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Aber.—This station on the Chester and Holyhead Railway
is in no sense a centre for mountaineers, though a good deal of work may
be done from it. We ourselves 'in our hot youth, when George the Third was
King,' and a dozen miles extra tramping at the end of a day was a mere trifle,
managed to do many of the mountains of North Wales from it.
Its only attraction is a pretty valley, at the head of which
are some not very striking waterfalls. The surrounding rocks have, however, been
the scene of a surprising number of accidents. Most of these have been caused by
slipping on the path which crosses the steep slope of the eastern bank and leads
to the head of the main fall. Such was the fatal accident on April 13, 1873, to
Mr. F. T. Payne, a barrister. His sight was very defective, and this fact goes
far towards accounting for the accident.
In 1876 a very similar case occurred. A young man called
Empson, who was staying at Llanfairfechan, was killed in descending, apparently
at the very same spot.
In April 1885 Mr. Maitland Wills, described as an expert
mountaineer, while walking with two friends from Capel Curig to Aber, fell near
the same spot, and was instantly killed.
In August of the same year Mr. Paget, the Hammersmith Police
Magistrate, fell and was severely hurt. And these by no means exhaust the list
of casualties, which is, perhaps, only second in length to that of Snowdon
itself. It may be mentioned that there is a climb or two on the west and steeper
side of the falls.
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