LAKE OF BEER IN IRELAND. 163 



looked me full in the face, and all as one as said, " Master, where 

 are you bringing me, fool as you are, risking a good gig, and 

 better mare, in such a dangerous enterprize;" and, indeed, at 

 this very instant, the foreboding looks of my worthy friend and 

 long tried companion, seemed realized ; for just as we were at- 

 tempting to pass what was once designed to be a bridge, the poor 

 animal's foot forced its way through an orifice in the arch, and if 

 the poor creature had not been cool and steady, her broken leg 

 would have been the punishment of my rashness ; as it was, her 

 torn knee will long remind me of the Esk mountain. Were it 

 not for these risks and difficulties, the scenery that now surrounded 

 us was of a very grand character : the glen, the lakes, the conti- 

 nuous chain of barrier mountains, extending as far as the eye could 

 reach, out into the Atlantic. On the top of this lofty chain, ran 

 the boundary between Cork and Kerry. It was a day befitting 

 the season, a fine but characteristic April hour — the atmosphere 

 perfectly clear — the sun now brilliant, now obscured. Here a 

 deep valley laughing in the sunshine, and reflecting from its cen- 

 tral lake, the forms of its surrounding mountains, and all the co- 

 lours and faces of its overhanging precipices; farther off, towards 

 the west, you might see a hail storm gather on the head of a 

 mountain peak, and the morning sun engendering the half formed 

 arch of the rainbow, on the skirts of the approaching shower ; 

 which however, took a direction along the hills towards the south, 

 and left us to enjoy the clearness of our prospect, and the glad 

 company of the morning's brightness. 



In these mountains, it is said, there is a lake for every day in 

 the year — high or low, or deep in the recesses of the valley, or 

 sparkling on the hill side, the higher you ascend the more you 

 see of them ; and the varieties of their forms, positions, and accom- 

 paniments, give a wonderful interest to this otherwise toilsome 

 march into Kerry. If I were a young man and liad health and 

 time, how I should like to ramble from valley to valley, and from 

 lake to lake, filling my mind with the magnificent picture this 

 Alpine territory presented, and my soul with the higher and more 

 adoring conceptions of the Almighty God, " who, by his strength, 

 settest fast these mountains.'^ To the left of our road, as we 

 wound up the long ascents of hill rising over hill, I was shown a 

 lake, one of the loveliest we had yet seen : perfectly circular, it 

 lay in the bosom of a chain of peaked and precipitous hills — it 

 reposed within the circle of their protecting arms, and sparkled 

 like a looking-glass in the sun, ^' Once upon a time," said one 



