6 MR. R. D. DARBISHIRE ON GREAT-ORME^S-HEAD 



impressive profile is footed in the isthmus of Llandudno. 

 The greater part of the western boundary consists chiefly 

 of a fine inland cliff half-clothed by an enormous talus_, from 

 which in turn has been cut by the present sea-wash a littoral 

 clifi^. The principal cliff* shows in fine sections the eleva- 

 tion of the strata northwards and southwards. The mid- 

 dle of the superficial valley is occupied by a long and high 

 ridge to the east of the old semaphore-station^ consisting of 

 a coarse brown grit. On this may be seen one or two small 

 patches, scarcely a foot square, of mountain-limestone. This 

 and the underlying grit are the last remnants of unmeasured 

 though doubtless enormous denudation. The huge bays that 

 flank the Head, eastwards towards Rhos Head, and west- 

 wards towards Puffin's Island and Anglesea, are themselves 

 more obvious memorials of a similar removal of vast masses 

 of the Lower Limestone. This, however, is the story of very 

 ancient times. On either side of the Telegraph-hill the 

 valley falls rapidly eastward, and uniting again forms the 

 mine-plateau, and then runs down to the south of east by 

 the line of the '' Old road ^^ into the east side of the isthmus, 

 and the centre of what is now Llandudno, separating Pen 

 y Dinas, the eastern point of the hill, from the rest of the 

 southern ridge. 



North of Pen y Dinas, and likewise opening towards 

 the east, a shorter and steeper valley debouches below 

 Gwydfyd farm towards the Llandudno bay, ending in a 

 cliff of talus, overhanging a limestone precipice and the 

 modern beach. 



The surface of those parts of the Head which are not 

 occupied by the gritstone hill are either separate hillocks 

 or ridges (that is to say, islands or reefs) of mountain- 

 limestone, each with its greater or lesser sea-side cliffs 

 or plateaux of denuded strata. Between them and on 

 the sides of the Head, and especially in the falling val- 

 leys, are great grass -covered slopes of superficial clays, 



