184 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES. 



betwixt the village and the obferver, is 

 filled up with a {mall lake, whofe waters 

 reflecting the mountains which bound it, 

 contract their fombre hue, and render the 

 fcene ftill more interefting. I could al- 

 moft have fancied that nature untamed 

 bore here an uninterrupted fway amidft the 

 gloom and grandeur of thefe dreary rocks, 

 had not the filence been, at intervals, in- 

 terrupted by the loud blafts from the 

 neighbouring copper mine, which rolled 

 like diftant thunder along the atmofphere. 



In my walk to this place, I met feveral 

 women and boys upon the road, who were 

 coming from the mountains with horfes, 

 fome laden with peat, almoft the only kind 

 of fuel ufed by the middle and lower clafs 

 of people in Caernarvonshire, and others 

 with heath, or as it is here called, Grug, 

 which the bakers make ufe of in heating 

 their ovens. Thefe they take from a dif- 

 tance of frequently more than fix miles, to 



fell 



