prodigious mass of mountain, of a gently swelling outline
and soft appearance, varying as the sun or clouds change their position,
but never becoming rugged or threatening to the eye.

The variations are best seen by rowing near the shore, when every stroke
of the oar gives a new outline, and fresh tints to please the eye: but
for one great impression, row about two miles from the shore of Glena; at
that distance the inequalities in the surface are no longer seen, but the
eye is filled with so immense a range of wood, crowned with a mountain in
perfect unison with itself, that objects, whose character is that of
beauty, are here, from their magnitude, truly magnificent, and attended
with a most forcible expression.--Returned to Mucruss.

September 30. This morning I had dedicated to the ascent of Mangerton,
but his head was so enshrouded in clouds, and the weather so bad, that I
was forced to give up the scheme: Mr. Herbert has measured him with very
accurate instruments, of which he has a great collection, and found his
height eight hundred and thirty-five yards above the level of the sea.
The Devil's Punch-bowl, from the description I had of it, must be the
crater of an exhausted volcano: there are many signs of them about
Killarney, particularly vast rocks on the sides of mountains, in streams,
as if they had rolled from the top in one direction. Brown stone rocks
are also sometimes found on lime-quarries, tossed thither perhaps in some
vast eruption.

In my way from Killarney to Castle Island, rode into Lord Kenmare's park,
from whence there is another beautiful view of the lake, different from
many of the preceding; there is a broad margin of cultivated country at
your feet, to lead the eye gradually in the lake, which exhibits her
islands to this point more distinctly than to any other, and the
backgrounds of the mountains of Glena and Tomys give a bold relief.

Upon the whole, Killarney, among the lakes that I have seen, can scarcely
be said to have a rival. The extent of water in Loch Earne is much
greater, the islands more numerous, and some scenes near Castle Caldwell
of perhaps as great magnificence. The rocks at Keswick are more sublime,
and other lakes may have circumstances in which they are superior; but
when we consider the prodigious woods of Killarney, the immensity of the
mountains, the uncommon beauty of the promontory of Mucruss and the Isle
of Innisfallen, the character of the islands, the si