POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
eye by the plantations of pine and fir, reaching from base to 
summit. 
By the wayside are walls and hedges glowing with all the 
colours of the rainbow. Foxgloves of intense purple, wild 
roses of the deepest pink, with here and there wild geraniums, 
wild strawberries, and rasps ; and as to the ferns, we feel, 
when we stoop to pluck a frond, to be used for driving off the 
troublesome flies, as though we were committing a desecration 
upon nature, in thus deforming the graceful cluster which 
shoots its arching stems on every side. 
But we must quit this lovely scene, only, however, to ap- 
proach another almost as beautiful. Having partaken of luncheon 
at the “ Half-way House,” a meal rendered most enjoyable by 
the healthful exercise of a rapid walk amongst these glorious 
scenes, we hastened onwards, and soon arrived at a large water- 
wheel, a mile beyond Pont Ddu, Avhich is used for grinding the 
copper ore extracted from a neighbouring mine. Here we 
diverged from the main road, and, under the guidance of a 
blacksmith, who has a smithy hard by, and who was unable to 
speak a word of “ Sassenach” (Saxon, or English), whilst we 
are equally well versed hi “ Cymraeg” (Cambrian, or Welsh), 
ive found the “ engine-house ” of the Garthgill Mine. And 
here another beautiful scene presented itself to our gaze. 
In the rain,ing districts, the “Black Country” of Northum- 
berland, Lancashire, and Staffordshire, nature appears to don 
sackcloth and ashes ; to mourn, as it Avere, over the robberies 
hourly perpetrated in her domains. But here, amongst these 
loA T ely hills, she welcomes the enterprising miner, and tempts 
him to commence his operations by laying her treasures at 
his feet, and holding out to him every inducement that her 
charms can afford. 
On the one hand, we find nought but smoke and arid deso- 
lation ; and, if some unsuspecting plant, some blade of grass 
or tender floweret, should venture to extrude itself above the 
surface, the noxious gases of the furnace, factory, or mine, at 
once deprive it of its tints, and cause it soon to droop and die 
for very shame. Here, on the other hand, the elements and 
nature co-operate Avitli man. The rushing waterfall, bubbling* 
and gurgling amongst the rocks, stops in its headlong course, 
and, flowing gently through an artificial duct, assists to turn 
the AA'heel, and Avork the pestles of the miner ; whilst the clear 
stream below serves at once to slake his thirst, to lave and 
cool his heated brow, and cleanse his ore from dross and from 
impurities. 
’Twas such a scene as this that Ave encountered here. 
From the “ engine-house ” (to be presently described), Ave 
continued to climb up the hill, accompanied iioav by the OA r er- 
