ature was very cold. As soon as the rain and hail discontinued, we saw one of the most sublime pictures that the eye can rest upon. Our descent was unattended with difficulty, and we reached the Victoria Hotel soon after eleven o'clock."

The ascent from Capel Curig is circuitous and fatiguing, but it discloses much of grandeur and beauty. Mr. Roscoe selected this route, and spared no toil to obtain the finest views. The ascent from Llyn Cwellyn is less inviting: the distance is four miles. Mr. Cliffe ascended from Beddgelert in the month of June, and gives an animated description of his journey. The weather was gloomy and cheerless when he and his guide (Richard Edwards, "the father of guides") started. After some hard "collar-work," they reached the Wyddfa. "Not a soul was there. We stood alone on the highest spot in the British isles, south of the Forth. The damp of the clouds, the chilly mysterious wind, the darkness, ceased not. We could only see a few yards on either side; and even the faith of our old guide in the day was much shaken. Presently we heard him shouting in Welsh to some one, and found that one of the Llanberis guides was in advance of a party. Suddenly the dull vapours began to break at several points, and we obtained magical glimpses of distant scenes, which had a dream-like effect. Sunny mountain lakes flitted like diamonds across our vision, in the swift wavy line of clouds; then a wandering glory lit up a grand peak, or disclosed a gentle hill solitude; now all Anglesey, like a variegated carpet, was visible; the proud towers of Caernarvon, the green ocean, swelling hills, silver mountain threads, were illumined or hidden by turns: darkness followed. About half an hour was thus spent in a state of excitement, and in the mean while other parties had arrived, and more than a dozen shivering mortals clustered round the narrow top. Suddenly, swift as thought, the whole mass of cloud sailed off Snowdon! and before us and around us, bathed in sunshine, were landscapes which, once seen, can never be quite blotted out

"Meditation here may think down hours to moments.""

Snowdon affords an extensive field for the botanist and mineralogist. Llanberis mine produces a remarkable kind of quartz spar, of a bright ruby colour. Before we take our leave of Snowdon, we would

earnestly urge all parties who ascend this Alpine range not to do so without a guide. It is dangerous, even in the finest weather, to do so.

CAUNANT MAWR (the fall of the Great Chasm) is only half a mile from the Victoria Hotel. It is upwards of sixty feet in height, and "is formed by the mountain torrent from Cwm Brwynog, which breaks with impetuous force through a cleft in the rock above, and rushes down, with a thundering noise, into the deep black pool below."

THE PASS OF LLANBERIS

Commences just above the church, and, from its wild grandeur and fearful sublimity, has ever commanded the admiration and wonder of visitors. Hutton, writing nearly half a century ago, says of it:"I was struck with astonishment at this wonderful spot. He who has not seen it may imagine himself rising on a steep mountain, nearly two miles long, meeting a rapid stream in the centre, but diminishing to nothing as he rises, with a rock on each hand all the way. From the frosts, the sun, and the rains which for ages have operated upon those elevated mountains of rock, they have been shivered to pieces, and fragments of all sizes have covered the valley, which is about one hundred yards wide, so as to annoy the traveller and choke the river. All is chaos. Amazement and contemplation fill the mind. Many of the stones may be traced to the spot whence they fell. After travelling up this scene of wonder—this wreck of nature—sometimes up stone stairs, sometimes through water, yet always upon rock, I arrived at the top, called "the resting-place," whence I had a prospect of the other side of the hill, called Bwlch y Eisteddfa (Gwyddyl). One of the ranges of mountains now opened to the right, which was Snowdon, and the other to the left towards Capel Curig. In front appeared a third range, forming a triangular area. This was barren, solitary, yet dignified nature." The descent of this great Pass was of course formerly a most difficult task, but now it is comparatively a very easy affair. Mr. Cliffe has thus described the present appearance of this singular mountain gorge :-" The north ridge of Snowdon, and the Glyder Vawr, approach each other so near as to be separated at their bases by a narrow ravine, in some parts not many yards in breadth, extending between the mountains to the length of three miles, with a sharp ascent towards the south-east. In this ravine

the debris of the mountains, and their decomposed materials, have been rolled or washed down in incredible quantities; and at the feet of their parent precipices, still frowning above, lie the disrupted rocks, of every size and form, piled in fantastic heaps, or cast about in wild confusion. The Seiont, a small stream, struggles through this stony wilderness, and, emerging from the ravine, flows into the upper part of the Llanberis lakes. A peculiar assemblage of rocks in this Pass is named the Cromlech, from its resemblance to those ancient structures;

LLANBERIS PASS-ENTRANCE FROM THE WEST.

beyond the spot where it lies is a little open space, covered with greensward, called the Gorphysfa; and the highest part of all is known as the Bwlch y Gwyddel. The steep slopes of Glyder Vawr are edged in many places with ranges of basaltic formation, much convulsed, some slightly curving. One columnar cluster stands apart from the