SNOWDON RANGE OF MOUNTAINS. 211 
which terminate nearly opposite the Isle of Bardsey. The 
various masters of this district have, according to their 
fancy, differently named this range. The aborigines of 
this country, the Welch, have, from their summits occa- 
sionally being clad in snow, called them the Eryri, or 
Snowy Mountains ; and Snowdon, the central point, they 
named Wydfa, or the Conspicuous. The Romans deno- 
minated them Montes Arvonii ; and the Saxons, or Eng- 
lish, the Snowdon Range. The greatest breadth of this 
chain is about twenty miles from north to south, and it is 
nearly fifty in length. In the whole range there are but 
few passes which admit of communication betwixt the op- 
posite sides. The best road is by an opening between 
Bangor and Craneoge ; and still this ascends no less than 
1100 feet in about twelve miles. 
Having thus examined the general course, the breadth 
and extent of this line of mountains, let us, while we stand 
on the summit of Snowdon, turn to the north, and we 
shall have before us, first, on the eastern side, the basin of 
the Conway ; and, secondly, to the north-west, the great 
basin of the Menai, including the greatest part of Carnar- 
vonshire, and the whole of the Island of Anglesea. If we 
then turn towards the south, we shall have, on our right, 
the basin of Cardigan Bay, including that part of the coast 
of Carnarvon which lies to the south of the Snowdon 
range. 
In examining these districts we shall find considerable 
resemblance in some respects, as they are all of the same 
general geological structure ; but, at the same time, many 
differences are also to be met with from the peculiar nature 
of the rock, in each of the districts ; the inclination of the 
hills, and the subordinate substances which are peculiar to 
each. 
As we have seen from the top of Snowdon, that the basin 
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