282 MITCHELSTOWtf. 



A little to the weft of this proud fummit, 

 below it in a very extraordinary hollow, is a 

 circular lake of two acres, reported to be un- 

 fathomable. The defcriptions which I have 

 read of the craters of exhaufted volcanoes, 

 leave very little doubt of this being one ; and 

 the conical regularity of the fummit of Galty- 

 more fpeaks the fame language. Eaft of this 

 refpeftable hill, to ufe Sir William Hamilton's 

 language, is a declivity of about one quarter of 

 a mile, and there Galtybeg rifes in a yet more 

 regular cone, and between the two hills is 

 another lake, which from poiition feems to 

 have been once the crater which threw up 

 Galtybeg, as the firft mentioned was the ori- 

 gin of Galtymore. Beyond the. former hill is 

 a third lake, and eaft of that another hill ; I 

 was told of a fourth, with another corref- 

 ponding mountain. It is only the mere fum- 

 mit of thefe mountains which rife above the 

 lakes. Speaking of them below, they may be 

 laid to be on the tops of the hills ; they are 

 all of them at the bottom of an almoft regu- 

 larly circular hollow. On the fide, next the 

 mountain top, are walls of perpendicular 

 rocks, in regular ftrata, and fome of them 

 piled on each other, with an appearance of 

 art rather than nature. In thefe rocks the 

 eagles, which are feen in numbers on the Gal- 

 ties, have their nefts. Suppofing the moun- 

 tains to be of volcanic origin, and thefe lakes 

 the craters, of which I have not a doubt j they 

 are objects of the greateft curiofity, for there 

 is an unufual regularity in every confiderable 

 3 fummit, 



