of lakes with which the country abounds, might be supposed to induce rheumatisms, dissenteries, and other similar complaints; yet it is certain that these diseases are as little known here as in other countries. The natives are generally long lived: strangers alone suffer from the humidity of the atmosphere.

The island is intersected by a great number of lakes and rivers, by which the face of the country is beautifully diversified. Hence the air is impregnated with a salubrity and freshness which not only invigorates the animal, but also the mental faculties, and gives to the natives that cheerfulness and good humour which seems to be denied to the inhabitants of climes more favoured by wealth and affluence. Ireland has been called the island of green, and her claim to this title has been generally recognized. But this perennial spring, this eternal verdure, must, in my opinion, be ascribed to the number of lakes and rivers by which the soil is watered and nourished, with the seeds of primogenial existence. The most considerable lakes in Ireland are Lough-Neagh, which is thirty miles long and fifteen broad. LoughFoyle, Lough-Swilly, and Lough-Earne, forming two lakes, united by a canal, in Ulster; Lough-Corrib, Lough-Mask, Lough-Con, Lough-Ree, Lough-Allen, and Lough-Gara, in Conaught; Lough-Ogram, Lough-Culan, Lough-Kerry, Lough-Lene, and Lough-Derg, in Munster; and Lough-Ennil, LoughHoyle, and Lough-Derreverragh, in Leinster. The country abounds with lofty mountains, promontories and capes. Of the mountains, the principal are SliaghDonard, Knock-Patrick, Sleigh-Bloemy, and the Wicklow mountains. It also abounds in marshes, which supplies the inhabitants with turf. Here the eye is greeted with extensive plains, and a soil, fertile in all sorts of grain, as wheat, rice, barley, corn, peas, &c. all of which it produces in great abundance. Its pasturage is considered the best in Europe, not only for the quantity which it produces, but also for

its quality. It was this fertility made Bede say that the island teemed with milk and honey; dives lactis & mellis insula, and even at this early period he tells us that the vine was cultivated in Ireland, nec vinearum expers.

The fertility of Ireland was so well known throughout Europe, in the seventh and eighth centuries, that Donatus, bishop of Fesula near Florence, who lived at that period, describes it in such terms, that perhaps no other country upon earth could boast of the same natural advantages. His words are these:

Finibus occiduis describitur optima tellus
Nomine at antiquis SCOTIA scripta libris,
Insula dives opum gemmarum, vestis et auri
Commoda corporibus, aere, sole, solo;
Melle fluit pulchris et lacteis Scotia campis
Vestibus atque armis, frugibus, atque viris.
Ursorum rabies nulla est ibi; sæva leonum
Semina, nec unquam SCOTICA terra tulit.
Nulla venena nocent, nec serpens serpit in herba,
Nec conquesta canit garula, rana, lacu;
In qua Scotorum gentes, habitare merentur
Inclyta gens hominum, milite, pace, fide.

Thus translated by Dr. Dunkin.

Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame,
By nature blessed, and Scotia is her name,
Eurolled in books, exhaustless is her store
Of veiny silver, and of golden ore.

Her fruitful soil for ever teems with wealth,
With gems her waters, and her air with health,
Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow,
Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow;
Her waving furrows float with bearded corn,
And arms and arts her envied sons adorn.
No savage bear with lawless fury roves,
No ravenous lion through her peaceful groves:
No poison there infects, no scaly snake

Creeps through the grass, nor frog annoys the lake.
An island worthy of its pious race,

In war triumphant, and unmatched in peace.

Fruit trees are also productive in Ireland, but they are generally confined to gardens and enclosures, and not to be met with in the open plains, or on the high

Frogs were unknown in Ireland before the reign of king William, when they were introduced with many other exotics.

road as in France, Flanders, and elsewhere on the continent. It abounds in herds of cattle of every species, as oxen, sheep, pigs, &c. &c. "It is asserted," says M'Geohagan, "that cows will not yield their milk if their young be absent, and that to induce them to it, recourse must be had to deception, by shewing a skin or hide, filled with straw or hay." Their sheep are shorn twice a year, but though the produce of wool is abundant, it is not equal, in quality, to that of other countries. The race of horses which came originally from Asturia, or the English hobbies, abound in Ireland, and excel, whether used for the saddle, or trained to carriages.

