302 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



Lastly, at the time when the water goes away, it yields great abun- 

 dance offish, as beforesaid. And that which is most wonderful is, 

 that all this comes to pass in the same place, and the same year, viz. 

 if the lake be early dry, and it fill not too soon ; but it is to be noted, 

 that the hay does not grow, nor is the millet sown all over the lake, 

 but only in the more fertile places. 



There are only three sorts of fish taken in this lake, which are 

 very well tasted. They are the nmstela fluviatilis or eel-pout, some 

 of them weighing 2 or 3 Ib. ; tench, some of them weighing 6 or 

 7 Ib. ; and thirdly, pikes, in very great plenty, of 10, 20, 30, ai.d 

 some of 4011). weight; in the bellies of these it is common to find 

 whole ducks. Crabs are found no where but in the pits Kamine 

 and Sueinskajamma. 



The cause or rather modus of all these wonderful phenomena in 

 the lake of Z;rknitz, is probably as follows. There is under the 

 bottom of the lake, another subterraneous one, with which it com- 

 municates by the several holes described ; there are also some lakes 

 under the mountain Javornik, whose surface is higher than that of 

 the lake Zirknitz. This upper lake is perhaps fed by some of those 

 many rivers, which in this country bury themselves under ground, 

 and has a passage sufficient to carry the waters they bring unto it ; 

 but when it. rains, especially in thunder showers, which are the most 

 hasty, the water is precipitated with great violence down the steep 

 valleys, in which are the channels of these rivulets ; so that the 

 water in this lake, being increased by the sudden coming in of the 

 rains faster than it can empty, swells presently; and finding several 

 holes or caverns in the mountain higher than its ordinary surface, it 

 runs over by them, both into the subterraneous lake under that of 

 Zirknitz, into which the water comes up by the several holes or pits 

 in the bottom of it, as likewise by visible passages above ground. 



That some of these passages bring fish, some ducks and fish, 

 others only water, seems to depend on the position of the inward 

 mouths of these subterraneous channels; for if they be so consti- 

 tuted as to draw off the water from the surface of the upper lake, 

 on which the ducks swim, they must needs be drawn away by the 

 stream into these caverns, and come out with the water; but if the 

 channels open into the upper lake under the surface of the water, 

 and from thence ascend obliquely for some space before they come 

 to descend ; then the water they carry is drawn from below the 



