ion, which is not removed by an acquaintance with those natural
causes, by which Mr. Swinburn and other foreign travellers, who have
witnessed the scene, are able to account for it.

The lakes of Ireland are equally susceptible of producing those vivid
delusions, and the imagination of the people, as lively as that of the
Sicilians, clothes them with an equal reality. There is scarcely a loch
in that country, in which the remains of cities have not been at various
times discovered; and many men have been met with who would solemnly
swear they saw, and who no doubt did see, representations of them in
certain states of the atmosphere. The most celebrated is that which
occurs on the lake of Killarney. This romantic sheet of water is bounded
on one side by a semi-circle of rugged mountains, and on the other by a
flat morass, and the vapour generated in the mass, and broken by the
mountains, continually represent the most fantastic objects; and often
those on shore are transferred to the water, like the Fata Morgana.

Many of the rocks are distinguished for their marked and lengthened
echoes, and the structure, which in acoustics reflects sounds to the
ear, from a point from whence they did not come, reflects images on the
eye, from a place very different from where the objects stood which
produced them. Frequently men riding along shore, are seen as if they
were moving across the lake, and this has given rise to the story of
O'Donougho. This celebrated chieftain was, according to the tradition of
the country, endued with the gift of magic; and, on one occasion, his
lady requested him to change his shape, that she might see a proof of
it. He complied, on condition that she would not be terrified, as such
an effect on her must prove fatal to him. Her mind failed her, however,
in the experiment, and at the sight of some horrible figure he assumed,
she shrieked, and he disappeared through the window of his castle, which
overhung the lake. From that time he continues an enchanted being,
condemned to ride a horse, shod with silver, over the surface of the
lake, till his horse's shoes are worn out. On every May morning he is
visible, and crowds assemble on the shore to see him. Many affirm they
have seen him; and one person relates many particulars of his
apparition, that the deception must have proceeded from some real
object, a man riding along shore, and transferred to the middle of the
water, by the optic delusion of the Fata