is ■"^r^f 1X1^%' pi: APT) A'pmiJQ Kho '^Rbxms The Cambrijcl^e, r^viver^ii)' .Vfess Copyright. SeargaPtUip Ss SonV^ CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES General Editor: F. H. H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D. GLAMORGANSHIRE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, Manager Eontton: FETTER LANE, E.G. dHtitnburgf) : loo PRINCES STREET JSerlin: A. ASHER AND CO. ILetpjia: F. A. BROCKHAUS i^cto gork: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Bambap. anti ffalrutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. SToronto: J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. 2rofeuo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA. All rights reserved Cambridge County Geographies GLAMORGANSHIRE by jfHe'^WADE, M.A. Joint Author of Rambles in Somerset and the Little Guides to Somerset, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations Cambridge : at the University Press 1914 C5- Camtritrge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 3 O ^ 1 I n PREFACE T SHOULD like gratefully to acknowledge the help which I have received in the compilation of this book from the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, who have supplied me with much information and have furnished me with some of the illustrations. My thanks are also due to Professor G. W. Wade and Dr C. T. Vachell for kindly reading the proofs. J. H. W. March 19 14. CONTENTS I. County and Shire. The name Glatnorgan 1. General Characteristics .... 3. Size. Shape. Boundaries . . . 4. Surface and General Features . 5. Geology and Soil .... 6. Watershed and Rivers .... 7. Natural History ..... 8. A Peregrination of the Coa^t . . 9. Coastal Gains and Losses : Sandbanks and Light houses .... 10. Climate and Rainfall 11. People — Race. Language. Population 12. Agriculture ..... 13. Industries and Manufactures . 14. Mines and Minerals 15. Fisheries and Fishing Stations 16. Shipping and Trade. Chief Ports . PAGE I 4 6 10 16 29 37 45 S^ 63 70 75 79 87 94 98 Vlll CONTENTS 17. History of Glamorganshire 18. Antiqviities .... 19. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical 20. Architecture — {b) Military 21. Architecture — (c) Domestic 22. Communications — Past and Present 23. Administration 24. The Roll of Honour 25. The Chief Towns and Villages of Glamorganshire PAGE 105 117 130 141 165 ILLUSTRATIONS Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle Caswell Bay ..... Valley of the Rhymney . Bishopston Valley .... The Garth Mountain Mewslade Bay .... Geological Section from the Black Mounta marthenshire to the sea near Bridgend Sandstone at Fairoak Farm, Roath Park Penarth Cliffs Section of the Lower Lias at Lavernock The Taff Ogmore Castle Kenfig Pool Penarth . Dunraven Bay Worms Head . Rhossilli Bay . Oxwich Marsh Mumbles Head Port Eynon Bay A Glamorganshire Farm Briton Ferry . Car- PAGE 4 7 9 1 1 14 15 18 ^9 24 26 31 34 41 47 50 53 54 58 61 62 76 84 ILLUSTRATIONS Oakwood Pit, Maesteg . Coal Trains on their way to the Docks Limestone Quarry, near Porthcawl . Cardiff Docks ..... Barry Docks ..... King's Dock, Swansea Caerphilly Castle .... Neolithic Implements found at Cowbridge St Lythan's Cromlech King -Arthur's Stone Ogam Stone ..... The Goblin Stone .... Roman baths, Gelligaer . Llandaff Cathedral .... Ewenny Priory Church . St Illtyd's, Llantwit Major Newton Church .... Churchyard Cross, St Donat's Fonmon Castle .... Oystermouth Castle Coity Castle and Church Old Town Hall, Llantwit Major . Sker House ..... Tudor Gardens, St Donat's Castle . Neath Abbey ..... Cutting on the Road near the Mumbles Porthkerry Viaduct .... Cardiff Town Hall and Law Courts Cowbridge Grammar School . University College, Cardiff Admiral Sir Thomas Button . Beau Nash ..... John Crichton Stuart, 2nd Marquis of Bute PAGE 88 91 93 :oo 02 04 1 2 21 23 25 26 27 29 35 37 38 39 40 42 = 43 44 ^47 :48 49 51 53 56 61 63 64 67 69 71 ILLUSTRATIONS XI PAGE Aberthaw Village .... • 173 Bridgend ..... • 175 Cheriton Church .... . 177 Merthyr Tydfil .... . 183 Swansea ...... . 187 MAPS AND DIAGRAMS Glamorganshire, Physical ..... Fy-ont Co'uer „ Geological ..... Back Conner Geological Table ...... to face ^.17 England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall . . 