 |
| THE UPPER LAKE, KILLARNEY. -It has been well said by many appreciative travellers that Killarney "outdoes even itself," speaking of it as an entirety, in the heavenly Upper Lake, a fine view of which is presented in the picture. Here the mountains, with their magical shadowings, assume their grandest shapes, and the numerous fine islands, richly clad in arbutus, juniper, ash and holly, diversify the bosom of the waters, rippling beneath the even strokes of the skilled boatmen, who are possessed of an esprit de corps that would do honor to the famed gondoliers of Venice. As the little vessel glides along, the voyager has a fine opportunity to note the picturesque changes of form and color that present themselves at every turn. Wherever he may look, on lake, mountain or island, beauty sits enthroned. Nowhere else in the world is so much loveliness grouped without being crowded. It is difficult not to imagine that, at the creation, there must have been an Irish Adam and Eve to inhabit this sylvan paradise-either that, or the Hebrew historians must have mistaken the Euphrates for the river Laune and Eden for Killarney. This noble scenic vision spoils the tourist for other scenes, even the most majestic. There is a loveliness about the Upper Lake and its surroundings, that no pen can describe or artist's pencil portray. It has the lights and shadows of a world more than earthly-an "earnest," as it were, of "the Kingdom God has prepared for those who love Him." |
 |  |