THE WONDERS OF THE SIIOKE. 17 



" Come when you do call for them." 

 What to do then? You are sitting, perhaps, 

 in your coracle, upon some mountain tai'n, wait- 

 ing for a wind, and waiting in vain. 



" Keine luft an keine seite, 

 Todes-stille furchterlich " ; 



As Gothe has it, — 



" Und der schiffer sieht bekummert 

 Glatte flache rings umher." 



You paddle to the shore on the side whence 

 the wind ought to come, if it had any spirit 

 in it ; tie the coracle to a stone, light your 

 cigar, lie down on your back upon the grass, 

 grumble, and finally fall asleep. In the mean 

 while, probably, the breeze has come on, and 

 there has been half an hour's lively fishing curl ; 

 and you wake just in time to see the last ripple 

 of it sneaking off at the other side of the lake, 

 leaving all as dead calm as before. 



Now how much better, instead of fallinEC 

 a.'*leep, to have walked quietly round the lake- 

 side, and asked of your own l)rains and of 

 nature the question, " How did this lake come 

 here? What does it mean?" 



It is a hole in the earth. True, but how was 

 the hole made ? There must have been huge 

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