the bleak upper slopes are left to the small and valuable Welsh
sheep.

There are three belts of soil around the hills--arable, pasture, and
sheep-run--one above the other. The arable land forms about a third
of the country; it lies along the sea border, on the slopes above the
Dee and the Severn, and in the deep valleys of the rivers which
pierce far inland,--the Severn, Wye, Usk, Towy, Teivy, Dovey, Conway,
and Clwyd. The pasture land, the land of small mountain farms, forms
the middle third; it is a land of tiny valleys and small plains, ever
fostered by the warm, moist west wind. Above it, the remaining third
is stormy sheep-run, wide green slopes and wild moors, steep glens
and rocky heights.

From north-west to south-east the line of high hills runs. In the
north-west corner, Snowdon towers among a number of heights over
3,000 feet. At its feet, to the north-west, the isle of Anglesey
lies. The peninsula of Lleyn, with a central ridge of rock, and
slopes of pasture lands, runs to the south-west. To the east, beyond
the Conway, lie the Hiraethog mountains, with lower heights and wider
reaches; further east again, over the Clwyd, are the still lower
hills of Flint.

To the south, 30 miles as the crow flies, over the slate country, the
Berwyns are seen clearly. From a peak among these--Cader Vronwen
(2,573 feet), or the Aran (2,970 feet), or Cader Idris (2,929 feet)--
we look east and south, over the hilly slopes of the upper Severn
country.

Another 30 miles to the south rises green Plinlimmon (2,469 feet);