1 34 ^^f'- Dclahigarrc*s Excurfiom on the Blue Mountains, 



fortification ; that front covered with a fine mofs, reprefents 

 a green carpet, and at the height of fix feet, comes out of 

 the rock a fpout of water, three inches diameter, as if Nature 

 has intended to offer that refrefhment to the thrifty traveller. 



At four o'clock v/e were at the two fmall lakes, between 

 v/hich the road paffes, 2015 feet above the level of the river. 

 Thefe lakes are of an irregular oblong form, one mile in 

 leno-th, and the fifth part of a mile in breadth : Upon an exa6l 

 foundin<^, we found no more than four feet of water in the 

 deepeft parts. The bottom is a folid rock, covered in fome 

 places by loofe Date ftones : there is no fifli but a few fuckers ; 

 we fuppofe with fome degree of probability, that they are 

 continually deftroyed by a great number of mufkraPs, who 

 have an old fettlement in the middle of the water, where 

 feveral of their buildings rife two feet above its furface. We 

 faw a kind of creeping plant adrift on the fhore, unknown ' 

 and undefcribed : It is of a fpungy nature, foft when in the 

 water, and as hard as cork when dry ; it looks very much 

 like an old rope. Was fuch thing found on Mount Ararat, 

 a credulous Jew would directly take it to be fome remains of 

 the rigging of the ark of Noah. That plant is from one to 

 two inches diameter, of a black colour ; and till it is better 

 known, we are pleafed to call it the vegetable rope. Though 

 a folid caufeway 20 yards wide divides the two lakes, the 

 upper empties into the lower by a little canal cut through 

 the rocks by the hand of nature ; the evergreens all around. 



