NORTH WALES: SLATE QUARRIES AND 

 WATERING-PLACES 



WELSH mountains under the tropical rains of July 

 1912 soon lost their attraction, and we set out once 

 again to see something of the farming of North Wales. 

 North of the estuary of the Dovey what one may call 

 the mainland is chiefly occupied by mountains ; the 

 industrial features are the slate quarries in the inland 

 valleys, and the watering-places, large and small, which 

 form a continuous fringe along the coast from Aber- 

 dovey round to Rhyl. In these districts farming 

 takes a secondary place, and it only becomes again 

 the staple industry in the Lleyn peninsula which juts 

 out from the top of the Principality, and in the island 

 of Anglesey over against it. Each of these districts 

 also possesses its fringe of watering-places, which are 

 thickly populated during the summer from Lancashire, 

 Birmingham, and the Potteries ; but the towns are 

 small and the inland population is solely dependent 

 upon agriculture. It is this part of the Principality, 

 even more than South Wales, that gives one the 

 impression of a Celtic country. Just as in Brittany 

 or in Ireland, the inhabitants are gathered into small 

 villages ; the cottages are long and low, built of rough 

 stone and whitewashed over ; the farming is chiefly 

 concerned with milk and milk production ; and various 

 little traits, such as a long-shafted spade or shovel 



