A Visit to Llandudno. 



A VISIT TO LLANDUDNO. 



BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S., 

 Member of the Microscopical Society of London. 



A glance at Professor Ramsay's excellent geological map of 

 England and Wales will show a conspicuous and irregular mass 

 of limestone, belonging to the carboniferous series, considerably 

 to the left of the estuary of the Dee, and to the right of the 

 Menai Straits. This is the Great Orme's Head, a magnificent 

 promontory, protected through the hardness of. its material 

 from being washed away by the long-continued beating of the 

 waves, which have hollowed out a huge gap in that portion of 

 the British coast. Properly speaking* the " Head " is the 

 termination of the mass, the rest being locally known as the 

 " Llandudno Mountain," beneath whose shade a smartly-built 

 watering-place has rapidly sprung up, much frequented by 

 Liverpool families, and catching an occasional Londoner to 

 vary the scene. The Great Orme's Head is the attractive 

 feature to the ordinary visitor. All round its sea-beat wall a 

 pathway has been cut, beginning a few feet above the high- 

 tide level, winding from east to west, ascending many hundred 

 feet, and presenting at every turn a grand view of distant 

 coasts, and wide-spread waters, studded with many a sail. 

 Looking eastward, the eye roams beyond the Little Orme's 

 Head, the other barrier of the little bay, catches the flat 

 washy land of the two remarkable estuaries of the Mersey and 

 the Dee ; and rests, if the weather permits, on the shores of the 

 AVest Riding of York. As the path winds, huge irregular 

 masses of rock overhang the way; far down below seethe the 

 white surge and foam, and presently, in a grassy slope, is seen 

 the little church of St. Tudno, who must have been of a very 

 'tic way of thinking to have resorted to so wild a region, 

 and one so remote from the society of his fellow-men. The 

 path again ascends, and twists; Lancashire and Yorkshire are 

 lost, and Anglesey comes more and more into view, with its 

 outpost of Puffin's Island, in which multitudes of sea birds are 

 Baid to breed. As the headland is rounded, the splendid cone 

 of Penraaen-Mawr rises across the estuary of the Conway river ; 

 and when a southern view is obtained, the mountains of Snow- 

 donia mingle their summits Avith the clouds, and close the 

 scene. Sun-set pours its red and yellow light gloriously over 

 these varied out lines, and thoso who differ from Hood in the 

 assertion that 



" A man that's fond precociously of stirring, 

 Must be a ipoon," 



speak with equal favour of the magnificence of the sun-rise. 



