likewise larger in
circumference, comprehending a space of about five acres; its surface
rocky, speckled with snow, and sprinkled over with birch-trees; it was
divided towards the south from the other island by a narrow frith, and
in like manner from the northern shore of the lake; on the east and west
it was separated from the shore by a much larger space of smooth water.

Marvellous was the illusion! Comparing the new with the old Island, the
surface of which is soft, green, and unvaried, I do not scruple to say
that, as an object of sight, it was much the more distinct. 'How little
faith,' we exclaimed, 'is due to one sense, unless its evidence be
confirmed by some of its fellows! What Stranger could possibly be
persuaded that this, which we know to be an unsubstantial mockery, is
_really_ so; and that there exists only a single Island on this
beautiful Lake?' At length the appearance underwent a gradual
transmutation; it lost its prominence and passed into a glimmering and
dim _inversion_, and then totally disappeared; leaving behind it a clear
open area of ice of the same dimensions. We now perceived that this bed
of ice, which was thinly suffused with water, had produced the illusion,
by reflecting and refracting (as persons skilled in optics would no
doubt easily explain) a rocky and woody section of the opposite mountain
named Silver-how.

Having dwelt so much upon the beauty of pure and still water, and
pointed out the advantage which the Lakes of the North of England have
in this particular over those of the Alps, it would be injustice not to
advert to the sublimity that must often be given to Alpine scenes, by
the agitations to which those vast bodies of diffused water are there
subject. I have witnessed many tremendous thunder-storms among the Alps,
and the most glorious effects of light and shadow: but I never happened
to be present when any Lake was agitated by those hurricanes which I
imagine must often torment them. If the commotions be at all
proportionable to the expanse and depth of the waters, and the height of
the surrounding mountains, then, if I may judge from what is frequently
seen here, the exhibition must be awful and astonishing.--On this day,
March 30, 1822, the winds have been acting upon the small Lake of Rydal,
as if they had received command to carry its waters from their bed into
the sky; the white billows in different quarters disappeared under
clouds, or rather drifts, of spray, tha