74 On the Lake of Zirknitz in Carniota. 



knew well how to employ for their advantage what has just 

 been said regarding the lake and its flowing off. Their strict 

 rules forbade them to partake of a meat diet, and hence a 

 good take of fish at all times of the year was of great con- 

 sequence to them. The drying up of the lake was thus parti- 

 cularly inconvenient ; and they, therefore, endeavoured to pre- 

 vent it, by covering, when the basin was empty, all the open- 

 ings with iron grates, then placing on these several slabs of 

 stone secured by means of clay, and filling up the cavities with 

 earth. In this manner they often succeeded in actually keep- 

 ing the lake at its high level for years together, which could 

 not have been possible had Valvassor's view been accurate. 

 The Monks sought out most indefatigably all apertures which 

 presented themselves from time to time, in order to stop them 

 up anew, until the dissolution of the fraternity left the lake to 

 its fate. 



The opinion now given is, undoubtedly, the correct one, and 

 ought to be made generally known. But it ought likewise to be 

 remarked, that Tobias Gruber, who visited the Lake of Zirknitz 

 in April 1773, expressed essentially the same view in his 

 " Brief e Hydrographischen und Physikalisclien Inhalts am 

 Krain^'' pubHshed at Vienna in 1781. His full description of 

 the lake, which is illustrated by plates, coincides perfectly with 

 that given by M. Knopfer. According to him, it is, nwre par- 

 ticularly, two large caverns at the foot of the mountain Jator- 

 nik (Jauernik)^ called Vranja Jama^ and Sucha Duha (Seka 

 Dulka)^ from which the water, when much rain has fallen on 

 the mountains, or much snow has been melted there, rushes 

 out with great violence and hastens to the lake ; and in the 

 same manner, according to the same author, it again flows away 

 through many small cavities, but especially through two passages 

 at the east end of the lake, the larger and smaller Karlauza 

 {Mala and Velka Karlouza). But Gruber likewise only saw 

 the lake at the period of its ebb ; and it were nmch to be 

 wished that a naturalist should be a witness of its flow. — {Pog- 

 gendorff^a Annalen^ 1840.) 



