248 MY LIFE [Chap. 



They were about eight or nine inches long. As they were 

 quite still, he thought he could catch one by the neck, and 

 endeavoured to do so, but the little creature turned round 

 suddenly, bit his finger, and escaped. He immediately sucked 

 out the poison, but his whole hand swelled considerably, 

 and was very painful. Owing, however, to the small size of 

 the animal the swelling soon passed off, and left no bad effects. 

 Another day, towards the autumn, we found the rather 

 uncommon black viper in a wood a few miles from Neath. 

 This he caught with a forked stick, to which he then tied it 

 firmly by the neck, and put it in his coat pocket. Meeting a 

 labourer on the way, he pulled it out of his pocket, wriggling 

 and twisting round the stick and his hand, and asked the man 

 if he knew what it was, holding it towards him. The man's 

 alarm was ludicrous. Of course, he declared it to be deadly, 

 and for once was right, and he added that he would not carry 

 such a thing in his pocket for anything we could give him. 



Though I have by no means a very wide acquaintance 

 with the mountain districts of Britain, yet I know Wales 

 pretty well; have visited the best parts of the lake district; 

 in Scotland have been to Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, and 

 Loch Tay ; have climbed Ben Lawers, and roamed through 

 Glen Clova in search for rare plants ; — but I cannot call to mind 

 a single valley that in the same extent of country comprises 

 so much beautiful and picturesque scenery, and so many 

 interesting special features, as the Vale of Neath. The town 

 itself is beautifully situated, with the fine wooded and rock- 

 girt Drumau Mountain to the west, while immediately to the 

 east are well-wooded heights crowned by Gnoll House, and 

 to the south-east, three miles away, a high rounded hill, up 

 which a chimney has been carried from the Cwm Avon copper- 

 works in the valley beyond, the smoke from which gives the 

 hill much the appearance of an active volcano. To the south- 

 west the view extends down the valley to Swansea Bay, while 

 to the north-east stretches the Vale of Neath itself, nearly 

 straight for twelve miles, the river winding in a level fertile 

 valley about a quarter to half a mile wide, bounded on each 

 side by abrupt hills, whose lower slopes are finely wooded, 



