170 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I674, 



A Further Account of the Zirchnitzer Sea. By Dr. Ediv. Broiun. N° lOg, p. I94. 



This lake is encompassed with high hills at some little distances; bat I saw 

 no snow on them; but on other mountains in the country, as I travelled to 

 and from this lake, I observed snow in June. Upon hills on the side of great 

 lakes, the snow lies not so long as on hills more distant. The holes for the 

 water are generally stony, and not in soft or loose earth ; yet in one or two 

 places the earth has been known to sink, and fall in, particularly near a village 

 called sea-dorf. The great holes are the same every year; but possibly part of 

 the water may sometimes find or make new passages. When the water begins 

 to retire, it is seen in these holes for a while, but afterwards it descends lower 

 out of sight. There remains in June no water, at least not any that is consider- 

 able for any time, in places more elevated than those holes, most of it draining 

 away towards the holes in the valleys ; the rest is either imbibed by the earth, 

 or if any remain in the hilly or rocky part, it is evaporated. The fish are taken 

 at these holes when the water descends. For besides that the water spreads 

 speedily, the Prince of Eckenberg, who is lord of this lake, and the parts about 

 it, will not permit them to be taken at any other time. The holes are of dif- 

 ferent sizes and shapes. Some perpendicular at the beginning and then oblique ; 

 others oblique at first; scarcely two exactly alike. The water ascends so plenti- 

 fully, that it fills the lake in a short time, especially the valleys; but I cannot 

 determine it to a day: for some years the water rises so plentifully, that it fills 

 all about Niderdorf, and almost to Zirchnitz. The water that spouts seems 

 somewhat clear in the air; but being spread about, it looks as formerly in the 

 lake. The water is not always at the same height, but somewhat differing ac- 

 cording to rains, snows, or drought; and they are sensible of its height by the 

 tops of the hills in it, and its spreading towards Zirchnitz ; but it alters not very 

 much till it begins to go away. No river enters the latter, but only inconsider- 

 able rivulets on the south and east side ; nor has it any known outlet but by 

 the holes. The country is high about the lake. Probably this lake may hold 

 dependence of, and communication with some subterraneous great lake, or 

 magazine of water, belonging to these hilly regions, which when full, and 

 running over, may vent itself with force and plenty into this field, and when 

 scant of water, absorb and drink in the same again ; the water of the lake, re- 

 turning but from whence it came, having no river running out of it whereby 

 to be discharged. It freezes in winter like other lakes; so that the fishes of 

 this lake have a closer habitation than those in others; for they are under the ice 

 a part of the winter, and under the earth a part of the summer. What they 