The situation of Ireland, with regard to other countries, is peculiarly advantageous to commerce. Its ports are more numerous and more commodious than those of England, and, in the time of Tacitus, they were much more frequented. "Melius," says he, Hiberniæ quam Britanniæ aditus, portusque per commercia & negociatores cogniti. The access to Ireland is easier than to Britain; and its ports are better known on account of its commerce and merchants." It was frequented by the Phenicians, the Grecians and the Gauls. "This country," says Cambden, "is highly favoured, not only by its fertility, but by the commodious situation of its harbours." But though Ireland may surpass other countries in these advantages, yet as they are more or less enjoyed by other countries in Europe, it will not be amiss to mention here certain natural privileges which Ireland may call exclusively her own. By a peculiar gift of nature, the soil will not endure any venomous creature. We find there, it is true, as elsewhere, serpents, snakes, lizards, spiders, &c. but by the incomprehensible bounty of nature, they are deprived of that venomous qua

Illic bis niveum tondetur vellus in anno,
Bisque die referunt ubera tenta gregis.

+ Tacit. Vit. Agricol. p. 499.

S. JOHN.

Sive terræ fœcunditatem, sive maris et portuum opportunitatem respicias, ex multis dotibus felix est insula. Cambd. Brit. p. 680.

lity which appears inseparable from their nature, in all other countries, if we except the island of Crete. "When they are carried thither from other countries," says Bede, "they die in their approach to this sacred land. Nullus ibi serpens vivere valeat." "Here," says Camden, "neither serpent nor venomous creature can be found." Nullus hic anguis, nec venenatum quicquam. This prerogative of Ireland is beautifully expressed by Adrianus Junius, where he represents the island enumerating her own advantages: Illa ego sum Graiis olim glacialia Ierne, Dicta et Jasoniæ puppis bene cognita nautis, Cui Deus et melior rerum nascentium origo, Jus commune dedit cum Creta altrice tonantis ; Noxia ne nostris diffundant sibila in oris, Terrifice Creti tabo phorcynidos angues Et forte illati compressis faucibus atris, Virose pariter vitam cum sanguine ponant.

This exemption from venomous creatures is attributed by some, to a blessing conferred on Gaodhal Glas, by Moses, at his crossing the red sea; by others it is attributed to St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland; and by others to the nature of the climate. The first of these causes cannot be admitted, if, as I have already shewn, Moses and Gaodhal-Glas were not cotemporaries. The popular opinion in Ireland is, that it obtained this privilege by the intercession of St. Patrick; but there are many reasons to believe, that Ireland was at all times free from noxious creatures. The accounts given of it by ancient writers of other countries, shew, that it was always an island peculiarly favoured by nature. St. Patrick was never in Crete, and yet it is equally exempt from every thing of a venomous quality. And if Crete obtained this privilege from the partiality of nature, why might not Ireland also enjoy it without the aid of supernatural agency. However firmly a person may believe in the doctrine of miracles, yet it argues much weakness to refer to them the solution of such effects as cannot be explained by natural

causes. Though every age may encrease our knowledge of the operations of nature, yet the acumen of human observation shall never be able to detect all the latent springs, all the impelling and opposing powers that organize her system, and give it that full perfection without which all her works would crumble into ruins.

Where one link's broken, all the rest's destroyed.

The petrifying quality of the waters of Lough Neagh is another of those natural phenomena that gives ample exercise to the curiosity of the experimental philosopher; Buffon is of opinion that the petrification caused by water is a mere incrustation, but experience proves the contrary. Incrustation is caused by the concretion and application of two heterogeneous bodies, but in the petrification caused by the waters of this lake, the wood is changed into stone, by the total change of its internal configuration.

Lough Lene is not less remarkable than Lough Neagh. It is situated in the county of Kerry, in the southern extremity of Ireland, and is distinguished into the upper and lower lake. On the east and south it is commanded by the mountains of Mangerton and Turck; on the west by the mountain of Glena, a fine plain opens to the north, diversified with houses beautifully situated, and to the northeast the town of Killarney presents itself. The surrounding mountains are covered from head to foot with oaks, yew trees, evergreens, and the arbutus, which present, in the different degrees of vegetation, a delightful variety of colours, as green, yellow, red, white, forming an amphitheatre, which revives all the charms of spring, in the depth of winter. The cascades caused by the precipitation of the water

The arbutus, though a shrub, becomes a tree in some countries. It grows to the height of 20 feet on the mountains of Lough Lene, and bears leaves always green, like those of the laurel, and of a purple colour towards the extremity; its flowers hang like grapes, are white, and of an agreeable flavour.