CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 579 
Lough Erne. — The River Erne issues from Lough Gowna on the 
borders of the counties of Longford and Cavan, and after passing 
through Lough Oughter merges into LTpper and Lower Lough Erne, 
whence reissuing it flows into Donegal Bay at Ballyshannon. The 
united length of the two loughs and the connecting river is about 
60 miles, the distance between the loughs being about 5 miles. The 
area of the Upper Lough is 15 square miles, and it has a maximum 
depth of 89 feet. It lies almost 2 feet above the Lower Lough, and 
is studded with islands to such an extent that there is scarcely any 
open water. The Lower Lough is about 149 feet above sea-level, has 
a maximum depth of 226 feet, and covers an area of 43 square miles. 
Lakes of Killarney, three in number, all connected, and drain- 
ing by the River Laune to Dingle Bay, are much frequented by 
tourists on account of the beauty of their surroundings. The 
largest, called Lower Lake or Lough Leane, has an area of not 
quite 8 square miles ; the Middle or Muckross Lake, separated from 
the Lower Lake by a narrow peninsula, has an area of a little over 
1 square mile ; and the Upper Lake, 5 feet above the other two , and 
connected with them by a stream known as the Long Range, 2J miles 
in length, has an area of only two-thirds of a square ^ile. 
The lakes of Scandinavia are very numerous, occupying in Norway Scandinavia. 
4 per cent, of the surface, and in Sweden as much as 8 per cent.^ 
Many long rivers, broken by picturesque waterfalls, and with 
numerous lakes in their courses, cross Sweden from west to east. 
Helland ^ cites the lakes of the northern portion as examples of true 
rock-basins excavated by ice action, but many are probably retained 
by drift barriers. 
Lake Hornafvan, the largest of these, is a narrow sheet of water, 
very irregular in outline and 70 miles in length. It lies at an elevation 
of 1394 feet above sea-level, and has an area of nearly 93 square miles. 
The maximum depth is 725 feet, the mean depth 253 feet, and the 
volume of water is estimated at 777,040 million cubic feet.^ The 
outflow is by the Skelleftea River to the Gulf of Bothnia, 
The depression of the great lakes lies to the south of the plateau of 
Southern Sweden, and contains four large bodies of water : Lakes 
Vener, Vetter, Hjelmar, and Malar. 
^ The portion of the surface of Europe covered by lakes is 0*5 per cent, (see 
Yngvar Nielsen in Mill's Iniernational Geography, ed. 2, p. 199, London, 1907). 
" Die glaciale Bildung der Fjorde iind Alpenseen in Norwegen," Fogg. Annal., 
Bd. cxlvi. p. 538, 1872. 
3 The measurements given for the European lakes (except length and breadth) 
are taken mostly from Halbfass, " Die Morphometrie der europaischen Seen," 
Zeitschr. Ges. Erdkufide Berlin, Jahrg. 1903, pp. 592, 706, 784. 
