the frowning sides of the chief Merioneth
mountain, Cader Idris, which towers on the right hand to the height of
3100 feet. It is a long ridge rather than a peak, and steep precipices
guard the upper portion. Two little lakes near the summit, enclosed by
cliffs, afford magnificent scenery. Here is "Idris's Chair," where the
grim magician, who used to make the mountain his home, sat to perform
his incantations, whilst in a hollow at the summit he had his couch.
According to Welsh tradition, whoever passed the night there would
emerge in the morning either mad or a poet. This mountain, like Snowdon,
is said to have been formerly a volcano, and legends tell of the fiery
outbursts that came from its craters, now occupied by the two little
lakes. But the truth of these legends, though interwoven into Welsh
poetry, is denied by prosaic geologists. A rough and steep track, known
as the "Fox's Path," leads to the summit, and there is a fine view
northward across the valleys to the distant summits of Snowdon and its
attendant peaks, while spread at our feet to the westward is the broad
expanse of Cardigan Bay. Lakes abound in the lowlands, and, pursuing the
road up the Mawddach we pass the "Pool of the Three Pebbles." Once upon
a time three stones got into the shoe of the giant Idris as he was
walking about his domain, and he stopped here and threw them out. Here
they still remain--three ponderous boulders--in the lake.

[Illustration: CADER IDRIS, ON THE TALY-SLYN ASCENT.]

[Illustration: RHAYADR-Y-MAWDDACH.]

We leave the Mawddach and follow its tributary, the little river Wnion,
as it ripples along over its pebbly bed guarded by strips of meadow.
Soon we come to the lovely "Village of the Hazels," Dolgelly, standing
in the narrow valley, and probably the prettiest spot in Wales. Steep
hills rise on either hand, with bare craggy summits and the lower slopes
richly wooded. Deep dells running into the hills vary the scenery, and
thus the town is set in an amphitheatre of hills, up whose flanks the
houses seem to climb. There is a little old church, and in a back court
the ruins of the "Parliament House," where Owen Glendower assembled the
Welsh Parliament in 1404. The Torrent Walk, where the stream from the
mountain is spanned by picturesque bridges, is a favorite resort of the
artist, and also one of the most charming bits of scenery in the
neighborhood of this beautiful town. Pursuing the valley farther up and
crossing the w