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| TORC MOUNTAIN, CO. KERRY. -Dr. P. W. Joyce, the greates living authority on Gaelic forms, ancient and modern, says that the word Torc, pronounced "turk," means a boar. These animals in a wild state, formerly abounded in Ireland. They are, according to the erudite Doctor, frequently mentioned in old poems and folk lore. Hunting the wild boar was a favorite amusement of the Celtic Irish. Torc, or turk, gives name to a large number of Irish places, including Torc Mountain, sketched above; Kanturk-boar's head-in the County Cork; Inisthurk-island of the boars-in Clew Bay, County Mayo; and Drumhirk, the genitive form, which allows the "t" to be aspirated, in Ulster. Torc Mountain, glorious in its ever changing hues, as cloud and sunshine alternately shade and illumine its lofty crest, hangs above the Middle Lake of Killarney and is one of the most sublime features of that picturesque locality. And yet, as a gifted writer truly observes, "The unrivalled beauties of the Kilarney lakes fo not so much depend upon the sublime grandeur of their mountain surroundings, with their different shades of purple gorse and heather, in all their various hues, or on the numerous silvery rills which course down the acclivities, or the exquisite timing and varieties of the foliage, or the singular character of the water-worn limestone which forms the basis of the islands with which the lakes are studded, as on the unequalled combination of all as an ever changing scene." |
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