"In passing through this Upper Lake," says Forbes, "and along the narrow river-like strait that connects it with the Middle and Lower Lakes, I could no longer doubt that the views now presented to us were at once grander, more picturesque, and more beautiful than any we had seen or could see from its banks. Beside the charm-great in itself—of floating calmly over the placid surface of the mirrored water, the spectator, from this central station, can command at once the clustering islands of every variety of form and hue, the tree-crowned shores of the lake, the encircling slopes green far up with impenetrable wood, and then towering to the sky abrupt and dark; while at every turn of his head he has still fresh aspects of the picture, and none alike, except in possessing the common charm of a beauty and a grandeur that touch the heart."

Passing by many a lovely islet and promontory-amongst the rest "Coleman's Eye," so named, it is supposed, after St. Colman—we enter the Long Range, the connecting link between the Upper and the Middle Lakes. Here the scene is of indescribable variety and beauty; and the margin of the river will be found gemmed with a rich array of snowy or creamy and golden water-lilies, and forests, it may be said, of the Osmunda regalis, which here assumes gigantic proportions. The Four Friends, a group of rocky islets, and the Man-of-War, a large and stately island rock, which, notwithstanding its name, does not present the idea of anything afloat, occupy a glorious middle distance, as painters would say; while to the left towers the far-famed Eagle's Nest, one of the glories of a district where all is grandeur. The lower and central portion of this giant cliff, which rises to a height of about a thousand seven hundred feet above the water, are covered with a rich mantle of foliage, the trees being of various kinds, arbutus, ash, oak, and holly predominating; but here and there, particularly near the summit, are openings, through which the grey or bleached perpendicular rock shows itself. Here, time out of mind, have families of the golden eagle (Falco chrysaetos) made their eyrie; and the tangled woods upon our right are still haunts of the Cervus elephus, or stately red deer, a forest monarch now elsewhere, in Ireland, extinct, having perished with the woods that sheltered them. Here it is customary for the bugler to sound a note, which is reproduced by a "voice of the rock," which sounds like fairy cadence, "sometimes pausing, sometimes rushing in rapid succession of notes, and melting into hushing whispers, swelling up

again, and anon dying away in murmurs soft and low." "The echo," says Forbes, "is really wonderful and wonderfully sweet, repeating most distinctly, again and again in the far distance, every word that is shouted by the boatmen, the still decreasing sounds dying away so insensibly, that you know not when they cease. It is a perfect Ariel song, floating along the air of the hollow glens like a fascination. Let no one pass the Eagle's Nest without waking the fairy from its repose. Again, the bugler gives a rapid succession of notes; and immediately all the wonders of sound are multiplied a hundredfold; and the voices seem to be 'ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.'

After a short exercise of the oars, and "shooting" the old Wier Bridge, we reach the " Meeting of the Waters," where the river is divided: one portion gliding by the right, to Tore Lake; the other passing Dinis Island, to the Lower Lake at Glena Bay. On Dinis is a very pretty cottage, where tourists usually rest and unpack the baskets of the good things which, according to order, have been provided for them by their landlord in Killarney. Amongst the rest, cutlets of salmon will usually be found. These will be deliciously cooked for them in the cottage, by a process of broiling which is accomplished by the aid of a fire made of arbutus, the slices being skewered on a spray off the same species of wood. Salmon prepared for table in this way is supposed to possess a peculiarly delicious flavour. Probably, the fish done any other way, so that it was done, might prove equally palatable to the hungry viator. However, the "correct thing" is to have the broil performed in the Dinis fashion.

Dinis Island is connected with the mainland by Old Wier Bridge, already referred to, a picturesque structure consisting of two arches. Before leaving the immediate neighbourhood of the island, the visitor should see O'Sullivan's Punch Bowl. The passage into Muckross, Torc, or Middle Lake is of almost unexceptional beauty. Here it was that Sir Walter Scott exclaimed, “This is worth coming to see." Of Torc Lake a notice will be found a few pages further on.

We now enter Lough Leane, or the Lower Lake, by Glena Bay, a delightful spot, which has been described as "thrice lovely." Here, amongst the rocks and undulations of the shore, is a very forest of arbutus ; while its southern side, wrote Carr, "presented a varied covering of the tops of oak, ash, pine, birch-trees, and alder, white