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CAVES IN THE MENDIP HILLS.

THE limestone of these hills is intersected by numerous caves and fissures, which have been discovered at different times by workmen quarrying the ochre clay, with which they are generally lined and nearly filled. At the village of Hutton, near Bamwell, at an elevation of from three to four hundred feet above the level of the present sea, the workmen came to a fissure about eighteen inches broad and four feet long, which after continuing to a depth of twentyfour feet, opened into a cavern about twenty feet square, and four or five high, the floor consisted of ochre, mixed with which, and strewed on its surface, were quantities of white bones, in the centre a large stalactite hung from the roof, and below it another rose from the floor which nearly met it; in one of the walls, an opening about a yard square, and eighteen in length, led to a second cavern, thirty feet in length and five in breadth; both filled with ochre, mingled with bones as before, of elephants, horses, oxen, and bears, which it appears must have been drifted in by diluvial waters, or have belonged to animals who had fallen in and perished.

Another passage of about the same length, but twice the size of the former one, branched off from this second chamber; this, as well as some others not excavated, was also filled with the ochre and bones.

In sinking the shaft for a lead mine, through a limestone rock in Derbyshire, near Wirksworth, the workmen arrived at a large cavern, which was filled with a rubble of clay and stones, on gradually removing which, a communication with the field above, by a natural shaft which had been also filled up, was discovered, by the contents subsiding into the chamber as this latter was gradually emptied. In the middle of the cave, and bedded in the rubbish, was found the entire skeleton of a rhinoceros, which had clearly been destroyed by the diluvial waters, and washed by them through the open shaft into the cave, together with the mass that filled it.

CAVE OF PAVILAND.

THE chalk cliffs of the sea-coast of our island are liable to the formation of caverns, like the inland limestone rocks which have been already mentioned: of these, one, called Goat's Hole, is in the face of a precipitous cliff, fifteen miles west of Swansea. The mouth of this is accessible only at low water, it being situated 100 feet below the level of the land above, but the beach slopes up to the entrance, so that the cavern may be entered, which is situated about forty feet above high-water mark. During violent storms, the waves wash into it, and some large stones just within the entrance being agitated by these, have, in process of time, worn holes in the floor of the cave, at the bottom of which they now lie; while sea pebbles and shells strew the space near the mouth. The floor, however, rises rapidly inwards, and beyond the action of the present ocean, there is found the rubble mingled with bones, before mentioned as occurring in similar recesses, the silent but convincing evidence of another and a mightier one. But what rendered this cavern still more interesting, was the discovery of the greater part of a female skeleton, consisting of one side, the hand of the left arm being wanting; with traces of some of the flesh, the rest of the skeleton had obviously been removed by digging, which had evidently been frequent, from the mingling of the remains of animals of antediluvian origin, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, bear, and hyæna, with fragments of bones of sheep bearing distinct marks of having served as human food. Close to the side of the female skeleton, where the pocket is worn, Professor Buckland, to whom we are indebted for this description, found about two handfuls of small shells, and forty to fifty fragments of small ivory rods, from one to three quarters of an inch in diameter, and from one to four inches in length; together with bits of ivory rings which must have been four or five inches in diameter; these were apparently made from the tusks and teeth of animals found in the cave. Some fragments of charcoal, and a small flint which had been used in striking light, together with other articles fashioned out of ivory by hand, proved that the woman at least, if not others, had inhabited the cave at some very remote period.

The remains of an ancient British camp existing on a hill immediately above the cavern, affords some clue as to the date of this person's existence: and what is curious, the same species of shell as those found with the skeleton, are still used in a game by children in some parts of the country, while ivory toys resembling those alluded to, have

been found in ancient British barrows: so that from these and other concurring testimonies, it should seem that the female was cotemporary with the Roman possession of Great Britain; thus forming an intermediate link in the chain of historic records of past ages, not written by the hand of man. In the limestone cliffs of the southern coast of our island, there are several caves formed by the continued action of the ocean, such as the cavern in Anstey's cove, Daddy's Lulworth and the Isle of Wight. hole, Thunder hole, and others near Torbay, and some near

The following brief notice of other Caverns in different parts of the British isles, is all our limits will admit of. At Demalt, five miles from Dufton, in Westmoreland. Hetherburn Cave, near Stanhope, in Durham, runs above a mile underground. In Yorkshire, the following are all Sear; Weathercot Cave, near Ingleton: Tiemhams Mine, noticed as curiosities in different local guides; Gigglewick Coniston Moor, and Hardrawkin.

from Lancaster; and Gingling Cave, in Kingsdale. In Lancashire, Dunald Mill Hole, near Kellet, eight miles

In Staffordshire, Thor's House, or Thyrsis Cave, in ford, is two hundred and eight yards long, and forty or Wotton Dale; Ludchurch, between Swithamly and Wharnfifty deep.