64 Sketch Map showing the Chief Castles of Wales and the Border Counties ..... to face p. 141 Diagrams . . . . . . . . .190 The illustrations on pages 19, 121, 123, 127, and 129 are from blocks kindly lent by the Cardiff Naturalists' Society. The Ogam Stone on p. 126 is sketched from an illustration in the Archaeohgia Camhrensh. The Geological Section on p. 18 is from a map by Messrs G. Philip and Son. The illustrations on pages 4, 7, 11, 15, 24, 34, 47, 50, si>^ 54, 58, 62, 100, 102, 104, 112, 125, 135, 137, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144, 148, 149, 153, 156, 161, 173, 175, and 187, are reproduced from photographs by Messrs Frith & Co.; those on pp. 41, 76, 88, 93, 138, 147, and 163, are from photographs by Mr F. Evans; those on pp. 9, 14, 31, 84, and 164, are from photographs by Mr Osborne Long; those on pp. 61, 91, and 151, are reproduced by permission of the G. W. Rly. Co.; those on pp. 167 and 171 are from photographs by Mr Alfred Freke; that on p. 26 is from a photograph by Mr W. T. Cooper; and that on p. 183 is from a photograph by the Royal Photographic Co. The sketch map of the castles is from a drawing by Mr C. J. Evans. I. County and Shire. The name Glamorgan. " County " and " shire " are now loosely used as equivalent terms. Originally they admitted of a distinc- tion. "Shire" is an Anglo-Saxon word which at first denoted a portion of land " shorn " (for the words have the same derivation) from a larger territory for the satisfaction of a particular tribe. With the consolidation of the Anglo- Saxon rule the word lost its early tribal significance, and came to mean merely a territorial division for the administration of justice and for the collection of taxes. The " shire-reeve " (sheriff) was the official responsible for the discharge of both these functions. As Wales was never conquered by the Saxons, "shire" in the early sense of the word had no application to the Principality. Our Teutonic ancestors referred to its inaccessible fastnesses as " Wales," the land of strangers. The Welsh called it "Cymru," the land of fellow-country- men. It retained its ancient political independence until it was conquered piecemeal by the Normans; and when it was eventually annexed by the English crown and parcelled out after the English model into shires, the latter word had long acquired its purely administrative meaning. w. G. I 2 GLAMORGANSHIRE Glamorganshire, though regarded from Norman times as a shire, had a much better claim to be called a county, for the latter term was of Norman introduction, and represented the Norman method of local government. Though the Normans retained the English form of political administration, they altered its character. Their method of government was less democratic and more arbitrary. The land passed by right of conquest from the people into the hands of the king, who let it out on feudal tenure to his counts, and each shire in consequence became a county. As the predominant feature of Norman rule was government by force, the natives were assessed in men as well as in money, and " county " and " shire " became the names of the same area in its military and civil aspects. The sheriff collected the king's revenue and administered the king's justice, and the count com- manded the king's men. In the border counties the control of the Crown was much weaker, and in Wales, where dominion was gradually acquired by private ad- venture, it scarcely existed at all. The conquered terri- tory was looked upon more or less as the personal property of the lord who secured it and he governed it much as he pleased. As Glamorganshire on its acquisition by the Normans obtained a regular administration of justice nominally under the jurisdiction of the crown, it was technically regarded as a shire, though it was really ruled by its lord, whose officer its sheriff was. In the reign of Henry VIII, when the whole of Wales was formally incorporated with the English dominions and divided into shires, the boundaries of the original COUNTY AND SHIRE 3 county of Glamorgan underwent a slight alteration. The limits of the Norman lordship had followed the lines of the old Welsh kingdom of Morganwg, and had extended from the Usk to the Tawe. Under the Tudor readjustment the district of Gwynllwg between the Usk and the Rhymney was thrown into the newly-formed shire of Monmouth, and by way of compensation the lordship of Gower was added to the county of Gla- morgan. Under the modern system of local government, "county" and "shire" are again beginning to lose their acquired identity. The " shire " is now little more than a geographical division, and the county has once more become the real administrative area. Their limits are no longer quite the same. From the county of Glamorgan have been taken away the county boroughs of Cardiff, Swansea, and Merthyr, which for governmental purposes are independent units, though they still belong geographi- cally to Glamorganshire. The name " Glamorgan " is merely a popular cor- ruption of Gwlad-Morgan^ " the land of Morgan," an appellation which it derived