Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-21
KILLARNEY'S LAKES.
Wakeman Climbs to the Summit Of
Carrantuohill and Viewsa
PANORAMA OF RARE sPLENDOR.
A Grand Series of Charming Prospects That
Bewilder the Beholder.
WHERE THE ARTIFIcER BUILDED WE'LL

L
KILLARNEY, IRELAND, April 9.-An
excellent general idea of the topography of
the Emerald Isle was once suggested by a
writer who ikened it to a terraqueous trench
| er, rhomboldal in form, the circle inscribed
within its lozenge-shaped parallelogram
comprising a vast field of limestone, the
mountains of granite, clay-slate and quartz
of the island being found outside the de-
scribed circle in the angles of the rim of this
| "terraqueous trencher." A glance at the
map of Ireland and the general contour Of
its mountain ranges will show the excellent
exactness of this idea.
tramped from the old city of Tralee, the
capital of Kerry, and the ancient seat Of
authority of the powerful, brave and unfor-
tunate Desmonds, in order to stand upon
the very highest elevation in Ireland and
contemplate the Killarney region. For
here, winding between the heads of those
| grandly great and magnificent bays of Din
gle and Kenmare, bosomed between, or at
the edges of, the noblest mountains of Ire
land lies that trinity of enchantment, the
lakes of Killarney. Their majestic power
and charm sooner or later brings every
world traveller to them; but the thrill their
very name causes in every Irish exile's
heart il beyond the power of conception or
expression by one. of other nationality. L
once got the faintest echo of this heart
passion in America, under most unromantic
circumstances. Early one Sunday morning
1 was strolling along the Hudson, when on
coming to the little Riverside Park at the
foot of West Eighty-seventh street in New
York, I found its only other occupant to be
an Irish laborer, engaged during the week
among the blasting gangs in that vicinity.
He was smoking his pipe and gazing
dreamily across the placid river upon the
hazy Jersey heights above. I sat down be-
side him, and we were soon
TALKING ABOUT IRELAND,
Of County Kerry, of which he was native,
and, of necessity, of Killarney, its fondest
pride. Finally silence followed; he puffed
| at his pipe; and we both looked across the
river again. felt he saw Killarney even
in this mean mimicry of blue and heights
and haze, and said, quietly:
it9" '-O'.''
As If his thoughts and longings were in
supportable. he sprang from the bench,
| dashed his pipe to the ground, and hinging
BILE gesture of desperate protest at change
less absence from things loved, blurted out,
| piteously:
''Manim asthee hu, Cill-airneadh" (My
soul is within thee, KillarneyD
thought of this yesterday among the
Kerry peasantry over behind the Carran-
! tuohilI, where you will hear little else than
Gaelic, and where they will tell you strange
| legends about this highest mountain in Ire
land; not the least interesting of which dis
close the Gaelic meaning of its name. A
carran is an ancient reaping hook and tust-
| hail means left handed. Thus Carrantuohill
means left handed, or inverted, reaping
hook. And if you will climb the majestic
peak as did, and descend through the
| grewsome Hays Valley, you will see that
| its concaYe edge is tremendous serrated
rim, whose mighty clefts and projecting
crags form innumerable jagged teeth, cut
as clearly against the clouds as ever teeth
were cut in the ancient utensil, whose simi-
larity in reversed form gave the mountain
its name.
was told BY a score of the peasantry
that any attempt to scale Carrantuohill
would result in my being "kilt entirely"
But as ] had climbed every height in Ire
land, from storied Tara Hill, away around
the eastern, northern and western coasts, 1
set out before daylight without trepidation.
Although the spring is now well advanced
in Southern ireland, at about $500 feet
above the sea reached the worst impedi-
mept where snow began. For here were
countless bog g-pockets, filled with melted
SNOW and ice, into which frequently
plunged to my waist. Wherever turned
AN IMPAssABLE BARRIER
of slush and sinkholes seemed ready to
impede my passage. Two hours were con-
sumed in surmounting this difficulty; but
that overcome, whatever dangers 1 might
have ignorantly escaped, no discomforts at
tended the remaining truly Alpine ascent
not easily overcome by one of ordinary
nerve and muscle. The day was clear and
balmy, and already even in the highest al
titudes the softening influence of the sun
upon the almost crystal encrustation was
perceptible. Here and there black crag-
points jutted through the shroud-like
mountain-cap, and good footing was al
ways securable through trihing de1terity.
At IL O'Clock. I had gained the summit, and
was at the noblest height that man can at
tain by mere leg force in Ireland. If for no
other reason than to secure an exact mental
photograph of the physical contour of the
Killarney lake region, the rewards Of such
a task as this ascent infinitely exceed the
effort expended.
Bereft of natural magical charms or the
glowing imagries of hundred spellbound
writers, imagine then a confguration of
lakes and rivers shaped like a crescent, its
upper horn to the north, the outer rim of
its middle arc to the east, and its lower horn
lying to the south. Two silvery streams
flowing into the point of the southern horn,
are the Gearhameen and Owenreach rivers.
These, with innumerable minor streams
from mountain cascades, are the first feed
ing waters of the Killarney lakes A little
distance below, that is north of their con-
fuence, the first lake, known as the Upper
Lake, begins. This is the smallest of the
three lakes; and is but two miles in length
and half in breadth. From this
there runs northeast to the middle,
or Tore Lake, a wild and beautiful
stream known as Long Range. Tore lake
at the middle and eastern side of the cres-
cent is next larger in size. 1t is trife over
two miles long and one mile wide Almost
at its very entrance the Long Range stream
divides, giving the middle, or Tore lake, a
portion of its waters, and pouring the re-
mainder into the southern projection of the
Lower lake. The latter, called Lough
Leane, is about four miles in length and
two and a half in breadth. Its trend is to
the northwest, and its waters are carried
through another silvery channel, streaming
to the northwest from the extreme northern
horn-tip of the crescent. by the beautiful
river Laune to Castlemaine barbor in
Dingle Bay.
THE LAKE REGION.
Thus line drawn from the confluence of
the ond T,auna rivoro oronnd