KIRKDALE CAVE.

In the summer of 1821, a cavern was discovered near Kirkdale, about twenty-five miles N.N.E. of York, in a bank about sixty feet above the bottom of a small valley, and near to a public road. Some workmen who were quarrying this bank, cut across the narrow mouth of the cave, which had been choked up with rubbish and overgrown with grass and bushes, and from this cause, as well as from its inaccessible situation, had hitherto escaped observation; since then, about thirty feet of the bank have been cut away, and the present entrance is a hole in the perpendicular face of the quarry about three feet high, and five broad; which it is only possible for a person to enter by creeping on his hands and knees. The passage contracts and expands irregularly, being sometimes from only two to seven feet in breadth, and from two to fourteen feet in height; its main direction is E.S.E., and its greatest length is 245 feet. It divides into several smaller passages, which have not yet been explored, being nearly choked up by the stalactites; there are but two or three places where a person can stand upright; these occur where the roof is intersected by fissures, which after continuing for a few feet, close gradually upwards in the limestone bed above, and are from this circumstance thickly lined with stalactites; the real floor of the cave is only seen, and that but partially, near the entrance; further in, the whole of it has been covered over with a bed of hardened mud, about a foot in average thickness, the surface of which was perfectly smooth and level when the cave was first opened, except where stalagmites had been formed on it by filtration from the roof: and where the stalactites had been formed on the sides they had, on arriving at the surface of this mud, spread over it like a thin crust of ice, obviously proving that the chalky deposits have been made since the mud had been introduced; in some cases, where these incrustations were thick, they formed a bridge quite across the floor, and were left in that form when the mud was cleared away from beneath them; on the naked rocky floor stalagmitic coverings were also found, these had been covered over by the mud which must have been introduced all at one time in a fluid state; and having dried, the formation of chalky depositions, which must have always been in operation, continued, and has partially covered its surface. The mud just described was filled with fragments of bones of a great variety of animals, all broken, and bear ing the appearance of having been gnawed by others; and, from many corroborative circumstances, these appear to have been hyenas; while the bones on which they had preyed, according to the habits of that species, belonged to the following very distinct tribes of animals tiger, bear, wolf, fox, and weasel; elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and horse; ox and deer; hare, rabbit, water-rat, and mouse; ravens, pigeons, larks, and ducks.

We can here only give the general conclusions at which Professor Buckland, and other scientific men, have arrived, who have attentively examined these wonderful remains of animals, now so foreign to our climates; but our readers may rest assured that these conclusions are logically and carefully deduced from the facts. It appears then, that the cave at Kirkdale was, during a long succession of years,

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Entrance to the KIRKDALE CAVE; copied, with permission, from the Reliquiæ Diluvianæ.

the habitation of numerous hyænas, who dragged into it the bodies of most of the other animals above enumerated, for the purpose of preying on them; and that the hyænas themselves, as they died or were killed by their younger and stronger brethren, also served these for food.

It thus is rendered certain, that there was a time when our wilds and forests teemed with animals now only found in hotter and southern latitudes, that many generations of these lived and died, and were the prey or the tyrants of others; that the hyaena, according to the instincts which still actuate it, dragged the bodies of those it killed or found slain, into their dens, and there devoured them at their leisure; and that, finally, some great catastrophe brought destruction to the whole race, involving the remains of the dead in one mass; since which other species of animals have alone inhabited this country, differing entirely in habits and manners from their predecessors.

That the catastrophe alluded to was a deluge, there is no doubt, and this, from its gradual approach, gave the existing living animals, who then inhabited the cave, time to escape, which accounts for the circumstance of no entire skeleton of a hyæna being found in it; the turbid waters, when they filled the cave, buried the animal remains, and, gradually evaporating, left them encased in a bed of mud; to be discovered after the lapse of many centuries, and to excite our admiration at the wonderful power of the Creator of all things.

KENT'S CAVERN, NEAR TORQUAY. AN extensive cavern known by this name, exists in a limestone rock about a mile from Torquay. It is said to be nearly 600 feet in length, and varies in width from two to seventy feet; in some parts so low, as not to admit persons but on their hands and knees, and in others about

Entrance to Kent's Cavern,

six yards high; fossil bones of the same species of antediluvian animals are found in it, buried in a similar mass of mud, and covered over with a crust or flooring of stalagmitic formation; it also appears, from some relics of human labours, to have been made use of as a habitation: at the further extremity of the cavern, there is a pool of water.