from one of its early princes. Its alternative title Morganwg 2irosQ from a common Welsh habit of designating a territory by adding wg to the name of its ruler. I — 2 GLAMORGANSHIRE 3. General Characteristics. The predominant feature of Glamorganshire is its commercial importance. It is not only the foremost county in Wales, but one of the richest provinces in the kingdom. Its industrial development has been one of Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle the v^^onders of the age. A century and a half ago half of the shire was a highland wilderness valuable only to the sportsman and the sheep farmer. To-day these once solitary wastes are some of the most thickly populated districts in Britain. The physical features of the county have conspired to give it this leading commercial posi- tion. Like the rest of Wales it is in parts exceedingly GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5 mountainous. The hills lie piled up in great masses across half the county, but instead of barring its progress, they have been the chief cause of its phenomenal prosperity. Figuratively speaking, they have proved to be mountains of gold, for they are a vast storehouse of mineral treasure. Their yield of coal is prodigious, and there are immense deposits of limestone, as well as some iron ore. Second only in importance to the mountains is the extensive sea-board w^ith v^hich the county is fringed. Though a great part of the coast is commercially useless, and the number of its natural harbours are comparatively few, yet it possesses several tidal estuaries which engineer- ing skill has converted into docks, and the Glamorganshire ports are some of the busiest shipping centres in the kingdom. But its rich mineral deposits are not the only source of wealth which the county possesses. Glamorgan was once famous for its fertility, and to-day it does not alto- gether belie its early agricultural reputation. Between the hills and the sea rolls a wide undulating plain which provides extensive pasturage for cattle, and furnishes an admirable soil for the cultivation of wheat. And the hills, though of little use in themselves for agricultural purposes, nevertheless form a serviceable screen for the crops in the lowlands. Glamorganshire, besides being a wealthy and bountiful land, abounds also in historical interests. Few counties possess so many memorials of antiquity. Everywhere are to be found traces of primitive life, as well as of the civilisation which succeeded it. On the hills are the 6 GLAMORGANSHIRE earthworks and sepulchral monuments of the disinherited Celts, and the plains are studded with the ruined castles of the invaders who supplanted them. Artistically, too, the county is not without its attrac- tions, though it has sacrificed much of its former beauty to its commercial prosperity. It no longer preserves the clear streams and wooded dells for which it was once famous, for the rivers are polluted and the valleys are sombre and sunless. The smoke of innumerable collieries and furnaces clouds the atmosphere, and the once luxuriant vegetation has been replaced by tiers of cottages; but outside the industrial districts many of its charms survive. The hills remain massive and majestic, and their rugged outlines and far-reaching prospects still charm the lover of scenery. The most fascinating region is the coast, which in places is quite remarkable for its grandeur. The Gower peninsula is in this respect especially notable. Its precipitous cliffs and sandy bays are nowhere surpassed for picturesque effectiveness. 3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. Glamorganshire is situated at the south-east extremity of Wales, and is the most southerly of all the Welsh counties. It lies between 5 1^24' and 50° 48' N. latitude, and be- tween 3° 5' and 4° 19' W. longitude. Its boundaries are partly artificial and partly natural. On the south it is washed entirely by the waters of the Bristol Channel, which separates it from the opposite coasts of Somerset pq 8 GLAMORGANSHIRE and Devon ; on the north it is bordered by Breconshire and Carmarthenshire ; on the east the Rhymney river forms the natural h'ne of demarcation betv^^een it and Monmouthshire; and on the west it is partly surrounded by the combined waters of the Bristol Channel and the Burry Inlet, and partly adjoins Carmarthenshire, from which it is divided by the Loughor river. Except on the north its outlines are well defined, and its bold projection into the Bristol Channel gives it a marked individuality. The eastern boundary scarcely needs tracing in detail, for it follows strictly the course of the Rhymney river from its source, near