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Lake of Killarney
the great fall, as it runs in a semicircle, is reckoned to be about 300 feet. Below the fall, in the holes of the rocks, are great plenty of eels, which the Indians and French catch with their hands. Every day, when the sun shines, may be seen from ten A. M. till two P. M. below the fall, a glorious rainbow, and sometimes two, one within the other. The more vapours that float, the brighter and clearer is the rainbow. When the wind carries the vapours from that place, the rainbow is gone, but appears again as soon as new vapours arise. From the fall to the landing above it, where the canoes from the Lake Erie put ashore, (or from the fall to the upper end of the carrying place,) is half a mile. Lower than this, the canoes dare not venture. They have often found below the fall, fragments of human bodies, that have unhappily been precipitated over the fall. The French say, that they have often thrown great trees into the water above, to see them carried over this precipice with the vast body of water, which nothing can resist: these go down with surprising swiftness, but can never be seen afterwards; from whence has arisen the conjecture that there was a bottomless abyss just under the fall. But the most reasonable supposition is, that, by the powerful agency of the water, they were broken into such diminutive fragments, as to render it impossible that they should ever be recognized for the same. The rock of the fall is composed of a gray limestone.
We shall next take a view of some of the most remarkable lakes; and the first we would notice, is the LAKE OF KIL- LARNEY. This is a beautiful lake of Ireland, in the county of Kerry, otherwise called LoUGH LEAN, from its being surrounded by high mountains. It is divided into three parts, called the Lower, Middle, and Upper Lake. The northern, or lower lake, is six miles in length, and from three to four in breadth. On the side of one of the mountains is O'Sullivan's Cascade, which falls into the lake with a roar that strikes the timid with awe. The view of this sheet of water is uncommonly fine; it appears as if it were descending from an arch of wood, which overhangs it above seventy feet in height. The promontory of Mucruss, which divides the upper from the lower lake, is quite enchanting; and a road is carried through the centre of its promontory, which unfolds all the interior beauties of the place. Among the distant mountains, Turk appears an object of magnificence; while Mangerton's more lofty, though less interesting summit, soars above the whole. The passage to the upper lake is round the extremity of Mucruss, which confines it on one side, and the approaching mountains on the other. Here is a celebrated rock, called the Eagle's Nest, which produces wonderful echoes; the