Ireland/Irish > Lakes of Killarney

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THE UPPEK LAKE.
So closely do the mountains surround this lake, that,
on looking up at them from the water, it seems as if
there were no outlet from the wild vale. Down the
sides of the hills rush numerous feeders of the lake;
some of them mere streamlets, brawling impetuously
down their steep courses; others, of more pretensions,
thundering down their respective gorges.
It may be here mentioned, that although these
lakes have many feeders, they have but one outlet—
namely, the River Laune, at the extreme end of the
Lower Lake, which, by means of this river, is con¬
nected with the sea. The principal feeders are the
following :—the Gearhameen River, flowing from the
Black Valley, which falls into the head of the Upper
Lake; the rivers flowing from the Devil’s Punch¬
bowl, in Mangerton Mountain, and from the summit
of Glena ; the Elesk, the Deenab, and several others.
According to most travellers the Upper Lake is
considered decidedly the finest of the three, but there
are not wanting a singular few whose passion for
quiet scenery leads them to prefer the Lower Lake.
The difference in the scenery between this and its
sister lakes is indeed very marked, the Upper Lake
being more thoroughly Alpine in its character and
singularly romantic. Every variety of wild scenery
meets the eye, intermingled with just enough of a
softer character to prevent harshness. Here bold pro¬
montories and precipices, crowned with herbage and
seamed with rents and fissures, jut out into the dark
water; there the verdure slopes more gradually to
the margin, and the overhanging boughs kiss the
lake. In some places the scene is covered with thick,
large, and umbrageous forest trees; in others the