vessel were agitated briskly; and the air which entered the water, found its way into the inverted glass, the upper part of which it occupied. The water of the tub was agitated by the motion of a whisk, or a bundle of slender twigs; it was sometimes taken up in a pitcher, and returned into the vessel quickly, from the height of a foot or more; both methods proved successful, but the former appeared to introduce air into the glass with more expedition than the latter did; the difference here mentioned, may however depend entirely upon management and accidental circumstances. The experiment which I have now related, shews the foregoing objection to be of no moment; consequently the present theory of irregular reciprocation may be pronounced to stand upon a safe foundation, and unexceptionable principles.

Let us

The observations which have been made on Mr. Swainston's accidental discovery, render an elaborate inquiry into the constitution of Giggleswick well unnecessary. Nature may be easily supposed to have produced an apparatus in the side of the hill, possessing the mechanical properties of the reciprocating tub, and all the phenomena will follow, which are so remarkable in this fountain. imagine a reservoir to be concealed from view under the rocks, into which the stream of a subterranean brook falls, and beats part of its contents into foam by agitation. Let this cavity be connected with the external or visible basin; by a narrow serpentine chink concealed in the interposing strata; and the reader must perceive, without farther explanation, that this conduit will perform the part of the inverted siphon already described, and exhibit the operations, as well as the irregularities of the fountain in question. The same internal structure may he supposed to exist in Lay Well, near Torbay: but something is required, in addition to this simple apparatus, to account for the casual reciprocation of Weeding Well, in Derbyshire. It is not a difficult task to accommodate the theory to the description of this spring; but when we consider how imperfect such descriptions are commonly found to be, it appears more adviseable to pass over this fountain in silence; until some accurate observer shall present the public with a correct and minute history of its operations.

[Nicholson's Journal, Vol. 35. No. 163.]

6. Lake Zirknizer, in Carniola.

This lake was by the ancients called Lugea Palus, by the moderns Lacus Lugeus, though at present its Latin name be Lacus Cirknicensis, in High Dutch Zircknizer sea, and in our Carniolan tongue Zirknisko Jesero. It is at the distance of 6 German miles from the capital city of the province Labac, and is a good German mile long, and about half as much in breadth. Its ordinary depth is 10 cubits, its least 5 or 6, rarely 3, its greatest is 16 cubits. It is every where surrounded with woody mountains, which on the south and west side are very high, and 3 miles broad, running far into the Turkish country, and afford nothing but horrid stony deserts, overgrown with trees.

In the mountain called Javornik, near the lake, there are two holes, or exceedingly deep precipices, in which many thousand wild pigeons roost all the winter; entering in autumn, and coming out with the first of the spring; what they live upon in these caverns is unknown, but perhaps the nitrous saud. On the other hill called Slivenza, is a hole of an unknown depth, out of which there often breathe noxious steams, attended with tempests of thunder and lightning and bail. This lake being every where surrounded with mountains, and nowhere running over, nature has given it two visible channels or stony caverns, by which the water runs under the mountain n; and a third concealed subterraneous passage, which without doubt communicates with the other two under ground. This water having run half a German mile, comes out at the other side of the mountain, in a desert place at a stony cave, and forms the river called by the inhabitants Jesero, that is the lake. This river having run half a quarter of a mile enters a wide stony cavern, running slowly under the hill for the space of a good musket-shot, then coming out again on the other side, after it has run through a small plat, it enters a third cavern or grotto; wherein having passed 50 paces, it runs no longer peaceably as before, but with great noise and roaring falls down a very steep channel of stone.

About the feast of St. John Baptist, or St. James tide, and sometimes not till August, the water runs away, and it is dry; but it fills again in October or November; yet so as not to observe any certain time; for sometimes it has been dry twice or thrice in a year,

H

which makes the fishing very considerable. Sometimes again, though but seldom, it has happened to be 3 or 4 years together full of water, and then is the best of the fishing. But it never yet was observed that this lake was dry for a whole year together.

In this lake there are many pits in the shape of basins or cauldrons, which are not all of the same depth or breadth; the breadth of them being from 20 to 60 cubits, more or less, and the depth from 8 to 20 cubits. In the bottom of these pits are several holes, at which the water and fishes enter when the lake ebbs away. In the months of June, July, and August, when this lake begins to draw off, it grows quite dry in 25 days, if no great rains intervene. And the pits are all emptied one after the other, in a certain and never-failing order of time.

When the lake begins to sink, which appears by a certain stone which they observe, the inhabitants of the town called Oberdorff or Seedorf, give notice thereof to all the neighbouring fishermen, that are appointed by the several lords having right in this fishing. The people of this town have orders not only to watch the falling away of the water, but likewise to take care that nobody presume to fish in the lake when it is full of water, that being forbidden.

