Those lovely islands that sit like stately crowns upon the waters, were
doubtless the wreck that remained of the valley; elevated spots, whose
rocky basis withstood the force of the rushing waters, that carried away
the lighter portions of the soil. The southern shore, seen from the lake,
seems to lie in regular ridges running from south to north; some few are
parallel with the lake-shore, possibly where some surmountable impediment
turned the current the subsiding waters; but they all find an outlet
through their connexion with ravines communicating with the lake.
There is a beautiful level tract of land, with only here and there a
solitary oak growing upon it, or a few stately pines; it is commonly
called the "upper Race-course," merely on account of the smoothness of the
surface; it forms a high tableland, nearly three hundred feet above the
lake, and is surrounded by high hills. This spot, though now dry and
covered with turf and flowers, and low bushes, has evidently once been
a broad sheet of water. To the eastward lies a still more lovely and
attractive spot, known as the "lower Race-course;" it lies on a lower level
than the former one, and, like it, is embanked by a ridge of distant hills;
both have ravines leading down to the Rice Lake, and may have been the
sources from whence its channel was filled.
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