This is the loftiest of the Welch mountains, its elevation above the
level of the sea being thirty-seven hundred and twenty feet, or nearly
three-quarters of a mile. It is accessible on one side only, its flanks
being in every other quarter precipitous. Its aspect soon convinces the
spectator that he is not to look to the Alps alone, or to the rocky
regions of Altai, bordering on Siberia, for romantic scenes of wildness,
confusion and disorder. Snowdon presents them in all their rude and
native majesty.
In the ascent, a narrow path not more than nine feet in width, leads
along the margin of a frightful precipice of nearly fifteen hundred feet
in extent, so perpendicular that it can not be approached without
terror; while to the north of the summit nearest to the one the most
elevated, a semi-amphitheater of precipitous rocks, also of a great
hight, is seen; and, behind this summit, another semicircle of equal
depth and extent. The loftiest summit here appears to descend in the
form of a sharp ridge, and beneath it another appears, which, on account
of its color, is called the Black Rock. From the upper part of the
valley, one of these summits presents a grand, vertical, and very
elevated point.
The bottom of each of the amphitheaters of rocks, thirteen in number, is
occupied by a small lake of a circular form, and very deep. The one
known by the name of Llyn Glass is remarkable for its green hue, derived
from its being impregnated with copper, several mines of which line its
borders. Than this mountain, nothing in the Alps can be more arid and
desert, those regions alone excepted which are too lofty to admit of
vegetation. Here there is not a tree, not even a shrub; small patches of
verdure, which sheep can scarcely reach, are alone to be seen. Its
summit, or highest peak, is a flat of about eighteen feet only in
circumference. Thence may be seen a part of Ireland, a part of Scotland,
Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, all North Wales, the isle of Man, and
the Irish and British seas, with innumerable lakes; while the whole
island of Anglesea is displayed so distinctly, that, its flat
uncultivated plains, bounded by the rich Parys mountain in the vicinity
of Holyhead, may be descried as on a map.