LLANDDWYN 17 



already we descried the distant lighthouse of Llan- 

 ddwyn, the older light-tower, and to the right of the 

 former, a Latin cross set on some eminence to take 

 the eye by land and sea. One had need of some 

 such sight ere delving into the next hollow, and 

 clambering up the opposite slope to mark again 

 lighthouse, and tower, and cross. There went with 

 us a single telegraph wire, looped on tipsy poles 

 that marked the course Llanddwyn-wards. We 

 misjudged its purpose, and resented its presence, 

 and, the day being young, declined its company or 

 guidance, going south instead of south-west. 



Frequently we came upon hundreds of snail shells 

 collected upon small flat places in the sand, and the 

 probable gatherers of them Blackbirds and Missel- 

 thrushes might be seen at times in the patches of 

 bracken that clothed the base of some rocky islet 

 that cropped out through the sand. Here, for lack 

 of other support, they were fain to build on stony 

 ledges for the sake of abundant snails. A few pairs 

 of Meadow-pipits kept them company, having nested 

 in the bracken. Numberless rabbits pricked up their 

 ears as we passed, then bolted, and with a flash of 

 white scuts vanished into their burrows ; for this was 

 a warren indeed. The only other quadrupeds were a 

 flock of half-wild sheep ; lithe, sinewy, elegant crea- 

 tures, with deer-like gait unlike the stodgy mutton of 

 our plains that scaled a sand dune as one might 

 storm a fort, and capered like goats. And one bird, 

 separated by the breadth of the whole island from its 

 fellows of the Penmon warrens on the northern 

 shores, appeared here suddenly and in great num- 

 bers. The Wheatear was everywhere, starting from 