Troed-y- Milwyr, the northern extremity of the county, to its mouth, two miles east of Cardiff. The western border-line may be described with equal brevity. It begins north- wards near Pantyffynnon in the valley of the Loughor, and descends the stream till it falls into the Burry Inlet at Loughor. The northern frontier lies amongst the mountains, and except for the fact that the border-line roughly corresponds to the northern limits of the South Wales coalfield, there are few natural features along its course to serve as landmarks, and it is chiefly an imaginary line across the hills ; but it occasionally acquires sharper definition by pursuing the beds of such highland water-courses as trend more or less eastwards and westwards. The chief valleys it presses into its service are the upper reaches of the lesser Taff, and the Cynon, the Sychnant Gorge, the Perddyn, and the upper Amman. It abruptly leaves the latter, however, at Cwm Amman, and cedes a rectangular corner to Breconshire SIZE SHAPE BOUNDARIES 9 by turning directly southwards to Nant Melyn, at the head of Cwm-y-Gors, and then pursuing its way across the mountains to the Cathan valley, which conducts it to meet the western boundary near Pantyffynnon. The places which roughly indicate its course from east to west are Troed-y-Melwyr, Pontsticill, Vaynor, Pant, Llwycoed, Hirwain, Pont Nedd Fychan, Gaer encamp- Valley of the Rhymney {showing the Llanbradach viaduct) ment on the Perddyn, Ystalyfera, Brynamman, Cwm Amman, Nant Melyn, and Pantyffynnon. A line con- necting these outposts (some of which lie just outside the county border) would roughly describe it. In outline the county is exceedingly irregular, and in shape it somewhat resembles a shoulder of mutton with 10 GLAMORGANSHIRE the knuckle pointing down channel, and representing the peninsula of Gower. Its extreme length from the Rhymney river near Ruperra to Worms Head is 54 miles, and its greatest width from Rhoose Point to Old Pitwell near Dowlais is 29 miles. It has a total area of 811 square miles or 518,865 acres; and in point of size ranks second amongst the Welsh counties, being exceeded only by Carmarthenshire. Since its limits were originally fixed by Act of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII, its boundaries have remained unaltered. 4. Surface and General Features. We generally speak of a county as flat, or mountainous, or diversified ; but it is impossible to sum up the charac- teristics of Glamorganshire in any one comprehensive phrase. A glance at the map will show that it exhibits not only great irregularity of outline, but remarkable in- equality of surface. Few counties show within similar limits such striking contrasts. So diverse are the features presented that different districts scarcely appear to belong to the same land. Soil, surface, flora, climate, and pro- ductions are all dissimilar, and even the inhabitants display divergent characteristics. The county naturally falls into three well-marked divisions, whose diflPerences are so striking that they have from time immemorial been regarded as three separate localities. There is a mountainous region in the north, an undulating champaign in the south, and an irregular SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 11 and hilly peninsula in the west. The northern uplands were anciently called Blaenau Morganwg^ the table-land in the south was named Bro Morganwg^ and the western peninsula was spoken of as Gwyr or Gower. Bro Mor- ganwg is still frequently referred to as T Fro or the Vale. A line drawn from east to west across the centre of the county would divide the mountains from the plain. Bishopston Valley Gower might almost be regarded as a continuation of the plain out of which the waters of Swansea Bay have washed the connecting territory. Bro Morganwg comprises a tract of undulating land some 10 miles broad by 22 miles long. It is bordered on the south by the Bristol Channel and extends north- wards as far as Llantrissant ; eastwards and westwards 12 GLAMORGAISrSHIRE it stretches from the Rhymney to the Ogmore. Shut in between the mountains and the sea, it' forms the Glamorganshire lowlands ; but its designation of the Vale of Glamorgan is somewhat misleading, for it is in reality an undulating and hilly plateau ranging from 50 to 200 feet in altitude and rising in the centre to a table-land almost double that height. Seawards it terminates in a line of precipitous cliflFs. It is watered by its own streams, which have scored its surface with a number of valleys, and it enjoys its own climate. Except for the commerce which collects round the sea- ports of Cardiff and Barry, it is almost