the surface of the bogs, is tinctured by the reddish black colour of the turf; and when a shower comes that makes these pits overflow, the water that runs over tinctures all it meets, and gives both its colour and stink to many of the rivers.

The natives however had formerly some advantage from the woods and bogs; as by them they were preserved from the conquest of the English; and probably a little remembrance of this makes them still build wear them: it was then an advantage to them to have their country impassable, and the fewer strangers came near them, they lived the easier; for they had no inns, every house where you came was your inn; and you said no more, but put off your brogues and sat down by the fire; and still the natural Irish hate to mend high-ways, and will often shut them up, and change them, being unwilling strangers should come and burthen them. Though they are very inconvenient, yet they are of some use; for most persons have their fuel from them, Turf is ac counted a tolerably sweet fire; and having very impoliticly destroyed our wood, and not as yet found stone coal, except in few places, we could hardly live without some bogs; when the turf is charred, it serves to work iron, and even to make it a bloomery or iron-work: turf charred I reckon the sweetest and wholesomest fire that can be; fitter for a chamber, and for consumptive people, than either wood, stone coal, or charcoal.

Turf-bogs preserve things a long time: a corpse will lie entire in one for several years; also trees are found sound and entire in them, and even birch and alder that are very subject to rot; such trees burn very well, and serve for torches in the night,

All the inconveniences of the bogs may be remedied, and may be made useful by draining them; and all or most of them have a suf ficient fall for that purpose. The great objection against them is the expence, and it is commonly thought that it would cost much more than would purchase an equal piece of good ground; for an acre of good land in most parts of Ireland is about four shillings per annum, and the purchase fourteen or fifteen years, so that three pounds will purchase an acre of good land; and it is very doubtful whether that sum will reduce a bog; but this is far from the fact, as most bogs would well reward the expense of draining them.

As to loughs or lakes, the natural improvement of them, is first to drain them as low as possible; and then turn the residue of the wa

ter into fish-ponds; by planting a few trees about them, they may be made both useful and ornamental. As to those places called turloughs, quasi terreni lacus, or land-lakes; they answer the name very well, being lakes one part of the year of considerable depth, and level smooth fields the rest. There are holes in these, out of which the water rises in winter, and retires again in summer; many hundred acres being drowned by them, and those the most pleasant and profitable land in the country: the soil is commonly a marle, which, by its stiffness, hinders the water from turning it into a bog; and immediately when the water is gone, it hardens, and becomes an even grassy field; these, if they could be drained, would be fit for any use; they would make meadow; or bear any grain, but especially rape, which is very profitable. The lakes are chiefly in Connaught; and their cause is obvious enough, it being a stony hilly country; these hills have cavities in them, through which the water passes: it is common to have a rivulet sink on one side of a hill, and rise a mile or half a mile from the place: the brooks are generally dry in summer; the water sinking between the rocks, and running under ground; insomuch as that in some places where they are overflowed in winter, they are forced in summer to send their eattle many miles for water. There is one place on a hill near Tuam, between two of these turloughs, where there is a hill called the Devil's Mill, at which a great noise is heard, like that of water under a bridge: when there is a flood in winter, one of the turloughs overflows, and vents itself into the hole, and the noise probably proceeds from a subterraneous stream; which in summer has room enough to vent all its water; but in winter, when rain falls, the passages between the rocks cannot discharge it, and therefore it regurgitates and covers the flats.

These turloughs are hard to drain; being often encompassed with bills, and then it is not to be accomplished: often they have a vent, by which they send out a considerable stream; and then it is only making that passage as low as the bottom of the flat, and that will prevent the overflowing; it sometimes happens that the flats are as low as the neighbouring rivulets, and probably they are filled by them; and then it is not only necessary to make the passage from the flat to the rivulet, but also to sink the rivulet, which is very troublesome, the passage to be cut being commonly rocky... [Phil. Trans, Abr. 1685.] ·

2. General Survey of Lakes chiefly worthy of Notice in different Quarters of the World.

THIS interesting branch of natural science extends so widely, and is so captivating from the beauty and variety of the features it unfoids to us, that it is difficult to comprise the present division within due bounds. We shall limit it, however, to those lakes which pos sess somewhat of a general character, or at least whose character is not so prominent as to be entitled to any peculiarity of delineation; and shall reserve a few of those of this last description for another division.

ASIA.

In describing the most remarkable lakes which are found in various parts of the world, we shall begin with that large body of water which is improperly called the CASPIAN SEA, as it has no visible connec tion with the ocean, nor does it ebb and flow; but it is undoubtedly the greatest lake in the eastern hemisphere of the globe. It is bounded on the north by the country of the Calmuc Tartars, on the east by Bacharia and part of Persia, on the south by another part of Per. sia, and on the west by Persia and Circassia. It is situated between 36° 40′ and 47° north latitude, and between 47° 50′ and 50° east longitude, and is about four hundred miles in length from north to south, and three hundred in breadth from east to west; but in many places it is much narrower. The water is salt; and, at some distauce from the shore, Mr. Hanway endeavoured in vain to find a bottom with a line of four hundred and fifty fathoms. The water has risen, within the last half century, so considerably, that it has made great inroads on the Russian side for several miles, both to the east and west of the Volga, and has rendered the adjacent country extremely marshy.

The lake BAIKAL, in Siberia, on the road between Moscow and China, is of great extent from north to south, but narrow in breadth, reaching from 51° to 55° north latitude. It abounds with sturgeon, and that amphibious animal the seal.

AFRICA.

THE lake of DAMBEA, in Upper Ethiopia, is the only one worthy of notice in this arid and sandy quarter of the world, and is called by the natives the sea of Tzana, from the largest island in it. This lake

has been considered as the source of the Nile, which flows out of it, as already mentioned. It contains about twenty-one islands, Bruce says eleven, some of which are very fertile, and are covered with groves of orange and citron trees, and in seven or eight of them are old monasteries, which appear to have been elegant structures. Its greatest extent, which is in the direction of north-east and south. west, has been computed to be abont ninety miles long and thirty. six broad; but Mr. Bruce has reduced its greatest length to thirtyfive miles, although on his general map its extent is not three minutes short of a degree of latitude.

EUROPE.

THE principal lakes in the western part of the Russian empire are the following:

The LAKE of LADOGA, situated between the gulf of Finland and the lake of Onega, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and ninety in breadth. It is esteemed the largest lake in Europe; and is supposed to exceed any other for its plenty of fishes, among which are also seals. This lake is full of quicksands, which being moved from place to place by the frequent storms to which it is subject, form several shelves along its course, which often prove fatal to the flat-bottomed vessels of the Russians. This induced Peter the Great to cause a canal, near seventy English miles in length, seventy feet in breadth, and ten or eleven deep, to be cut, at a vast expense, from the south-west extremity of this lake to the sea. This great work was begun in the year 1718, and, though vi gorously prosecuted, was not completed till the year 1732, in the reign of the Empress Anne. The canal has twenty-five sluices or locks, and several rivers run into it. At the distance of every werst along its banks, is a pillar marked with the number of wersts; and it is the constant employment of a regiment of soldiers to keep the canal in repair; for this purpose they are quartered in different places on its banks. In summer time it is covered with floats and vessels, which pay toll in proportion to the value of their cargo.

The lake of ONEGA is situated between the lake of Ladoga and the White Sea, and has a communication with the former by means of the river Swir. It is one hundred and eighty wersts in length, and about eighty in breadth; and though its waters are fresh, seals are often seen in it.

The lake of PEIPUS, in Livonia, is nearly seventy miles in length,