SUMMER IN LLEYN. 107 



from the east side of Trwyn y Penrhyn as far as Ogof Lwyd, 

 and one or two Razorbills looked as if they were nesting in the 

 cliff near the latter — a deep narrow inlet — where some Herring- 

 Gulls sat on their nests. A pair or two of these seem to breed 

 on the bare stack near Ebot off the shore here, and I think 

 Oystercatchers too, but I did not go out to it. No sea birds 

 seem to breed on Maen Gwenonwy. There are sheep on it, and 

 I think you can get there by a causeway at low tide. A pair of 

 Great Black-backed Gulls this year had built a big thick nest of 

 scurvy-grass, grass, sea-pink, and spurrey on bare jagged rock. 

 It contained three eggs, one of which was pale blue with lilac 

 markings. Corn-Crakes were as common as usual, and one 

 night I could hear two calling at the same time. The Bed- 

 backed Shrike inhabited one former haunt at least. 



Drayton, in the ninth song of his " Polyolbion," mocks 

 gently at the rivers of Lleyn : — 



" Then further cause of speech the mighty Snowdon brake 

 Least, if their wat'ry kind should suff'red be too long, 

 The license that they took might do the mountains wrong. 

 For quickly he had found that strait'ned Point of Land, 

 Into the Irish Sea which puts its pow'rful hand, 

 Puff'd with their wat'ry praise, grew insolently proud, 

 And needs would have his Rills for Rivers be allow'd : 

 Short Darent,* near'st unto the utmost point of all 

 That th' Isle of Gelin f greets, and Bardsey in her fall ; 

 And next to her the Sawe,| the Gir,§ the Er,[| the May.1T 

 Must Rivers be at least, should all the World gainsay." 



The Daron is a pleasant stream at all events, and thanks to 

 mills, although I can step across it here and there, it makes a 

 respectable trout stream, its trout remarkable, it seemed to me, 

 for the large size of the red spots on their sides. Salmon, too, 

 run up the little river in floods, and a 12 lb. fish has been taken. 

 The two high bridges in Aberdaron, which generally look absurd, 

 spanning duck-polluted shallows where the water would not 

 run into your boots, will, after heavy rain, hardly take the 

 flood water coming down. The Daron valley running down the 

 length of the far end of Lleyn for some distance starts shallow 



:; ' Darent = Daron. f Gelin = Gwylan. 



I Sawe = Soch. § Gir = Penrhos. 



|| Er = Erch. IT May = Dwyfach. 



