14 Proceedings of the Royal Irinh Academy. 



A. D. 1840. Ararat. Water spouted up from holes in the ground; 

 new springs flowed, and old ones dried up. 



Whilst in all the categories of general phenomena we find parallel 

 phenomena — the results of seismical action — thus produced, there are 

 certain special phenomena which, though apparently incredible, find 

 also their analogies in the efi'ect of seismic force. Take for example, 

 the incidents of the eruption of the earth which resulted in the for- 

 mation of Meem Lough, a. d. 1490. Many men and cattle were 

 destroyed, and putrid fish were thrown up. Destruction, according to 

 evidence of modern cases, may be worked by the opening of chasms 

 which swallow up houses and men, by the sudden outburst of water, 

 or by the expulsion of sufii'ocating vapours, such as burst forth from 

 the lake of Quilotoa, South America, in 1797, and which proved fatal 

 to herds of cattle grazing on its shores. The death of fish is a frequent 

 incident, under such circumstances, in any adjacent or previous formed 

 pools: thus in 1824, a lake near Lucca was observed to be greatly 

 agitated, a sulphurous smell came from it, and many dead fish were 

 seen fioating upon it. At Manilla, one of the Philippine Islands, the 

 earth opened in 1844, and dead fish were observed immediately after 

 floating on a neighbouring river. Similar occurrences marked the 

 disappearance of Lake Telchef, in Lithuania, which I described in a 

 previous paper (Proc. E. Irish Acad. Science, Yol. I., Ser. ii., p. 224, 

 foot note). 



Other special phenomena which I consider to be explicable, by 

 the supposition of seismical action — the prevalence of which in ancient 

 times is now, I hope, proved — form an extremely curious and inter- 

 esting group. They are interwoven with the legends, the superstitions, 

 and the poetry of the people. 



Some legends refer to lakes. At times, it is said, these sheets of 

 water appear troubled without apparent cause ; whilst all is still, 

 ripples and waves break over them, and vaporous forms ascend from 

 the depth, whose embrace sometimes carries the gazing mortal away 

 from this world to the mysterious pleasures of another. Now, when 

 we become conversant with the phenomena of seismical action, nothing 

 can seem more obvious than that all these legends had their foundation 

 in the fact that the waters of lakes do become greatly agitated without 

 apparent cause, and emit vapours of a kind often sufficiently powerful 

 to relieve man from the anxieties of this life. Knowing of such 

 vapours and finding that some who had been subjected to their influ- 

 ence lay dead when they had passed, the poetic imagination of the 

 people figured that the spirits had been stolen to fairy land. 



In other cases, there is not only strange commotion observed, but 

 unwonted sounds, as of the bellowing of monstrous animals and the 

 hissing of serpents are heard. In our Ossianic poems, and elsewhere, 

 these are mentioned and attributed to the convulsions and writhings 

 of the terrible Piast, supposed to inhabit such lakes. Reading those 

 romances, one is inclined to believe them baseless — nevertheless, they 

 have a foundation in fact. Thus, coincidently with the Lisbon earth- 



