THE LAKES OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 12

THE LAKES OF IRELAND.

Tbb most considerable of the lakes are Lough Neagh, one of the largest in Europe, comprising in exteut 98.255 acres, its greatest depth in the centre being forty-five feet ; Lough Erne spangled with its innumerable islands ; Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly, in Ulstar ; Lough Corrib, Lough Mask, Lough Con, Lough Rea, and Allen in Connaught ; Lough Ograra, Lough Carra, Lough Lena, and Lough Derjf, in >'.unsterj Lough Ennel, Lough Foyle, and Lough Derreverragh, in Leinster. TUe petrifying quality of the waters of Lough Nea^h is one of those natural phenomena which has given ample exercise lo the reflection and speculation of the experimental philosopher. Wood deposited for a certain ueriod in this lake becomes stone by the total change of its iuter/ial configuration. Circumstances connected with this lake would lead to the conclusion that it ha<l its origin in volcanic eruption, but whether it occurred in the time of Partholonus, or in the sixth century, accor ling to the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry. who states th«t in a monastery on the continent a manuscipt exists {.iv ng an accounc of a fearful earthquake which then threw up the •ck jf Toome, and impeded the course of several rivers, which unvti i<* formed both Lougli Neagh and Lough Erne. Tnere is also a legend' connected with a holy well which overflowed its bounds in a mysterious manner, and inundated that tract of land which now forms the Lough. Towns, palaces, and temples were swallowed up, and the subject is thus beautifully alluded to by Moore : " On Lough Neagh's banks as the fisherman strays, Wheu the cold clear eve'a declining, He see- the round towers of other days, Id the waves beneath him shining." Lough Lene (the name in the Irish language for the Lake of Learning), but now better known as the Lakes of Killarney, bein* distinguished by the upper, the middle of Tore Lake, and the lower" which is the most extensive, the three bein? connected by a narrow channel. They are situated in the county Kerry, aad are commanded on the east and south by the mountains of Mangerton and Tore • on the west by that of Glena (beautiful Glena); on the north the country is level, stretching towards the town of Kallarney, which lies northeast. It is beyond the power of the artist's pencil or the poet's imagination to give even an idea of these charming lakes ; they were celebrated ages ago for their romantic beauty and soft bewitching scenery, and were styled the tenth wonder of Ireland. The surrounding mountains arc covered from their apex to their base with oaks, yew trees, evergreens, and the arbutus, which, although only a shrub in other countries, becomes here a tree, aud grows to the height of twenty feet [t bars leaves, evergreen, like those of the laurel, but towards the extremity they are purple ; its flowers hang in clusters like grnpoM, are white and of an agreeable flavor. Th^so present in their different stages of vegetation a delightful variety of colore, and form an amphitheatre which revives all the charms of sprinw in the depths of winter. Tne report of cascades falling from these mountains to mingle with the wnrers of the Jake beyond are repeated by a thousand echoes, and contribute considerably to the charms of VhildsUjhtfultetmWCtltioWielly.* *