entirely devoted to agricultural purposes, for which it is extremely suitable. It has been termed the "Garden of Wales." Though fairly well timbered, it is not sufficiently varied in feature to be strikingly picturesque, except in the centre, where the green monotony of the landscape is broken by the pleasant valley of the Daw. But what it lacks in scenery it makes up for by the number of its medieval antiquities. Nearly every village has the crum- bling remains of a castle. Blaenau Morganwg is very different, the transition from the plain to the highlands being exceedingly abrupt. The mountains rise like a wall round the northern edge of the Vale. Their general aspect is stern and forbidding, but the real beauty of the county was formerly to be found in their silent and solitary recesses. Everywhere the hills are furrowed with deep and secluded valleys which were once luxuriant with foliage and lively with the splash of falling torrents. Now everything is SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 13 changed. The district has become one vast workshop, and the landscape is blurred with the smoke of innumer- able collieries and furnaces. The mountain system of Glamorganshire is extremely- complicated. Broadly speaking all the Glamorganshire hills are buttresses to the still higher mountains of Brecon- shire. Though bold and precipitous they lack individuality, and baffle the observer by their multitudinous array. Their massed effect is, however, very striking. Roughly, these highlands fall into three principal groups, which for the sake of convenience may be termed the eastern, western, and central ranges. The central block is in plan a wedge- shaped mass of hills enclosed between the Nedd (Neath) and Cynon rivers. Right in the north at the apex of the triangle formed by these divergent streams rises the lofty summit of Craig-y-Llyn (1969 ft.), the monarch of Glamorganshire mountains, and radiating more or less southwards like the ribs of a fan from this common centre are a number of almost equally high spurs, Cefn Gwyngul (1489 ft.), Cefn Tadfernol (1692 ft.) and Cefn Rhondda (1567 ft.), Mynydd William Merrick (1769 ft.), Crug-yr-Afon and Mynydd Llangeinor (1859 ^^- ^^^ 1755 ft.), Mynydd Caerau (1823 f^O? ^"^ ^^^^ Mawr (1560 ft.). On either side of this central cluster of mountains are a number of parallel ridges forming the eastern and western systems. Beyond the Cynon in the east, as we pass westward from the Rhymney, are Cefn Brithdir (1460 ft.), Cefn Gelligaer (1570 ft.), Cefn Merthyr (1292 ft.), and Mynydd Aberdare and Mynydd Merthyr (1346 ft. and 1336 ft.). On the west, on the 14 GLAMORGANSHIRE other side of the Nedd, is the Graig-lwyd group, which at its highest point attains 1575 ft., Mynydd March Hywel (1371 ft.), Mynydd Alt-y-grug (1113 ft.), Cefti Gwrhyd (968 ft.), M;ynydd-y-Garth (1057 ft.), Bryn Mawr (1153 ft.), Mynydd-y-Gwair (1226 ft.), and Graig Fawr (883 ft.). Though this is a tolerably complete enumeration of the various folds into which the northern The Garth Mountain surface of the county is crumpled, it is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of all the hills which the county contains. Two eminences which are very conspicuous from the lowlands should be mentioned. They are the Garth mountain (1009 ft.), which lies to the north-west of Cardiff, and Mynydd Margam (1409 ft.), a very interesting hill which rises immediately behind the village SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 15 of that name. The summits of all these hills are wild and desolate, and their bleak solitudes offer a striking contrast to the teeming valleys at their feet. Though a source of wealth to the mine owner, they are used by the farmer chiefly as sheep-runs. They abound everywhere in prehistoric antiquities. Gower, our third division, forms the western portion of Glamorganshire, and in its general features is sharply Mewslade Bay differentiated from the rest of the county. It exhibits, however, the same characteristic contrast between hill and plain. There is a mountainous district in the north which falls within the limits of the coalfield, and is now one of the most populous and busy localities in the shire ; and there is a sea-bound pastoral district in the south. The name is now generally restricted to this rocky peninsula which forms such an eccentric termination to the county 16 GLAMORGANSHIRE on the west. It is a wild and solitary land almost sur- rounded by the sea. In measurement it is 1 8 miles long and 8 miles broad, and has an acreage of 8o square miles. It is chiefly remarkable for its bold and diversified coast scenery. Few districts can show such an extensively