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page 23
This part of the subject may be concluded with observing -
that, from the multitude of brooks and torrents that fall
into these lakes, and of internal springs by which they are
fed, and which circulate through them like veins, they are
truly living lakes, "vivi lacus;" and are thus
discriminated from the stagnant and sullen pools frequent
among mountains that have been formed by volcanoes, and from
the shallow meres found in flat and fenny countries. The
water is also of crystalline purity; so that, if it were not
for the reflections of the incumbent mountains by which it
is darkened, a delusion might be felt, by a person resting
quietly in a boat on the bosom of Winandermere or
Derwent-water, similar to that which Carver so beautifully
describes when he was floating alone in the middle of lake
Erie or Ontario, and could almost have imagined that his
boat was suspended in an element as pure as air, or rather
that the air and water were one.
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Having spoken of Lakes I must not omit to mention, as a
kindred feature of this country, those bodies of still water
called TARNS. In the economy of nature these are useful, as
auxiliars to Lakes; for if the whole quantity of water which
falls upon the mountains in time of storm were poured down
upon the plains without intervention, in some quarters, of
such receptacles, the inhabitable grounds would be much more
subject than they are to inundation. But, as some of the
collateral
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