during the day's walk, and a second one, full two feet long, 

 was also boxed alive. 



The route taken was up a ridge of Mountain Limestone which was 

 extremely picturesque and pretty, and after a short ascent the summit, 

 capped by the conglomerate of the Millstone Grit, was reached. This was 

 the lecture-point for the day, and the aneroid of the President proclaimed 

 its approximate height to be 1,250 feet above sea leveL Whilst the ladies 

 and gentlemen wind up the hill in so picturesque a stream a brief sketch of 

 the immediate district may be given. The stand-point was a small hUl from the 

 mountain side projecting into the vaUey of the Tawe, surrounded by the fans 

 of Breconshire. Close before you, looking south, was another projecting hill of 

 Mountain Limestone, the Craig-y-rhiwarth, and further on the Tan-y-rogof and 

 Twyn Walter mountains of Old Ked Sandstone, whose strata could be beauti- 

 fully seen dipping down so as to come beneath the Mountain Limestone. Then 

 across the valley, in an easterly direction, was a remarkably fine bold mountain, 

 the Gwdun-wra, a Limestone HUl, whose quarries could be clearly seen. To the 

 south-west, were the tops of the Y. Fan-gihirach, 2,382 feet high, and the 

 Y. Fan-ffraith, and immediately above the station we had left, could be seen 

 some bold, craggy, shivered ridges of the Millstone Grit over-lapping in its turn 

 the Mountain Limestone. The highest and most prominent ridge was called the 

 Carreg-llwyd. To the north stretched the valley of the Tawe, with the river 

 winding prettily amidst its scattered houses and whitewashed cottages, with 

 again hiUs upon hills beyond, the whole scene being well varied by the sunshine 

 and cloud of the hour. When the whole party were assembled, and had 

 stretched themselves on the ground, the President called on the Rev, W. S. 

 Symonds to give the 



