OF NORTH WALES. 
259 
basin. At the northern extremity, as at Orme's Head, 
we saw that there was a great store of limestone ; and that 
though there was no coal, peat was found in several places; 
that, near Conway, a mile to the south-west, chirt, and a 
sort of stone resembling French buhr-stone, was found. 
That the larch, in the upper portions of the basin, was 
found to grow well ; and the Spanish chesnut at Gwydir. 
In the basin of the Menai we found the sides of the 
Snowdon chain much steeper, more rugged, and more 
rocky, than those of the Conway basin ; that, consequently, 
there was less vegetation, and that, from exposure to the 
violence of the south-west storms, even in places where 
there was soil, trees did not grow ; — that the soil formed 
out of these hard undecaying rocks was generally poor, 
light, gravelly, with little argillaceous matters to give it 
adhesion ; — that several rivers issued from this side of the 
range, and though some larger lakes were found along and 
among these mountains, yet that they did not equal in 
number those on the other side. 
That the best and most workable slate, enclosed in veins 
between the harder transition rocks, was found in this 
basin, and was the great source of wealth to the Carnarvon 
portion of it. That copper was also raised in considerable 
quantities in several places, but that the best and richest 
was found only in the hardest of the slate transition rocks. 
That arsenic was found ; but very slight traces of lead ; 
of calamine more abundantly. 
Along the shores of the Menai Strait most of the second- 
ary rocks were met with, limestone, and marl ; but no coal. 
Peat was rather generally diffused, though in no great 
quantities. 
That the cattle^ and particularly the sheep, were small, and 
ill-fed; that the cultivation consequently was not the best. 
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