SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



called Scike.in-Lappich ; on the top of which is a vast heap of 

 white stones like crvstal, each of them larger than a man can throw* 



/ 



which strike fire like flint, and have the smell of sea-weed. On 

 this mountain are found also oyster, scallop, and limpet-shelfe, 

 though ten miles from atiy sea. Round this hill grows- the sea pink, 

 in Irish, teartag, having the taste and colour of that which grows 

 on the sea banks. 



The Pagan temples, or high places of idolatry, are still very nu- 

 merous here ; on> the river side of Marden I reckoned 13 in twa 

 miles : they are round, and at the west end have two hih stone* 

 like pyramids; there is an outer and inner circle of lesser stones, 

 and a round mote in the centre for the sacrifices. Another sort of 

 them is only of earth, with a trench round ahont, and a mote in 

 the middle. In many of these I find a round heap of stones with 

 iirns in them. It seems a different religion afterwards changed 

 these places of worship into burial places* 



[Phil. Tr an. 1699. 



Lougk'Neagh. 



Most of the ancient writers, who have treated of Ireland, have 

 mentioned the peculiar qualities of Lough ileagh, of turning wood 

 into stone ; some of them * have gone so far as to say, that it would 

 turn that part of the wood which was in the mud into iron ; the 

 part in the water into stone ; while the part above water remained: 

 wood. 



Some later writers, particularly Wm Molyneux, Francis Nevil, 

 and Edward Smyth, and from them the late Dr. Woodward f, ami 

 others J, seem rather to think, that this petrifying quality does not 

 lie so much in the lake itself, as in the ground near or about it. 



Mr. Edward Smyth , who enlarges most on this subject, and 

 seems to have led the others, and drawn them into his opinion, 

 tells us, "That no experiment or observation yet made, which he 

 had heard of, could prove that this lough has really the quality of 



* Brv'tius Hist. ^cm. et Lap. Ori^. 

 + Catal. of English Fossils, part 2, p. 19. Grig. 



$ Sir James "Ware's Antiq. by Walt. Harris, p. 227. edit. 174T, foliev 

 Orig. 

 ^ Afterwards Bishop of Down, See PliiU Trao> No. 174.. Ori- 



