310 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



The Kaudal Steig, Switzerland. 



islands rising out of their bosom, which add greatly to the effect of their appearance. 

 They are often small, generally transparent, placid, and solitary ; and, being altogether 

 without artificial embellishment, the naked grandeur of the engirdling cliffs renders them 

 far more impressive than those which are enriched with towns, and ornamented with 

 villas, like the lakes of Northern Italy. In Scotland, the Scandinavian peninsula, the 

 Alps, and Andes, many sheets of water are found set like gems among the mountains, 

 seldom visited except by the flocks of wild-fowl which float undisturbed upon their breast, 

 where the silence is rarely broken but by their cry, and the splash of the rills descending 

 into their basin. At the head of the river Kandal, in the Swiss canton of Berne, there is a 

 lake of this kind, formed by the aggregated waters of numerous springs, which pour their 

 torrents from the neighbouring mountains. The lakes of secondary regions are charac 

 terised by the softer beauties of the landscape, though not without bold and striking 

 features. The banks are gently undulating, and usually adorned by cultivation. Such is 

 the general aspect of the Italian, English, and Irish lakes ; those of Killarney, amid the 

 mountains of Kerry, in the sister island, being reinai'kable for their picturesqueness. 

 They are three in number, mutually connected, but varying to some extent in their 

 scenery. The upper lake lies in a hollow formed by some of the loftiest of the Irish 

 mountains, so that its character is in the highest degree magnificent and sublime ; but 

 softness and beauty are the prevailing attributes of the two others. Their banks exhibit 

 gentle swells covered with the freshest verdure, with lovely islands in their waters, upon 

 which are trees worthy of a primeval forest ; and it is in this contrast of the mild and 

 graceful with the wild and rugged, that the- chief charm of the Killarney lakes consists. 

 Those of alluvial districts have few external recommendations. Their shores are usually 

 low and level, and their waters are often stagnant, in many cases yielding unhealthy 

 exhalations from the marshes which form their borders. The South Baltic coast, that 

 about the mouths of the Nile and Mississippi, and the plains around the Caspian, abound 

 with these lakes, which commonly partake of the saltness of the contiguous seas. 



England presents few examples of lakes, and none of any considerable size, though 

 Winandermere, the largest, exhibits, along with Ulswater, Derwent, and Coniston- 

 water, many natural beauties. They have indeed been preferred by some of our 

 countrymen to the Swiss lakes, on account of being ornamented with woody islands, in 



