LAKES. 



323 



lake Cirknitz in Illyria, which displays frequent intermission, dependent, in the period of 

 its occurrence, upon the season. It has been full for three or four years together, and 

 dry twice or thrice in the year. We may here infer a connexion with a body of water at 

 a lower level, whose increase and diminution, through rain and drought, cause the alternate 

 appearance and failure of the lake. By a subterraneous channel, the lake of Joannina 



Lake Joannina. 



communicates with the river Kalama, the ya//.*?, Thyamis, of the ancient Greeks, by 

 which its dimensions are much reduced in summer, and maize is grown upon the deserted 

 ground. This lake, the only one of importance within the limits of ancient Greece, has 

 acquired celebrity in modern times from its connection with the fortunes of Ali Pacha, 

 whose capital appears in our view, and whose death took place, after a bloody struggle, in 

 the castle which crowns the end of the peninsula that abruptly juts out into the water. 

 Directly opposite this peninsula, the illustration shows a small island, upon which the 

 Pacha kept his herd of red deer, in the height of his prosperity, and to which he 

 often retreated for pastime. The waters of the Caspian Sea are said to be subject 

 to a change of level of a very anomalous kind, increasing and decreasing through pe- 

 riods of about thirty years ; a statement which, if true, is perfectly inexplicable. But 

 notwithstanding any temporary alterations of their level, it is a well-attested fact, that the 

 majority of lakes have undergone a sensible depression since the historic period com- 

 menced, and are in process of a gradual permanent reduction. This wasting is due to 

 evaporation, to the deposition of the soil conveyed by streams and torrents, and to the 

 accumulation of drift-wood lodged by rivers in their bed. The latter operation is rapidly 

 proceeding in some of the more northern lakes of America. Dr. Richardson noticed a 

 shoal of many miles in extent, formed on the south side of Athabasca Lake, by the drift- 

 timber and vegetable debris brought down by the Elk river ; and the Great Slave Lake 

 itself, he remarks, must in process of time be filled up by the matter daily conveyed into 

 it by the Slave river. Vast quantities of drift-timber are buried under the sand at the 

 mouth of the river; and enormous piles of it are accumulated on the "shores of every 

 part of the lake. There are lines of shingle, consisting of rolled stones and shells, around 

 the Canadian lakes, at an elevation of forty or fifty feet above the utmost height to which 

 their waters at present are lashed by the winds. These bear witness to their ampler 



