MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 327
This tree is extremely agreeable in every diiFerent circumilance of vegetation, for it hath, at one and the fame time, rips and green fruit upon its branches, which, as they approach to ripenefs, from green become yellow, and at length ter- minate in a fine fcarlet colour, re- fembling in form a field ftraw- berry, though in fize that of the belt garden kind.
The bloflbms grow in clufters of fmall white bells, not unlike thofe of the lily of the valley ; and in fuch great nbur.dance, as, in that refped alone, to be equal in beauty to the lauruflinus, and in other refpefts, much foperior to it ; for the agreeable verd ore of the leaves, not much unlike the bay, the fcarlet hue of the tender part of the ftalk, and all the different ftages of vegetation, at one and the fame time, from the knitting fruit to perfeifl ripenefs, cannot but be exceedin;? agreeable to the curious obferver.
Upwards of forty idands in this lake are covered with an intermix- ture of thefe trees and other fhrubs ; belides, at lead a fourth part of the afcent of the mountains, the verges of whofe bafes, like that of Man- gercon, and others abovementioned, are wafhed by the water of this lake.
Thus having mentioned what
was remarkable of the mountains which furround it, and of the lake itfelf, and its iflands, T (hall beg leave to apply the following lines of the poet, whofe defcription of the lake Fergus is no ill picture of Lough-lane.
Ncn ilia plura cajljlros
Carmina Cignorum lakcntibus audit
in undis. Silva coronat aquas, cinger.s latus
omne ; fuijque Frondibus, ut velo, Pkabeosfuhmovst
ignes. Frigora daiit ramij Tyrio! humus
humid a Jloresy Perpetuum 'uer ejl.
Ovid. Metam. Lib. V.
The principal inhabitants of thefe lofty mountains, except a few woodmen, kept in thefe forefts by the lord of the foil, are great herds of red deer; the chace of which af- fords a much higher gratification to the fportfmen than in moft other places. And when a flag is hunt- ed near this lake, nothing is more agreeably furprifing, than the re- peated echoes : it being fcarce pofTible to diftinguilh the real clan- gor of the French horns, or the true cry of the dogs, from the num- berlefs reverberations of them a- mong the rocks and mountains.
The echoes which are caufed by this fport, reverberate the found
to Ireland than the mod fomhern parts of France, Italy, and Sicily; and there too, it is never known but as a frurex or flirub ; v/hereas in the rocky parts of the county of Kerry, about Lough-lane, and in Ibnie of the rocky mountains adjacent, where the people of the country call it the cane apple, it flourilhes naturally to that degree as to become a large tall tree. Petrus Bellonius ob- ferves, that it doth io in mount Athos in Macedonia ; and Juba is quoted by Plmy, as mentioning it as a thing extraordinary, that the arbutus grows to an high tree in Arabia. Dr. Molineux adds, that the trunks of the tr.ees of Ireland have been frequently lour feet and an half in circumference oi' i8 inches diameter; and that the trees grow to about nine or ten yards in height, and in fuch plenty, that many ot them have been cut down to melt and refine the ore ©f fdver and lead mines difcovered near Rofs caftle.
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