CLEAR WATERS 



range find their way. With or without a rod Llanid- 

 loes may be commended with confidence to the 

 wanderer of taste and discretion. That glorious moun- 

 tain country which stretches, but little known and but 

 httle traversed, from the Dovey to old Plinlimmon, lies 

 at his command, threaded with bright streams and 

 sprinkled with tarns, many of which are well worth 

 a visit. The Severn (the Hafren) and its twin sister, 

 the Clwedog, run simultaneously out of their moun- 

 tain gorges at Llanidloes, where, united as the Severn, 

 they sweep through the meadows in rippling, sinuous 

 course towards Moat Lane and Newtown. Only per- 

 sistent poaching in the past has prevented this portion 

 of the Severn from providing excellent trout-fishing. 

 The citizens have now sworn by all their gods that they 

 will exterminate the poisonous thing in the interests of 

 their own sport and that of their potential visitors. 

 1^ But to return to the Wye, a mere step indeed from 

 here. Having lost the Elan at Rhayader and the 

 Marteg, which come rushing in two miles above from 

 the northerly vales of St. Harmon and Pant-y-dwr 

 {the hollow of the waters), the river shrinks to the 

 dimensions of a handy, easily covered trout stream of 

 a most alluring type. The narrow bosky glens, over- 

 hung by heights through which it churns in rocky 

 troughs to Rhayader, give gradual place to a smooth, 

 narrow vale of meadowy floor, from which the green, 

 moorish steeps on either side rise more temperately 

 and roll away into silence. The river, in much gentler 

 mood, curves from edge to edge, swishing in bright, 

 gravelly runs from one dark corner pool to another. 

 Homesteads trail along it, each with their little grove 



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