OUR limits will not allow of, nor indeed is it consistent with our present purpose to give further examples of discoveries of collections of bones in caverns in our own country, all tending to prove the former existence in it of animals, known not to have been living there from the earliest records of human history. Those who desire to read this page in the history of the world, written, if we may dare so to express ourselves, for the instruction of man by the hand of his Creator, may refer to Professor Buckland's valuable work Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, from which we have selected most of the facts given in different parts of this paper, relative to this subject.

One circumstance, however, we cannot refrain from noticing here, as showing that very interesting deductions may be made by men of knowledge and sagacity, from minute facts which would escape common observation. Among the numerous fragments of skeletons of antediluvian animals, the attentive naturalist frequently finds positive indications of the creature's having, when living, suffered severe injuries from other beasts of prey, or by accident; and that according to the laws which govern organized existence, these have been partially repaired during the life of the animal. Thus Professor Sommering has in his collection, the head of an antediluvian hyæna, from which part of the nose, with the canine and incisor teeth, had been entirely torn away, and the skull otherwise dreadfully lacerated by the fangs of some more powerful animal, and the individual had survived till the injuries had been considerably, and as far as possible, repaired.

LIMESTONE CAVERNS IN GERMANY. CLEFTS, fissures, and caves, similar to those described as found in England, occur in different parts of Germany, in limestone, in such numbers as to preclude even enumeration in such a paper as this; all present the same general phenomena as that of Kirkdale, containing a mass of diluvial rubble, mingled with bones of animals now no longer inhabiting those countries, or even any parts of the globe. The formation of stalactite also agrees in its appearance with that already described in the English cave; but, of course, the peculiarities of each case are much modified by the different circumstances of the natural features of the countries and the habits of the animals; thus, those caves which have never been entirely closed up, contain, along with the fossil bones of extinct species of bears, hyænas, &c., the remains of animals that still exist; and in the Cavern of Gailenreuth, one of the largest and most celebrated of them, fragments of sepulchral urns, at least 800 years old, have been found,

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The animal which made these caverns its dwellings before the period of the deluge, was the bear, as is demonstrated by the far greater quantity of the remains of that creature than of any other; and by these being found in every state, both of subsequent decay, and of age in the animal when it died. These bears feeding chiefly on vegetables, and being only occasionally carnivorous, there are few remains of animals which apparently had served them for food; nor are the bones of such, when found, gnawed, as is the case with those taken into caverns by hyænas for that purpose.

The principal caves of this kind above alluded to are, those of Scharzfeld, in Hanover; Bauman's Höhle, in Blankenburg, which derives its name from a miner, who, in 1670, ventured into it alone, to search for ore, and who, having lost himself, and wandered three days and nights in solitude and darkness, at length found his way out so exhausted by hunger, that he died immediately. Biel's Höhle, about a quarter of a mile from the last, and named from a heathen temple, some traces of which still exist on the cliff above it; no bones were found in this, from its having no opening at the period alluded to; but it is much visited on account of the beauty and variety of its stalactites, and the whole floor is covered to a considerable thickness with stalagmite; it is divided in its length by rocky projections, which separate the compartments or chambers,

over which the visiters are obliged to climb by means of ladders.

Round the city of Muggendorf, in Franconia, there are a variety of caves of similar nature and contents, which testify that the limestone table-land, in valleys and watercourses of which they occur, was, for centuries, the field over which thousands of gigantic bears and other wild beasts ranged unsubdued by man before the period of the deluge.

Of these, Forster's Höhle Professor Buckland states to be the most remarkable he had ever seen, for the beauty of its roof and the perfection of its stalagmite*. Its height varies from ten to thirty feet, and its greatest width is about ten yards; in the side vaults, or recesses, which descend, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, into the main chamber, the stalagmite has formed the appearance of cascades of pure alabaster, waves of which seem to be rushing out at the bottom, to pour themselves into the stagnant lake of the same substance, which forms the floor; the rocky roof has been corroded into deep cavities, separated by partitions of every conceivable form and thinness, giving it the ap pearance of a richly-fretted Gothic roof of a chapel, with pendent corbels, while beautiful stalactites, depending from these projections and reaching almost down to the floor, contribute by their delicacy to give additional richness to this effect.