serrated shore, for it has 45 miles of sea-board. Compared with the varied beauty of the cliffs, the interior is somewhat bald and featureless. A low ridge of hills — Cefn-y-Bryn — some 600 feet in height, runs diagonally across the penin- sula, and in the extreme west rises a ridge of bare and breezy downs of equal altitude. Though woods occa- sionally clothe the more sheltered sides of the cliffs, Gower as a whole is treeless. With the exception of one or two pretty glens its valleys and watercourses are few. Agriculture is the prevailing occupation, but the fields yield scanty crops compared with the prodigal harvests in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is in consequence a sparsely populated region, and the villages are remote and little visited except by tourists. Like the rest of the county the peninsula abounds in antiquities. 5. Geology and SoiL The geological character of Glamorgan is comparatively simple. All the rocks have been formed by the action of water ; there are none of igneous origin. Apart from the alluvial deposits along the estuaries of the rivers, there are only five systems represented within the county, the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Triassic, and Jurassic. Names op Systems Subdivisions Characters of Rocks Recent Pleistocene Pliocene Miocene Eocene Cretaceous Jurassic Triassic Permian Carboniferous Devonian > ^ < Silurian Ordovician Cambrian Fre-Cambrian Metal Age Deposits Neolithic ,, Palaeolithic ,, Glacial ,, ' Cromer Series Weybourne Crag Chillesford and Norwich Crags Red and Walton Crags V Coralline Crag Absent from Britain Fluviomarine Beds of Hampshire Bagshot Beds London Clay Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich and Reading "■ "let Sands [Groups , Upper Greensand and Gault Lower Greensand Weald Clay Hastings Sands Purbeck Beds Portland Beds Kimmeridge Clay Corallian Beds Oxford Clay and Kellaways Rock Cornbrash Forest Marble Great Oolite with Stonesfield Slate Inferior Oolite Lias — Upper, Middle, and Lower Rhaetic Keuper Marls Keuper Sandstone Upper Bunter Sandstone Bunter Pebble Beds Lower Bunter Sandstone Magnesian Limestone and Sandstone Marl Slate Lower Permian Sandstone Coal Measures Millstone Grit Mountain Limestone Basal Carboniferous Rocks Upper Mid Lower Devonian and Old Red Sand- stone Ludlow Beds Wenlock Beds Llandovery Beds Caradoc Beds Llandeilo Beds Arenig Beds Treinadoc Slates Lingula Flags Menevian Beds Harlech Grits and Llanberis Slates No dehnite classification yet made Superficial Deposits Sands chiefly Clays and Sands chiefly Chalk at top Sandstones, Mud and Clays below Shales, Sandstones and Oolitic Limestones Red Sandstones and Maris, Gypsum and Salt Red Sandstones and Magnesian Limestone Sandstones, Shales and Coals at top Sandstones in middle Limestone and Shales below Red Sandstones, Shales, Slates and Lime- stones Sandstones, Shales and Thin Limestones Shales, Slates, Sandstones and Thin Limestones Slates and Sandstones i Sandstones, -J Slates and I Volcanic Rocks GEOLOGY AND SOIL 17 But the distribution of these various formations is so extremely unequal that the list may be virtually reduced to two — the Carboniferous and the Jurassic. Of these two the Carboniferous so largely predominates that seven- eighths of the surface of the shire comes under this classification. It will be seen that the geological map in its main features roughly follows the geographical divisions of the county. The whole of the northern high- lands consists of Coal Measures ; the Vale of G morgan is Lias ; and the peninsula of Gower is Mountain Limestone. The Silurian, Devonian, and Triassic forma- tions are only sparsely represented. Their rocks occur in patches, and form no very striking feature in the geological field. Taken in the order of their formation, the various systems will be found distributed over the following areas : — The Silurian rocks, though occurring in such large masses elsewhere in South Wales, are only very scantily exhibited in Glamorganshire. They are found on the extreme eastern verge of the county and nowhere else. On the banks of the Rhymney there is a small bed of shales, sandstones, and mudstones, which projects across the border from Monmouthshire. The Old Red Sandstone, which forms the bulk of the adjoining counties of Breconshire and Monmouth- shire, continues as far as the river TaflF, dips right under Glamorganshire in a south-westerly direction, and only reappears within the county as a small outcrop between Cardiff and Bridgend, and as a range of hills running across the surface of the peninsula of Gower. The w. G. 2 O 0^ •^:^ o « 4) O to -I O 5 T3 C IS pq CTS (U C