Cylchgronau Cymru

FOURTH SERIES.—No. I. JANUARY, 1870. AN OUTLINE OF THE TOPOGRAPHY OF GLAMORGAN. [Reprinted, by permission, from the Gentleman's Magazine for Jan. 1861.] [We have to apologise to members for not having laid before them, at an earlier period, the following interesting and important paper.—Ed. Arch. Camb.~] It will be apparent to any one who inspects a map of South Wales upon which the mountains and rivers are strongly delineated, that the county of Glamorgan is but a part, though a very considerable part, of a great natural division of the country, portions of which are included within the adjacent shires of Monmouth, Brecknock, and Caermarthen. The district thus defined by nature, is contained within the water-courses of the Usk and the Towy, whose waters, rising near Trecastle at a thousand feet above the sea level, flow, on the one hand towards the east, and on the other towards the west, to fall into the Bristol Channel at Newport, and in the Bay of Caer¬ marthen. Nor is the tract thus water-girdled less obviously de¬ fined by the lofty chain, which rises immediately within the rivers, and forms for the most part their southern boundary. Commencing above the Usk, near Newport and Pontypool, at an elevation of about 1,500 feet, the range trends by the north and west, including the 4th ser., vol. i. 1