OF THE MENAl BASIN. 
231 
Wales, of the Forest of Snowdon, seems to have favoured 
the above belief. We can, however, with difficulty believe 
that it extended to the higher parts, as Giraldus Cambren- 
sis, Leland, and others of the older writers, would not 
have omitted so important a fact. The shores of the lakes 
of Llanberris, since the introduction of goats, sheep, and 
cattle, have been almost robbed of their wood, though, 
in the reign of Ehzabeth, these low tracts seem to have 
been well clothed, and abounded in deer. Should the pro- 
prietors of the banks of these beautifully romantic lakes 
wish to see them again adorned with natural copse-wood 
and timber, evidence can be adduced to prove, that it is 
only necessary to protect them from the ravages of cattle 
and sheep. On the east side of the lower lake of Llan- 
berris, nearly opposite the ruined castle of Dolbadern, a 
considerable extent of that shore has been walled in, and 
is now spontaneously covering itself with oak and smaller 
brushwood. 
As not unconnected with this subject, it may be re- 
marked, that, in a particular spot of this district, Ame- 
rican plants thrive most luxuriantly. At Penissar-Naut, 
on the Ogwen, the beautiful wooded romantic dairy-farm 
of the late Lady Penryn, a rhododendron, growing from 
one stem, may be seen covering a circumference of thirty- 
two yards. 
It is not from the productive nature of its soil that this 
rugged tract derives its wealth, but from its minerals. 
The person unacquainted with the geology of the Car- 
narvon side of the Menai basin, might be led to consider it 
as having few sources of wealth. The geologist, how- 
ever, on the contrary, explores countries and districts, not 
to examine the surface alone, but, with enlarged views, to 
explore iul the mineral and metallic deposites, in order to 
ascertain how far they have been, and may still be, the 
