ALONG THE COAST AND ELSEWHERE 179 



as on this holiday ! At our feet was the sequestered village of 

 Llanberis, looking like a toy city ; then the paths to the summit 

 from the famous Pass, as well as from Capel Curig and the 

 Snowdon ranger path, came into view, and we at last reached the 

 terminus on the western side of the monarch. On the left of 

 the platform, the visitor attains the very peak of the mountain 

 at the cairn. The views from the summit are indescribable, 

 and must be left for a more facile pen than mine. But I have 

 ascended Snowdon ! 



When at Chester I traced the source of the Kiver Dee, up which 

 I have sailed past Eaton Hall, making a detour to Hawarden 

 so as to sit in the pew once occupied by Mr Gladstone, of whom 

 I am a hero -worshipper, and to visit the finely-timbered park 

 in which the great statesman wielded his axe. 



The Wirral peninsula, a happy hunting ground for the 

 naturalist, retains pleasant memories, for it was there in the 

 bleak days of gusty March that I watched the Oyster-catchers 

 feeding upon the mussels at low tide, and a lecturing tour took me 

 into Liverpool daily across the broad expanse of the River Mersey. 



FIG. 75. CORMORANT. 



Chester enabled me to make acquaintance with centuries long 

 since past, and the bird and plant life from the Ribble at Preston, 



