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beauty of the lake is only seen in the boat, and it is very
surprising. The bottom resembles a mosaic pavement of
party-coloured stone. The fragments of spar at the depth of seven
yards either shine like diamonds, or glitter in diversity of
colour; and such is the purity of the water, that no mud or ooze
defiles its bottom. Mr. Pennant navigated the lake; and as his
description is more compressed than any other, and gives a
distinct idea of its appearances, I shall here subjoin it.
'The views on every side are very different; here all the
possible variety of Alpine scenery is exhibited, with the horror
of precipice, broken crag, overhanging rock, or insulated
pyramidal hills, contrasted with others, whose smooth and verdant
sides, swelling into immense aerial heights, at once please and
surprise the eye.
'The two extremities of the lake afford most discordant
prospects: the southern is a composition of all that is horrible;
an immense chasm opens, whose entrance is divided by a rude conic
hill, once topt with a castle, the habitation of the tyrant of
the rocks; beyond, a series of broken mountainous crags, now
patched with snow, soar one above the other, overshadowing the
dark winding deep of Borrowdale. In the recesses are lodged a
variety of minerals &c.
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