Complete your New Naturalist collection with Harper Collins's facsimile versions, which are printed on demand. The Snowdonia National Park was first published in 1966.
When the Snowdonia National Park was declared in 1956, it ensured the preservation for the naturalist of one of the best-known and best-loved regions of Britain.
Here, in an area not too vast to overawe the visitor, despite its scenic grandeur, is a great diversity of natural beauty: wooded valleys and waterfalls; the grassy slopes of Siabod and Moel Hebog; the crags and precipices of Glyder, Snowdon and Cader Idris; heather country on the Rhinogs; Morfa Harlech's dunes and sandy shores.
Not suprisingly, it is a region rich in wild life: pine martins and polecats still survive there, and the enthusiast may discover the rare Snowdon lily or watch the flight of clough or peregrine.
William Condry, who for years has explored Snowdonia and studied its natural history, traces the formation and geology of the region, showing how they are related to soil and vegetation, and these in turn to animal life; he describes the mountain country section by section; while for those whose interests are in a pass less than prehistoric, he gives a lively account of some previous travelers to North Wales.
The area dealt with by the present volume embraces the whole National Park, a much greater reach of country than until 1956 was covered by the name Snowdonia. Now, in addition to much of Caernarvonshire, it includes nearly the whole of Merioneth. The Snowdonia National Park thus replaces an earlier volume in this series in which the emphasis was on Caernarvonshire only.