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| CROAGH PATRICK, CO. MAYO. -This sketch displays Croagh Patrick, that monarch of the mountains around beauteous Clew Bay, in Mayo, in all its grandeur. Seen from the level of the water it towers majestically toward the heavens and gives an impression of much greater altitude than it really possesses. The most Irish atmosphere, particularly toward sunset, has a microscopic effect on all objects, but particularly on lofty eminences. "Saw ye the mountains look huge at eve? So is our chieftain in battle," wrote Thomas Davis, when singing the praises of the princely and generous "O'Brien of Ara." His figure was true to nature. The Irish hills, under atmospheric influences, seem to rise to twice their natural structure, almost rivaling in appearance some of the mammoths of our Rocky Mountain ranges, but, of course, this effect is merely an optical illusion. In the dry, clear air of Wyoming, Colorado or Montana, Croagh Patrick would look comparatively diminutive. In Old Mexico, we remember gazing with disappointment at Orizaba and Popocatapetl, rising from ten to twelve thousand feet above the plain-they seemed so stunted? On the other hand, Mount Rainier, or Tacoms, in the moist climate of Washington, at the altitude of 14,500 feet above Puget Sound, came fully up to our ideas of sublimity. |
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