130 
THE FERN WORLD 
in private hands. At the head of this enchanting glen, — where 
vegetation enjoys indeed a rare and glorious association with 
clustered rocks, and dashing water, — the West Lyn falls over 
a great rock, jutting out like a little table-land from moss, 
Fern-and-ivy-covered rocky ridges, which rising above it shut 
it in on all sides save one. The spreading foliage of trees 
above, rooted between the great rocky masses, casts the 
whole scene into shadow. Below the rocky platform' where 
the Lyn, from its higher level above and beyond, hurls its 
impetuous torrent, lies a deep pool into which the sweep of 
water, broken into three cascades, comes with a great roar, 
and is the next moment flung in one volume over another 
rocky precipice. From this point the Lyn roars down its 
steep and rugged glen to the sea in a succession of the most 
beautiful falls over huge mossy boulders, studded with mar- 
vellously developed forms of Fern life. Now as we follow 
down this enchanting valley, there is a sudden dip in the 
course of the river, and the rapid onflow of the current pre- 
cipitates its waters in one great volume into the channel 
below. Now, as passing under the shelter of over-arching 
trees, we come upon a spot where the river bed falls more 
gently in its course, the flow of the current, less rapid, 
becomes more musical, and we look in wonder upon a fairy, 
dreamy scene of clustering ferny forms in fascinating asso- 
ciation with mossy rocks and flowing water. Anon, as the 
thickening foliage of screening trees blots out the sunlight, 
the river bed meanwhile again making a rapid descent, we 
come in continuing the path down the glen upon a spot which 
is the very night of dreamland. We almost forget that the 
sun high above the leafy canopy which enshrouds us in a. 
dense mantle of green, is brightly shining ; for in the dim- 
ness of a kind of verdant twilight we can barely see what is 
opened up before us — a whirl of foam-white water dashing 
wildly upon rocky masses of every shape, weirdly scattered 
