36 Wild Life in Wales 



The Pen-y-llwyn sings from the wood, 



The Tresglen in the glen, 

 To jug the Cochiar calls his brood, 



Clear pipes the Mwyalchen ; 

 The Gwyniad fair on Tegid Llyn, 



Gleams silver where she falls ; 

 The Penhwyad of the dappled skin, 



Roams Einion's empty halls." 1 



So runs a modern version of an ancient lay, and on fine 

 summer evenings I sometimes watched shoals of fishes 

 playing on the surface of the lake, and was told that they 

 were Gwyniads ; and though such statements must be taken 

 on trust, there seemed no reason to doubt that they were 

 so. To whatever species they belonged there were at any 

 rate large numbers of the fish, for from the hills over- 

 looking the lake several shoals could sometimes be seen at 

 the same time. When the water is quite calm the dis- 

 turbance they make is considerable, very much reminding 

 one of the way in which herrings " play " at sea. They 

 appear suddenly on the surface, but do not remain for more 

 than a minute or so in one spot, and never approach the 

 land very closely. One may be looking out upon a glassy 

 expanse of water, on which the opposite landscape is reflected 

 as in a mirror, when, without warning, a large patch begins, 

 as it were, first to simmer, and then to boil. When the 

 fun is at its height, dozens of tails may be seen through the 

 glass lashing the water, and if not too far away the sound of 

 the splashing falls on the ear like the rippling of wavelets 

 on a pebbly shore. The game ends as suddenly as it 

 began, for, on an instant, every tail is gone, often with 

 such a splash as to suggest the rush of a pike. On one 

 occasion I saw a Cormorant alight in, or close to, an agitated 

 area, and at once plunging under water, reappear with a 

 captive wriggling in its bill, and with a plunge, just as 

 described, the shoal vanished. That it "sounded," as the 

 whale-fishers say, was inferred from the fact that, though 

 the Cormorant dived again twice or thrice in rapid succession, 



1 See legend of drowning of ancient castle beneath the lake, page 19, ante. 



