A Modern Moraine Heap 101 



hoarse note, or the birds going off without any cry at all. 

 Their stay here was only for a week or two, and each year 

 they departed suddenly, and evidently in a body, early in 

 September, after which scarcely one was visible until the 

 following spring. The Jack Snipe, Giach fach^ seldom 

 visits Llanuwchllyn. I only heard of one or two being 

 seen, always in the depth of winter, and one of the only 

 two which came under my personal observation was noticed 

 to run under a heap of railway sleepers, lying near the 

 station, when the ground was covered with deep snow, 

 accompanied by a keen frost, on 28th December. In 

 order to make sure of its identity, it was flushed from 

 this retreat, which it refused to leave without some per- 

 suasion, and then it only flew a short distance before pitching 

 again at the edge of the platform. 



But after this rather long digression upon Snipe, we 

 must once more " take the road " for Arenig. The village, 

 straggling over both banks of the Llafar, in the valley below 

 us, is Pare, a sequestered spot, far from the beaten track. 

 Some distance above this, a curious instance occurred of 

 the manner in which sudden changes in the local landscape 

 may sometimes be effected. The stream, at the place in 

 question, had eaten its course into a mound of clay and 

 stones of morainic origin, until a naked bank of some fifty 

 feet in height had been formed on its western shore. The 

 ground at the top of the bank was clothed in places with 

 growths of alder, hazel, and ash, many of the trees decayed 

 and gnarled, and of uncertain age. On the opposite side 

 of the stream was a flattish expanse of pasture, overgrowing 

 a deposit of water-arranged gravel and soil, resting upon 

 fixed rock, and clear of trees over a considerable area. 

 Quite recently, an extensive land-slide had carried a mass 

 of many tons of soil, stones, and trees, from the top of the 

 bank, and, shooting it right across the stream, had left a 

 miniature " moraine heap," resting " unconformably " on 

 a stratified base, on the surface of the opposite field. The 

 mound was covered with grass, ferns, and bushes, several 

 of the latter being quite respectable trees, and standing 

 almost as upright and uninjured as though they had grown 