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Another of these caves is called Zahnloch, or the "Hole of Teeth," from the abundance of fossil teeth that have been taken from it. This is situated on the side of a hill, at a considerable height; and, its entrance being visible from a distance, it has been known from a very early period. The principal chamber is sixty feet in length, and from twenty to forty in breadth, but so low, that there are few places in which a person can stand upright. On one side there is a second cavern, much loftier; in the middle of which is a large insulated block of stone, polished over its surface, as is conjectured, by the gambols of the bears which inhabited the cave; this animal being accustomed to climb up any thing in its place of abode, as may be noticed of those in the Zoological Gardens.

The next of these German caverns we shall notice is that of GAILENREUTH, which is the most remarkable of all for the quantity and high state of preservation of the bones found in it. We have given a section of this cave, copied from Professor Buckland's work, which will afford our readers a good idea of the structure and contents of these wonderful places, with the manner in which the diluvial deposits have been covered over with stalagmite.

The last that our limits admit of our mentioning is that of Kühl-loch. This, which, in size and proportions, is nearly equal to a large church, contains on its floor, and covering this to a depth of six feet, hundreds of cart-loads of black animal dust, mixed with teeth, principally pro

No bones were found in it, except a few of dogs and other modern animals, which were placed in it by the present guides for ornament! They thought naturalists came for bones, and did not wish that they should be disappointed,

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It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that caves and fissures analogous to those we have described, and containing antediluvian bones, have been found in France, Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Croatia, Carniola, Styria, Austria, Hungary, and Poland, as well as England and Germany

ance of regularity, almost architectural, which, though commonly exaggerated in drawings, is yet sufficiently striking to give the very peculiar character to this far-famed curiosity.

At the eastern end, then, of a cliff of these columns, the traveller discovers a cave, the sides of which are composed of them, supporting an irregular arch of rock, and penefeet: the width, at the entrance, is forty-two feet, the height of the pillars on the left, or western side, is thirty-six feet, while on the other they are only eighteen, owing to a causethe sea at that part, which diminishes the altitude of the way, formed of portions of the columns, running out into columns supporting the arch on that side. The height of

IN the Carpathian Mountains, caverns are very numerous. Two of these, Drachenhöhle and Sziliacz, excite the admi-trating under the surface of the island to a depth of 227 ration of common observers, from the circumstance of their having a large quantity of ice formed in them during summer, which melts at the approach of winter; but, to those conversant with the laws governing the relative temperature of the surface and interior of the earth, this phenomenon presents nothing remarkable.

Another grotto, situated on the left of the Danube, a little above the village of Ogradina, is celebrated for the defence which an Austrian general, Veteranı, made with a few followers, against the Turks, in 1694. This cavern, which is spacious enough to contain 1000 men, is inaccessible, except by a narrow entrance, four feet high and two broad, and this is secured by an iron gate, and, from embrasures cut in the rock, it has the command of the navigation of the Danube. There is something very painful in thus beholding the peaceful and beautiful works of nature made subservient to the bad passions of mankind.

the arched roof diminishes as he advances into the recess from sixty-six feet, which is the distance from the surface of the water to the top at the mouth, to a height of fifty, varying to forty-four. The vaulted ceiling presents a sin gularly rich and varied effect, being, in some places, com posed of the ends of portions of basaltic pillars, resembling a marble pavement, and in others of the rough surface of the naked rock, while, in some places, stalactites mingled with the pillars in the recesses, add, by the contrast of their colours, to the pictorial effect, which is still further enhanced by the varying reflected light thrown from the surface of the water, which always fills the bottom of the cave; this

The province of Carniola is especially celebrated for the numerous and vast caverns it contains; the principal dis-is nine feet deep at low water, and admits of persons reachtrict of these is what is called the Pear-tree Wood, one of the most considerable forests in Germany. Some of these caverns are said to be upwards of four miles in length, and in some instances they rise one above another in tiers, each being from twelve to twenty feet high, and lined with a great variety of stalactites. The most noted of them are, the Magdalen Grotto, near Adelsberg; that of Lueg, St. Servio, near Trieste; and the Grotto of Corgnale; but the most remarkable, with regard to the singular phenomenon they cause, are those near the Lake Zirknitz.

