On the Lake of Zirknitz in Carniola, 73 



large deep lake, which would only have found an exit at a 

 height of several hundred feet on the north-eastern side, had 

 it not been for the loose and perforated ground which admitted 

 of a subterranean passage [for the water. When the mass of 

 water flowing into it is smaller, as in the height of summer, and 

 when, consequently, the subterranean flowing ofi* is greater 

 than the amount collected, the lake falls, like a pond which 

 has been artificially emptied, and so much the more rapidly in 

 proportion to the smallness of the water poured in. If at this 

 time there should be violent storms or continued rain, the 

 sinking of the water of the lake ceases, and the level of the 

 water either remains for some time without a perceptible dif- 

 ference, or it even becomes higher, and anew fills the whole 

 basin. It must hence be evident, that no fixed time can be 

 assigned, at which the water of the lake flows away, or again 

 fills its basin. It can as easily be understood, that the water 

 forcing itself through the'subterranean canals, should more and 

 more enlarge the cavities in the soft limestone ; should separate 

 smaller or larger portions from the walls of these cavities, and 

 carry them away ; and should thus, at narrow places, interrupt 

 the channels for a period. At present, the water of the lake, 

 when the sinking begins, flows away in a much shorter time 

 than it did 150 years ago, and it likewise takes a longer time 

 than at that period to fill the lake. We may, therefore, con- 

 clude with great probability, nay, almost with certainty, that, 

 in the course of time, though probably not for centuries, the 

 Lake of Zirknitz will altogether cease to exist. 



The author has the praiseworthy desire to correct the won- 

 derful narrations which occur in the older works by Sartori, 

 Valvassor, &c., and which have been, within a few years, re- 

 peated by some authors; and especially to contradict the 

 statement that the ebb and flow of the lake are somewhat pe- 

 riodical — that they are in some degree regulated by the day 

 and hour, and that the water makes its appearance from the 

 same apertures by which it flowed ofil With this object in 

 view, he adds the following information. The Carthusians of 

 Freudenthal, to whom the Princes of Eggenberg, at that time 

 lords of Zirknitz, had, towards the end of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, relinquished and ceded the right of fishing in the lake, 



