ii4 Wild Life in Wales 



residents, by its Dumfriesshire title of " Skelly," which is 

 probably a corruption of " scaly," from the coarse appearance 

 of the fish by comparison with the more familiar trout. Its 

 Cymric name is Cochgangen^ or sometimes Penci. 



The roadway over the dam is continued right round the 

 lake, forming a nice drive of some twelve or fourteen miles, 

 over well laid macadam, and opening out some fine scenic 

 effects where it winds through the plantations with which the 

 hillsides have been tastefully laid out, where natural "hanging 

 woods " of birch, oak, and hazel, did not already exist. 

 Considerable judgment has been displayed in the planting, 

 larch, spruce, and silver firs having been freely used, while 

 the pines are varied with plenty of P. strobus, P. larico, P. 

 austriaca, P. excelsa, and others. Douglases have also been 

 favoured, and are so far doing well, and here and there are 

 nice specimens of Picea nobilis, P. nordmannlana^ etc., varied 

 with clumps of rhododendrons, azalias, purple beeches, cut- 

 leaved alders, laburnums, and other flowering trees, and 

 shrubs. Nor in enumerating these introductions, must the 

 equal attractions of the native brambles, and dewberries, be 

 lost sight of. They creep and twine over many a rocky 

 knoll, and extract from what would otherwise be barren 

 ground, a fullness of delicious fruit for which many a weary 

 traveller, besides the writer, has, no doubt, offered thanks to 

 the all-bountiful Giver. Nor is it from material reasons, 

 only, that the Rubus family claim our gratitude. Was it 

 not the great Chaucer who sang 



" Sweet as is the bramble flour 

 That bereth the red hepe." 



And do not the blooms offer an unfailing attraction to the 

 superbly silvered Fritillaries, and a host of other insects ? 

 Innumerable bees resort to them, the summer long, and the 

 dainty Hair Streaks, and their more gaily painted relatives, 

 the Small Copper, and the blue butterflies, know no more 

 favourite flower. Lizards, and many other lowly creatures, 

 find a secure refuge beneath the tangled thicket of their 

 branches, whilst the same afford safest retreat, and nesting 

 sites, to Whitethroats, Garden Warblers, and several 



