290 Miss Eyton — Ancient Coast-line in North Wales. 



Eising above the level of the Boulder-clay, and of the superficial 

 deposits which cover it, is a wall of Carboniferous Limestone, con- 

 tinuing from the Vale of Cl'R'yd, round the western circle of Llandrillo 

 bay, until it terminates in the Little Orme's-head Mountain, which 

 separates the bays of Llandrillo and Llandudno. It is broken by 

 many a gorge or rocky valley, evidently scooped out by the former 

 action of the waves. Such is the Vale of Llandulas, which is merely 

 that of Clwyd on a smaller scale, and such the rocky dells above 

 Abergele and Colwyn. They are at present occupied by small 

 mountaiu streamlets, quite insufficient to have worn such valleys in 

 the Mountain Limestone — one of the hardest of stratified rocks. 

 They were, more probably, originally commenced by the action of 

 water from the land, and then the waves, rushing in at the entrance 

 thiis provided for them, scooped out and enlarged the former channel 

 until it became an inland fiord, winding for several miles into the 

 country. The sea, true to its law of always working on the weakest 

 part, turned aside from the more powerful obstructions to seek a 

 place which offered less resistance to its force, thus forming numerous 

 sinuosities. 



At the entrance to the Vale of Llandulas, there are several caves, 

 the largest of which (called the Giant's Cave) would seem to have 

 been the course of an underground streamlet, meeting the sea in the 

 manner above described, and forming, what is, in fact, a minute 

 subterranean fiord. The extent of this cave is vmknown. It is 

 entered by a lofty Norman arch, supported by rounded buttresses, 

 which, peeping out from amid the foliage, and overgrown with ivy, 

 almost give the idea of the entrance to some ruined fortress. 



And now, joassing over the headlands of Penmaen rhos, and the 

 Little Orme's-head, we arrive at the larger mountain of that name. 

 This is a huge outlier of Carboniferous Limestone 750 feet in height, 

 nearly six miles in circumference, and three in diameter. The base 

 of the mountain is literally honey-combed with caves, enormous 

 limestone boulders strew the shore, and numerous landslips occur on 

 the sides of the mountain. A finer field for the student of physical 

 geology I can scarcely imagine. 



Between 200 and 300 feet above the present sea-level, occurs the 

 old coast line, which has been noticed by the Kev. W. S. Symonds, 

 F.G.S., in a paper published in the "Llandudno Guide," but without 

 specifying particulars. This is well marked throughout the cir- 

 cumference of the mountain by the continuous line of rounded pro- 

 jections and recesses scooped out by the sea. The line is unbroken, 

 save by an occasional landslip, or in one or two places where the 

 hand of man has been at work ; but on the south-western side, at the 

 same level, there is a range of caverns, small in size, but clearly 

 produced by the same agencies as those now at work on the cliffs 

 beneath. At the time I visited these caves, they were only accessible 

 by a steep and somewhat dangerous scramble from the shore below, 

 being situated in the most remote part of the mountain, where the 

 foot of man rarely treads ; but I was amply rewarded by finding a 

 bed of loose shingle, exactly resembling that which forms the present 

 beach. 



