SiGERSON — On the Physical Geography of Ireland. 15 



quakes of 1755 and 1827, an extraordinary noise was heard in the 

 lake of Salungen, in Saxony; and in 1799, at Ciimanas, in South 

 America, the waters of a lake became exceedingly troubled, and a 

 strange subterranean noise was heard proceeding from it, comparable to 

 a " prolonged bellowing," and at other times to a hissing sound. To a 

 pastoral people hearing such sounds, nothing could be more natural 

 than that they should consider that some animal infested the lake, 

 troubled it by its movements, and terrified them by its roaring. 



Some legends refer to wells. It is usually said that a well was 

 laid under a magic spell of some kind, which to break insured destruc- 

 tion. In a hapless moment the warning is forgotten ; a damsel omits 

 to replace a cover or perform some stipulated act ; forthwith the waters 

 arise, overflow, inundate the valley, and overwhelm perhaps, a town. 

 This, for instance, is the tradition of the origin of Lough Neagh, and 

 Griraldus Cambrensis relates that the fishermen used, in clear weather, 

 frequently to point out to strangers the submerged ruins. Moore has 

 commemorated the incident in verse, since which time it has been taken 

 as a purely poetical fiction. jSTevertheless, it may have been founded 

 upon fact. Under seismical action, wells have frequently attracted at- 

 tention ; sometimes the water fails, and they dry up, sometimes it arises 

 and overflows. In 1809, in the Abruzzi TJlteriora, at Aquita, some 

 springs appeared to boil up. In 1832, at Foligno, a man going to draw 

 water at a well found it filled and overflowing, then came a shock, and 

 when he returned it was empty. Ancient dry wells, on the other 

 hand, have suddenly filled up, and the eruption and outbursting of new 

 springs and considerable toi'rents are not infrequent incidents. At 

 the time the occurrence happened in an Irish district, the overflow 

 of the well doubtless indicated seismical action, and was accompanied 

 or followed by shocks and subsidence of the soil, such as we have seen. 

 Tillages have thus been occasionally overwhelmed with waters, but I 

 find a curiously parallel case to Lough Neagh, in Italy. There, whilst 

 an earthquake was felt in north Italy and Switzerland, the castle of 

 Manguin, situated on the shore of a small lake, sank down and was 

 covered by the water. There, also, the fishermen might have pointed 

 out to strangers, " the towers beneath them shining."^' 



It only remains to consider the phenomena which gave rise to the 

 fable of the Land of Touth, Hy-Erasail, the Land of the Blest. f An 



* The sadden subsidence of the foundation, and the vibration of shocks would scarcely 

 fail to shatter buildings thus affected. But their rnins would exist. It is certainly 

 curious that Giraldus Cambrensis should be able to state that the tisherraen, at that time, 

 frequently showed tiie submerged towers to wondering strangers on clear days. " Pisca- 

 tores aquae illius turres ecclesiasticas, quag more patriae arctse sunt et altse, necnon et 

 rotundas, sub undis manifeste sereno tempore conspiciunt, et extraneis transeuntibus, 

 reique causas admirantibus, frequenter ostendunt." 



t " The inhabitants of Arranmore are still persuaded that, on a clear day they can see 

 from this coast Hy-Brasail or the Enchanted Island, the Paradise of the Pagan Irish, 

 and concerning which they relate a number of romantic stories." Beaufort, Ancient 

 Topography of Ireland. 



li has been stated that a similar " Enchanted" island was observed off the coast of 

 Donegal. 



