The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and artAbbott, John Loraine
Science
The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and art
Abbott, John Loraine
Curiosities and wonders
To the south of Dolgellau, Cader Idris towers above the subject
mountains, which seem to retire, to allow its base more room to stand,
and to afford to their sovereign a better display. It stands on a broad
rocky base, with a gradual ascent to its brow, when the peaks elevate
themselves in a manner at once abrupt, picturesque and distinct. The
point emphatically named Cader, appears to the eye below to be little
superior in hight to the saddle; but the third point, or apex, which has
a name expressive of its sterility, is neither equal in hight, nor in
beauty, to the other two. On its loftiest peak a stone pillar has lately
been erected, for the purpose of a trigonometrical survey.
Cader Idris is the commencement of a chain of primitive mountains, and
is computed to be twenty-eight hundred and fifty feet above the green of
Dolgellau, and thirty-five hundred and fifty feet, or nearly
three-fourths of a mile above the level of the sea. It has been
conjectured that at some remote period it was a volcano of immense
magnitude.
The tract to the south of Cader Idris, as far as Talylyn and Malwydd, is
peculiarly grand. High and rugged mountains of every possible form,
close in on all sides, while huge masses of rock hang over, or lie
scattered in misshapen fragments by the side of the road. To add to the
effect of this scene, the river Difi forms one continued cataract for
five or six miles, overflowing with the innumerable tributary torrents
which precipitate themselves from the highest summits of the surrounding
rocks; while, to crown the whole, the shady head of Cader Idris towers,
the majestic sentinel of the group.
PENMAN-MAWR.
The county of Caernarvon, in which this mountain is situated, claims
precedency over every other in Wales, for the loftiness of its
mountains, and the multitude of the eminences, which in a curved and
indented chain, occupy nearly the whole of its extent.
In proceeding from Conway to Bangor, by a route at once picturesque and
romantic, and amid a scenery which varies at every step, Penman-mawr
discloses to the traveler its bulky head. It protrudes itself into the
sea, and exhibits a fine contrast to the fertility which it interrupts,
by a rude view of gray weather-beaten stones and precipices. The passage
over the mountain was formerly terrific; but the road has been latterly
widened and secured, near the verge of the precipice, by a small wall
about five feet in hight. It forms the most sublime terrace in the
British isles, winding round the mountain on the edge of the abrupt
cliff; while the vast impending rocks above, the roaring of the waves at
a great distance below, and the frequent howling of the wind, all unite
to fill the mind with solemnity and awe.
SKIDDAW.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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