ZIRICNITZ, or CznixNerz, LAKE (Ger. ezirAmiizersee,lucuslugeus of Strabo), a small lake of Austria, in Carniola, about 20 m. s.s.w. of Laibach, and 30 in. e.n.e. of Trieste, is situated in a deep valley to the s. of Mt. Javornik, and to the n.e. of Mt. Sli The lake is about 5 m. long, and between 2 and 3 broad, is surrounded with nu merous villages, chapels, and castles, contains four small islands—on the largest of which is built the hamlet of Ottok—and has no surface outlet. It is about 56 ft. deep in the deepest part, and is very irregular in shape. It is worthy of notice only on account of the very remarkable phenomenon of the occasional disappearance of its waters for several weeks, and even months, during which the bottom is often covered with luxuriant herbage, which the peasants make into hay; sometimes also"they manage even to sow and reap a.
small crop of buckwheat in its deserted bed. The waters, however, are not perfectly regular in their disappearance—indeed, sometimes for five or six years together they have not retired at all—but generally they drain off in the end of August, and return, if the season be wet, in five or six weeks. It takes between 20 and 25 days to empty the lake, but the return of the waters is sudden and unexpected, its basin being refilled some times in 24 hours. The phenomenon is accounted for by the nature of the bed of the lake. It is composed of limestone, and, like all the Carniolaic plateau, is full of deep fis sures and caverns, through which the waters disappear at irregular intervals, returning when the rain sets in. Some of these openings are 50 ft. deep, and the chief ones are
known to the peasantry by particular names. They communicate with subterranean reservoirs, penetrating the interior of the surrounding mountains, through which the waters are replenished or drawn off. There are 12 of these openings which discharge water into the lake as well as draw it off, and 28 which draw it off only. Through the former of these the water pours in after rainy weather as from a spout. When the sur face of the lake reaches the caverns of Velka-Karlanza and Malka-Karlanza, the waters are discharged by these into the valley of St. Canzian, and after disappearing several. times, fall into the Unz, above Planina. Sometimes, however, the volume of water is so great that these caverns prove insufficient to carry it off, when the lake overflows and covers the neighboring country, goinetiines submerging villages. In 1834, the lake was drained in January, and remained perfectly dry till the end of February, 1833, a circum stance without parallel since the time that any records of its history have been kept. The lake is pretty well stocked with fish, and at certain times is the resort of great numbers of waterfowl, which afford both sport and profit.—There is a small village of the same name on a small stream that falls into the u. side of the lake.