Not without a passing regret do we leave the Gap. It has its own charm, arousing wonder and curiosity and a certain awe. One really feels when the Pike is reached as though there was nothing strange in its having emanated from the giant’s sword.
The scene surveyed from here is very beautiful, and tempts delay, but the Upper Lake must be reached. By the side of the hill you descend is the Logan stone, or “balanced rock,” long considered a wonder of Druidical times. Some affirm now that its rocking motion is from natural causes, but, set as it is on the lonely hill, it looks as if it well might have been fashioned by those stern old heathen.
Still descending, the road takes a sharp backward curve to the foot of Fubrahy’s Crags; then, turning again, it continues till, after crossing a bridge, it passes through an opening in the wall into Gurmaheen Demesne, within which are tea and waiting rooms, called “Lord Brandon’s Cottage.” From thence a short path descends to the Upper Lake, where in some sheltered bay your boat awaits you.
{THE EAGLE’S NEST, KILLARNEY.}
CHAPTER III
THE LAKES AND THE MOUNTAINS
No one has ever realized the enchantment of Killarney or fallen under its spell who has not been upon its waters. As the boat glides into the Upper Lake, all that has ever been said of its varied beauty seems poor compared to the reality. The mountains which surround it on every side give indescribable grandeur to its scenery—so much so that, added to the contrasted beauty of its wooded isles, it is on the whole conceded that it bears the golden apple from its sister lakes; certainly, as the boatmen row from point to point, you say so, and memory, bringing back the vision in after days—perhaps in the hot and dusty thoroughfare—confirms the verdict.
The Upper Lake contains twelve small islands, some of them of such a height that at a distance they resemble so many lofty towers standing in the waters, their summits crowned with bright green wreaths of the arbutus and many another verdant shrub and tree. In other aspects they appear to represent the ruins of stately palaces. To add to this effect, their edges are so much worn by the dashing of water against them, and by rains washing away the earth, and “time hath so disjointed these marble rocks,” that some hang in such curious fashion as to represent a rude architectural formation.