324 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



volume in ancient times, and to the enormous reduction to which they have been subject; 

 and appearances indicate that long before the time, previously stated, required for the 

 Niagara to gnaw its way back from the falls to lake Erie, the lake itself will have been 

 converted into dry land by its own sediment. There are hills forty miles inland from 

 lake Aral, composed of indurated marl, full of marine shells, which seem to have been its 

 ancient shores. " I mentioned to our Kirghisians," says Baron Meyendorff, " the traces of 

 water on Sari-boulak (one of the hills in question), and they assured me that their fathers 

 had seen the waters of the Aral Lake extend to the foot of this hill, although it is at 

 present sixty versts distant from it. So great a number of the Kirghisians have told me 

 the same thing, that I consider it as an undoubted fact, and it proves how very consider- 

 able, and at the same time how rapid, the diminution of the waters of the Aral lake 

 has been. It continues to dimiminish, and one of our guides pointed out a place in our 

 route, far inland, which he himself remembered to have seen the waters reach." It has 

 been stated by Colonel Monteith, that during his residence in that part of Asia, from 

 1811 to 1828, the Caspian Sea, as well as every other lake in Persia, had decreased most 

 sensibly in depth. It requires ages, however, for such physical changes to transpire 

 to any great extent ; nor need the present generation be alarmed at the thought of 

 being deprived of the waters on the shores of which their lot may be cast, however 

 certain, in many instances, their conversion into marshes, and ultimate disappearance, 

 may be. 



Before parting from this subject, we may cast a glance at the lakes of Wales, as those 

 of England, Scotland, and Ireland have been the subject of a slight reference. Though 

 occurring upon a vastly reduced scale, in comparison with the grand Continental expanses, 

 they exhibit in many cases a minuteness of extreme beauty, and form in combination with 

 rock, island, wood, and monastic ruin, scenes of the most pleasing or impressive description. 

 The recesses of the Welsh mountains are plentifully sprinkled with sheets of water, 



varying in size from the most inconsider- 

 able to a circumference of several miles, 

 whickj with their craggy islets, bold and 

 precipitous shores, and placid surface, rank 

 among the chief attractions of the Prin- 

 cipality. The following specimen scene 

 occurs in the neighbourhood of Caderldris, 

 ^ the monarch of the surrounding country, 

 whose towering summit, often capped with 

 clouds, is a magnificent object from the 

 surface of the water. The Maes-y-Pandy, 

 a small stream, debouches from the lake, 

 and falls into the sea after a course through 

 romantic gorges, where it forms a variety 

 of cascades. 



The cormorants visiting the lake are 

 subject to a peculiar economy. It is said, 

 that there are never more than two haunt- 

 ing its waters. These come from Craig-a-Deryn, or the Bird Rock, some miles distant, 

 which is thronged with them. The neighbouring lakes and rivers seem apportioned to a 

 certain number for their support, and that number is never exceeded, so that, if one is 

 killed, another is immediately sure to supply its place. The Welsh lakes are remarkable 

 for their pitchy blackness, and several of the streams, as the Dee, are of a deep tan 

 colour, perhaps arising from impregnation with peat, in the beds over which they flow. 



Cader Idris. 



