134 SURVEY OF THE SNOWDON REGION CHAP, v 



over the valley of Dolgellaw and the towering range 

 of Cader Idris most strange and glorious. At last all 

 the lower clouds (which long hung like a half-fallen 

 curtain in the foreground, behind which the sun glori- 

 ously illumined the distant glens and precipices) 

 cleared away, and all along the ridge of Cader and the 

 giant slopes of Aran Mowddy the shadows of scattered 

 clouds flitted by like the images of huge flying dragons. 

 I like this plan of separation and meeting. It is 

 pleasant to get alone among the shattered rocks, where 

 one can soliloquise, sing, and shout at will without any 

 man to think you a fool. Home to dinner at six.' 



On the 1 4th of the same month he took up his 

 quarters at Llanberis, for the purpose of himself attack- 

 ing Snowdon and the surrounding region. The year 

 before, during the preliminary traverses with the 

 Director-General, he had been able to take a general 

 or bird's-eye view of this picturesque district, and had 

 seen enough of its geology to recognise the extra- 

 ordinary interest as well as the extreme complexity of 

 its problems. He had determined to devote himself 

 heart and soul to their solution, and now at the earliest 

 opportunity, in full vigour of body and mind, he had 

 come back to carry his resolve into effect. His life 

 and work at Llanberis may be best pictured in a few 

 extracts from his diary. 



* zist June. Out north to Marchllyn Mawr. De- 

 scended to the lake. While minutely examining this 

 section, and hammering along, out jumped a trilobite 

 and a lingula, some 600 or 700 feet down in these 

 " Cambrians," as we called them. So here at a blow 

 vanishes the idea, which we all believed, that the rocks 

 are unfossiliferous beneath the trappy series. There- 

 fore Barmouth, Longmynd, and Llanberis purple lower 