The first pit, called Maljoberch, is only a depression of the bottom, without any holes in it; but there grows much grass and weeds, and many fish are caught there. Three days after the water begins to ebb, this pit is emptied. Of this the parish clerk of Seedorf gives notice by tolling a bell, and all the inhabitants of the town, old and young, men and women, lay aside all other business, and go to fishing, quite naked as they were born, without any regard to modesty or shame. The fish they catch they divide in halves, one part they give to the prince of Eggenberg, as the lord of the manor, the other half is their own. The pit Velkioberch is emptied the third day after Maljoberch, the manner and right of fishing as in that. Four hours after this, the pit Kamine begins to empty; here they generally fish with a trawl, as in several other pits of lesser note, having first purchased leave of the lord of the manor. Here, as also in the pit Sueinskajamma, which sinks one hour after Kamine, are many fish caught, and abundance of large crabs, but they are lean and of no good taste. The fifth pit Vodonos, dries five days after Kamine. In this and the other pits which follow, they fish

with a long net or sayne. Here they can have no more than five or -six hawls, by reason of the great swiftness with which the water runs away at the holes in the bottom, which is such that a horse can hardly keep pace with it, and carries away the fish with great violence under the earth. Sometimes when the fishermen are not nimble, they can scarcely get two hawls before the water is gone. The pit Louretschka evacuates a day and a half after Vodonos; the fishing is after the same manner, and the same caution necessary, because of the sudden recess of the water. The water leaves the pit Kralouduor 12 hours after Louretschka, and 3 days after that the pit Rescheto. In this latter, in the year 1685, after the lake had been some years without being dry, there were taken at the first hawl 21 carts of fish, at the second 17, and at the third 9. The pit Ribeskajamma falls dry at the same time with Rescheto, which is that next to it. In this pit they fish under ground, which is a curiosity not unplea. sant, and differing from all the rest. For there is in the bottom a great hole in the stone, by which men may easily go down with lighted torches, as into a deep cistern; and there is under ground a large cavern like a vault, the bottom or pavement whereof is as it were a sieve full of little holes, whereby the water runs away, leav ing the fish dry, where they are caught. The pit Rethje is empty 2 hours after Ribeskajamma, and is of no great consequence for fish. An hour after this, the pit Sittarza, and in 5 or 6 hours more Lipauza falls dry.

The third day after Rescheto the pit Gebno empties; in this they rarely fish with nets, but let it fall dry, and the holes in the bottom being so small, that they exceed not the size of a man's armı, all the great fish are left behind in the pit. Two days after Gebno the pit Koteu becomes dry; in this they sometimes take the fish as in the former, but the holes, being larger, let more fish pass. The pit Ainz empties 4 or 5 hours after Koteu; in this they seldom let the water run away without using their nets, as in Gebno, because of one great hole in the bottom, by which many great fishes may escape. The pit Zeslenza sinks 3 hours after Ainz; in this they always fish with nets, as in Pounigk, which is emptied the next day after Koteu,

The last pit, called Leuische, is evacuated the third day after Pounigk, that is, the 25th day from the beginning of the recess of the water of the lake, so that in 25 days the fishing of this lake is

over. In this last pit, about 17 years since, there fell a flash of lightning, about the time of fishing, which stunned a multitude of large fishes, so as they filled 28 one-horse carts with them. These fish are not properly thunder struck, but only stunned with the vio⚫ lence and sulphureous vapour of the lightning, which makes them rise and swim as dead on the top of the water; but if they be taken up and put in fresh water, they soon recover, otherwise they die; this is no uncommon accident in this lake.

The fishing being thus ended, a signal is given, by tolling the bell in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, near the town of Cirkuiz. Upon which all the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages and of Cirkniz, without regard either to age or sex, go mostly quite nakedl into the lake, and look for fish among the weeds and sedge, and in the smaller pits; and many creep into the subterraneous caverns and passages, and find many large fishes there.

There are, besides these, some other pits in the lake, in which they fish likewise, as also in Mala karlouza and Velka-karlouza; in both these they go far under ground with lighted torches and find fish. In Velka-bobnarza one may go in at great holes, and descend many fathoms under ground. These two names Velka and Malabobnarza signify in the Carniolan tongue the greater and lesser drummer; nor is it without reason that these pits are so called; for when it thunders, there is heard in these two pits as it were the sound of many drums beating.

The two pits Narte and Piauze are never emptied, but always remain fenny, when the rest of the lake is quite dry. It is believed, that in these pits the fish lay their spawn, and therefore it is prohibited to fish in them. In them is an incredible number of horseleeches. These often stick to the people in the fishing time, some of them bemg dispersed all over the lake, and the method they take to get them off is to get some other person to make water upon the leech, which makes it let go its hold.

There are in the mountain near the lake, but something higher than it, two great and terrible stony caves, which, though far dis tant from each other, have yet the same effect, viz. when it thunders, these two caves emit water with a wonderful and incredible force, and with it sometimes a great quantity of ducks with some fish. It is not to be wondered that the lake fills so fast, for considering the violence with which the water rushes, it is like a great