30 Ascent of Oader Idris. 



black profile of the inner cliff of Llyn Cae, forming the gable 

 end of a grass-covered ridge. The top of the cliff is almost 

 perpendicular (that is, overhanging, in the phraseology of 

 guide-book writers, but really at an angle of about 85°), and 

 as you see the basin gradually deepen underneath, and the cliff 

 assuming the shape of a peak, an impression never to be 

 effaced is left on the mind. The rocky edge of this peak is so 

 extremely sharp as to suggest the idea that it has buffeted 

 the tempest and the waterspout since the sea last undermined 

 its base. 



There it remains, dark ernblem of decay, 

 Revealing silently the wondrous way 

 In which the icy tide's tumultuous flow 

 Wore out the awful gulf that yawns below ! 



On making the ascent of Cader Idris, it is usual to proceed 

 for about two miles along the old road from Dolgelley to 

 Towyn. This road at first rises gradually to the level of an 

 irregular terrace, which extends along the base of a high 

 rocky outlier of Cader. You pass Llyn Gwernan, and soon 

 leave the main road. You then take one of the zig-zag paths 

 which act as torrent- channels in winter and pony-tracks in 

 summer. You reach the summit of the Oyfrwy, or Saddle, 

 with little difficulty, and then proceed in an easterly direction, 

 skirting, and sometimes encountering, the accumulation of 

 columnar stones already described, until you arrive at the 

 base of the peak. This peak is a mass of solid rock, with 

 projections, pillars, and intervening loose fragments. It is 

 precipitous on all .sides, and in this respect is superior to the 

 summit of Snow don. The tourist may here amuse himself 

 in trying to make out the part of the mountain which mytho- 

 logists have dignified as the chair of Idris. Do they suppose 

 the giant to have reposed in the basin of Llyn-y-Gader, with 

 his feet dangling down into Llyn-Gafr, and his head leaning 

 back against the Gader peak ? Or do they place him sitting 

 in the more secure caldron of Llyn Oae, the inner cliff of 

 which resembles the back of some of our old wooden arm- 

 chairs ? Or, contented with regarding him as approaching the 

 size of an ordinary mortal, do they suppose a likeness between 

 a chair and a certain rocky hollow near the summit of the 

 peak ? The latter would seem to be the true solution of the 

 problem. 



You have no sooner commenced the ascent of the peak 

 than you begin to be struck and overawed with what at 

 first seems an illusion, but is not long in being realized, 

 namely, a gulf on each side of unseen profundity. You find 

 yourself on a narrow ridge of fantastically-shaped rocks, 

 between two precipices which slant down into apparently 



