THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



JANUARY, 1837. 



Art. XXVI. — Wanderings and Ponderings of an Insect- 

 Hunter. 



{Continued from p. 92.) 



Chapter VIII. 



[Cwm Elan.] 



Vast beyond man's conception was the shock that gave 

 Cwm Elan birth : the solid rock was forced upwards from the 

 bowels of the earth, and rent in twain, a portion subsiding 

 either way, while the shattered and loosened fragments thun- 

 dered down the sides of either precipice, till they met, with 

 deafening clang, in the yawning abyss beneath. This abyss, 

 thus formed of fragments of rock of every size and shape, is the 

 channel through which the boisterous Elan pours its snowy- 

 crested waters. The rocky banks are partially clothed with 

 vegetation. The bare cliff anon presents its perpendicular 

 face to the pass ; then a shelf above will be seen affording 

 footing for a little forest of oak, and birch, and witch elm ; and 

 the wild rose, honeysuckle, and brier intermingle and consoli- 

 date the mass : the wild rose throwing its streamers of red 

 blossoms — in Wales how brightly red ! — far adown the face of 

 the bare cliff below. Above this forest the naked rock again 

 appears, and again a nature-planted garden, and so alternately 

 to the top, the green gradually decreasing, and the pinnacles of 

 weather-beaten rock peering over all. It is in such a place as 

 this, when we are alone with nature, and commune with her 

 face to face, gazing on her in her wildest forms — when we are 



NO. III. VOL. IV. D D 



