Welsh Journals

shape, and its sides are covered with widely-flung screen beds. At its foot is a swamp choked up with long grass and marsh plants. This I have called, in the following list, the Bwllfa Swamp. Here most of my collecting time was spent, and one would have to travel far to find a place more picturesque than this combination of marsh and mountain. A narrow ravine, the Cwm Caseg, separates Mynydd Bwllfa from its neighbour, Mynydd Ton. In it there is a small marsh, in which some rare things occurred. In front of the Ton Mountain is the little Mynydd Maendy, covered with fields divided by straggling hedges, and chequered with low trees and bushes. On the oppo- site, or northern side of the Valley, rises the Craig-yr-Eglwys, at the foot of the western extremity of which nestles the Pentre Church. Immediately above the roof of this building rises a thick wood, composed chiefly of conifers. This is the only wood of any size near Ystrad. Perched half-way up the side of Craig-yr-Eglwys is a small copse of fir trees, probably the remnant of a large wood that once clothed the mountain side. Down the middle of the valley runs the little Rhondda river, winding its way to join the Taff, past green mountains and smoke-belching pits. One of the latter, the Gelli Pit, has in its neighbourhood a little bit of swampy ground, sprinkled with clumps of trees and bushes. Near this, on rather higher ground, is a small wood. This place, I believe, is sometimes known as Pont Rhondda. I have called it by that name when describing its fauna. My collecting was practically confined to this swamp, and wood, the Bwllfa mountain and swamp, Cwm Caseg, Craig- yr-Eglwys, and the Pentre wood. All these localities are within a mile-and-a-half of Ystrad railway station. In the October of that year, I spent a day of about seven hours on the sand hills at Aberavon. This is of course outside the Rhondda Valley. It is, I think, about the most productive locality I have ever visited, and further work there would, I am sure, turn up many new and rare species of spiders. I have combined the Aberavon records with those from the Rhondda, and publish both together in this list. Altogether 177 species