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them, ami thus given him the key to the whole Silurian system. The rocks on 

 the other side of the stream were aU. Lower Ludlow rocks. On the face of the 

 perpendicular cliS opposite to them— a cliff some sixty or seventy feet high — the 

 strangely twisted strata were pointed out. The complete loop they form is said 

 to have been caused by the lateral pressiire of the great volcanic force which 

 threw up the Carneddau and other mountains of the district, but it is difficult 

 to conceive how any pressure could have twisted rocks into so short and perfect 

 a, curve. "These contortions," says Murchison, "are amongst the most extra- 

 ordinary to which the formation has been subjected." The visitors were then 

 told that they would find some portions of the Lower Ludlow rock, almost 

 composed of small shells, so numerous wera they, and if they wished to procure 

 specimens they could readily do so. 



After this brief halt the pilgrims set out to visit the fall itself. It waa 

 no very easy task. The path was very narrow and often slippery ; sometimes a 

 mere ledge across a precipitous incline, at others twisting down suddenly 

 amongst rough stones. Aided by the firm hands of the gentlemen always willing 

 to assist, and here and there by a friendly hazel bough — which some thought 

 safer still — many of the ladies were enabled to reach the bottom without accident* 



The roar of the fall was now plainly audible, but it coiild not be seen. 

 The stream had to be crossed and the ordinary bridge of fir trees was broken 

 down. Mr. Griffiths, ever ready, had managed to construct one lower down, and 

 here stepping from stone and across a plank only four inches wide, those who 

 had nerves to bear the sight of the rushing water beneath, and the noise of the 

 fall in their ears, got safely over. A path led towards the chasm, and entering 

 it on a ledge of rook, the fall was in full view at the far end. The chasm extends 

 some twenty or thirty yards. Craggy precipices from fifty to sixty feet high 

 form its sides, and far above, the trees in full foliage from either side close in 

 the top. At the far end, the stream, beaten into foam by its rocky channel, falls 

 about twenty-five feet vertically. 



It is difficult to describe the weird-like effect it produces. The noise of the 

 fall in your ears ; the dark frowning rocks, damp and chilly from the abundant 

 spray ; the peculiar gloom of the chasm itself, heightened as it was by the little 

 glimpses of bright sunshine which could be seen through the trees in one or two 

 places, far overhead, aU combined to keep you to the spot, though you would 

 fain get away. The feeling of awe was added to picturesque beauty, making 

 it at once attractive and repellant — a feeling that called Hood's lines into 

 remembrance, in spite of the fair ladies present : — 



And over all there hung a sense of fear, 



A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, 

 Which said as plain as music in the ear 



The place is haunted. 



The green leaves of the liverwort, the Marchantia polymorpha crept freely over 

 the rocks, and here and there a fern. It seemed the very place for ferns, but 

 they scarcely grow there at alL 



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