| After passing the Gap, we come to the Dark Valley, which is certainly one of the finest bits of the picturesque about Killarney. A view is annexed of this wild and desolate hollow, surrounded by its dreary hills. As it was altogether impossible for // me to ascend those heights in such weather, I should like again to make use of the pen of Mr, Weld, but have now only room to refer the reader to his elegant work. In the weather in which I was so unfortunate as to see Killarney, much of the beauty was of course lost. The mountains were merely masses of shadow, without form or character; and it was only a transient gleam of light, now and then, which enabled me to imagine their real effects. Weld, however, gives an account of rather a curious phenomenon, arising from a different state of the atmosphere. "Occasionally," says he, "an effect is produced by the setting of the sun on the range of mountains bounding the lake, not less beautiful than rare, and totally different from what I remember to have seen in other mountainous countries; though doubtless, in particular situations, the same appearance may result from the variations in the atmosphere. I can only attempt to give an idea of it by describing it as displaying the mountain in a transparent state, and suffused with a lively purple hue. Varying, however, from the aerial aspect of distant mountains, all the objects upon them, rocks, woods, and even houses, are distinctly visible —more so indeed than at noon- day; whilst, at the same time, their forms appear so unsubstantial, so ethereal, that one might almost fancy it possible to pass through them without resistance." [Vol. II, p. 242-243] |
