THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 19 



into the valley behind us, while before us, it 

 shelves gradually into the lake ; forty yards out, 

 ;i3 you know, there is not ten feet water ; 

 and then a steep bank, the edge whereof we 

 and the big trout know well, sinks suddenly to 

 unknown depths. On the opposite side, that 

 vast flat-topped wall of rock towers up shore- 

 less into the sky, seven hundred feet perpendic- 

 ular; the deepest water of all, we know, is at 

 its very foot. Right and left, two shoulders 

 of down slope into the lake. Now turn round 

 and look down the gorge. Kemark that this 

 pebble-bank on which we stand reaches some 

 fifty yards downward : you see the loose stones 

 peeping out everywhere. "VVe may fairly sup- 

 pose that we stand on a dam of loose stones, a 

 hundred feet deep. 



But why loose stones ? — and if so, what 

 matter, and wliat wonder? There are rocks 

 cropping out everywhere down the hill-side. 



Because if you will take up one of these 

 stones and crack it across, you will sec that 

 it t6 not of tlie same stuff as those said 

 rocks. Step into the next field and see. That 

 rock is the common Snowdon slate, which wo 

 see everywhere. The two slioulders of down. 



