258 
A BOTANICAL TOUR THROUGH SOUTH WALES, &c. 
this mandate was so effectually carried into execution, that none have ever been 
seen since. 
A foot-track leads across a dreary rocky moor from the Dinas rock to Oil 
Hepste Farm, from whence there is a most rugged and miry descent to the great 
water-falls. Some sombre views of distant gloomy mountains are presented in 
the course of the route, as well as a glance at the profound woody ravines, 
involved in whose shadows the rivers Hepste and Mellte urge their agitated 
waters far below to a junction. A deep stony and puddly gully, shrouded in an 
almost impervious thicket, is the only practicable pass down the steep, and this 
emerges in the glen below, at the base of the cascade. A considerable body of 
water (as there was at this time), projected over a slate rock in a fifty-feet fall, 
though not a sublime is a beautiful object, and if it does not alarm, it captivates. 
The water precipitates itself in five divisions, which, however, superficially unite 
into one showery mass of crystal spangles, dashing with eternal motion, like the 
joys of life, down the slippery rock that vainly offers to detain them within its 
intricate drapery—gleaming for a moment in iridescent lustre, till the instantly 
succeeding plunge, reverberated by the rocks around, records their passage into 
the sullen shadows that for ever conceal them from view. Over the gloom and 
stillness of the fallen waters quivers the lovely Iris, with its radiant zone— 
bright messenger of heaven, its coloured glory now oscilated in the gloom, like 
memory burnishing the past, but unable to advance a solitary gleam to light up 
the future. This water-fall may formerly have been much higher than at 
present, for the water has scooped deeply into the bowels of the slate rock, and 
the depth of the glen from the land above must be at least 150 feet, so that, 
were these precipices not densely clothed with wood, it must be very dangerous 
to descend them, and the streams, except from certain points, of course flow 
unseen. This is the general character of the streams in the schistose strata of 
Wales; the dark narrow glens are still annually deepening from the effects of 
continual attrition upon the shivering substance of the rock, and this cascade 
might in time be altogether obliterated, were it not probable that the glen below 
it would deepen in the same proportion to the ingulfing efforts made by its own 
waters upon the slaty stratum over which it flows. As in many other water¬ 
falls, a very fair passage, practicable even for horses, lies under the waters of this 
to the opposite side of the stream, and some tourists have boasted of taking 
shelter from a storm of rain under the watery canopy! This, like many other 
supposed wonders, would, however, pretty well illustrate jumping out of the 
frying-pan into the fire; for if the shower lasted long, the recipient of its shelter¬ 
ing powers would assuredly have a wetter coat, and feet too, than if he had 
jogged on and defied the elements, instead of attempting a trick upon Aquarius 
