SNOWDON RANGE OF MOUNTAINS. 2!15 
Except the central part of the basin, near Trefriew, 
where the alluvial banks of the Conway are marshy, and 
thought to produce occasionally intermittent fever, the ge- 
neral climate of this basin is healthy and invigorating. 
In cultivation, though not of the most productive kind 
that could be followed, this basin presents rather a pleas- 
ing picture to the agriculturist. As we have described the 
slaty rocks of the upper parts to be incapable of much de- 
composition, little scope is there given for the plough. 
But below Betteos, proceeding downwards to the north, 
we observe the slopes of the Snowdon chain of more de- 
composable materials, inclining more gently, cultivated a 
considerable way up, and yielding crops of oats. But the 
lower and leveller parts are employed for raising barley 
and wheat. Little, or to no extent, are turnips cultivated, 
which, in a country rearing cattle and flocks of sheep, is a 
great defect. And deficiency of soil cannot be assigned as 
a reason for such an omission ; for, in the arable parts of 
this basin it is generally light friable loam, than which no- 
thing can be better adapted, either for the production of 
the turnip-crop, or the feeding of them off with sheep. 
Little attention, notwithstanding the great demand for 
winter food, is paid to the management of grass-lands in 
this basin. The heights, and those parts that are unculti- 
vated, of the Snowdon chain, forming the western bound- 
ary of the Conway basin, are, for the most part, common 
lands, and are grazed by those having farms skirting them, 
without any particular limitation as to the number of stock 
to be turned out upon them. Accordingly, we find these 
mountain tracts eaten to the very root, very little heath, 
and the stock depasturing them often not in the best con- 
dition. This we shall find more remarkably the case 
the Carnarvon part of the Menai basin. From ^J^^g scanti- 
ness of heath, and other plants which sup^^^y f^^^i f^^. ^i^^^ 
