My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

136 MY LIFEthe valley beyond, thesmoke from which gives thehill much the appearance of an active volcano. Tothe south-west the view extends down the valley toSwansea Bay, while to the north-east stretches theVale of Neath itself, nearly straight for twelve miles,the river winding in a level fertile valley about aquarter to half a mile wide, bounded on each side byabrupt hills, whose lower slopes are finely wooded,and backed by mountains from fifteen hundred toeighteen hundred feet high. The view up this valleyis delightful, its sides being varied with a few housespeeping out from the woods, abundance of lateralvalleys and ravines, with here and there the glint offalling water, while its generally straight directionaffords fine perspective effects, sometimes fading inthe distance into a warm yellow haze, at othersaffording a view of the distant mountain rangesbeyond.At twelve miles from the town we come to thelittle village of Pont-nedd-fychan (the bridge of thelittle Neath river), where we enter upon a quitedistinct type of scenery, dependent on our passingout of the South Wales coal basin, crossing the hardrock-belt of the millstone grit, succeeded by thepicturesque crags of the mountain limestone, andthen entering on the extensive formation of the OldRed Sandstone.Within a mile of Pont-nedd-fychan is the Dinasrock, a tongue of mountain limestone jutting outacross the millstone grit, and forming fine precipices,one of which was called the Bwa-maen or bow rock,from its being apparently bent double. Lower downthere are also some curious waving lines of apparentstratification, but on a recent examination I aminclined to think that these are really glacial