There are two openings in an adjacent rock, which carry off the superabundant water of the lake whenever it rises above the height of the base of them; but, what is more singular, there are, at the bottom of the basin, several holes, through which the whole body of water suddenly disappears. When this event is about to happen, the waters rush to these apertures, and in about twenty days the whole spot is laid dry: no sooner does this take place, than the rich soil is cultivated, an abundant vegetation soon covers the spot, and in three months a harvest of hay and millet is gathered, and game is pursued in places where, shortly before, fish swam in their native element. There is no precise time for these disappearances of this body of water: it has been known to occur and to be restored thrice in a twelvemonth; when it does happen, however, the waters constantly return in about four months, and flow with violence back again through the same apertures by which they retreated; and the basin is refilled again in twenty, four hours.-Superstition and ignorance have attributed this singular occurrence to supernatural agency, and it is regarded as a source of terror, though productive of benefit to the inhabitants. The real cause, however, is simply the connexion, by means of the apertures at the bottom, with vast hollows in the adjoining mountains, which are usually filled with snow or water from other sources; when this is, from any cause, diminished, the waters of the lake rush in to supply the deficiency; and when, on the other hand, they become again full, the water is forced back into its former basin.

CAVES IN THE WESTERN ISLES OF
SCOTLAND.

THE island of Staffa, one of the western isles of Scotland, is celebrated for a natural cave of singular beauty. This was first visited by the late Sir Joseph Banks, who gave it the name of Fingal's Cave, from some information he obtained of his guide; but it is known in the country by the Gaelic name of Uaimh-binn, the "Cave of Music," probably from the echo of the waves which wash into it. The steep cliffs of the island are almost every where composed of a peculiar species of rock, resembling angular columns, known by the scientific name of basaltic. At the highest part of the coast this cliff is 112 feet above high-water mark, and on the southern side, where the cave is situated, these columns are about two feet in diameter; though each column is seldom, if ever, straight, yet the whole, in a mass, presents to the eye an appear

ing the end in a boat, in tolerably calm weather; but when the boisterous gales of that northern clime blow into the cavern, the agitated waves dashing and breaking among the rocky sides, their roar, echoed with increased power from the roof, present to the eye and ear such a scene of grandeur as bids defiance to any description. The short columns, which form the natural causeway before mentioned, irregular path, which allows a skilful and fearless climber continue within the cave on each side, and form a broken and to reach the extremity on the eastern side on foot; but it is a task of danger at all times, and impossible at high tide, or in rough weather.

We cannot close this account better, than by quoting a passage on this subject from Dr. Macculloch's "Description of the Western Isles of Scotland," in which is contained not only the most accurate account of this beautiful scene, in a scientific point of view, but the most pictorial that a man of taste and feeling can give.

"If too much admiration has been lavished on it by some, and if in consequence more recent visitors have left it with disappointment, it must be recollected that all descriptions are but pictures of the feelings of the narrator; it is, moreover, as unreasonable to expect that the same objects should produce corresponding effects on all minds, on the enlightened and on the vulgar, as that every individual should alike be sensible of the merits of Phidias and

Raphael, of Sophocles and of Shakspeare. But if this richness arising from multiplicity of parts, combined with cave were even destitute of that order and symmetry, that greatness of dimension, and simplicity of style which it possesses; still the prolonged length, the twilight gloom half concealing the playful and varying effects of reflected light, the echo of the measured surge as it rises and falls, the transparent green of the water, and the profound and fairy solitude of the whole scene, could not fail strongly to impress a mind gifted with any sense of beauty in art or in nature, and it will be compelled to own, it is not without cause that celebrity has been conferred on the Cave of Fingal."

Besides the cave just described, Staffa contains eleven others; two of which would have commanded the foremost rank among natural curiosities, if they had not been which are also situated in the southern cliff of the island, eclipsed by that of Fingal. The westernmost of these, is called, Mac Kinnon's cave, or sometimes Cormorant's cave; it is more accessible by a boat than that of Fingal, is free from the rocks which narrow the channel and cause not only from its greater breadth, but because the entrance the sea to break into the former; the mouth is about fifty feet in height at quarter ebb tide, and forty-eight broad, presenting a square opening; its length or depth is two hundred and twenty-four feet, and it is of nearly the same the roof and walls approach a little, and a pebbly beach is dimensions throughout, except at the farthest end, where formed; the walls and ceiling, with slight exceptions, are columns and therefore being destitute of the varied effects of even and smooth; it not being formed in a mass of basaltic its more justly celebrated rival.

The intermediate cave, called Boat cave from its being accessable only by water, though comparatively insignificant in size, is strikingly beautiful from the greater symmetry of arrangement of the columnar cliff in which it is situated, it is fifteen feet high, and twelve broad, and about one hundred and fifty feet in depth. Its interior is plain and uninteresting, resembling a gallery in a mine.

The island of Egg, another of the same group, on the west coast of Scotland, contains a cave at the south-eastern side, of considerable size, but possesing a more horrible celebrity from its having been the scene of a barbarous massacre of the inhabitants, belonging to the clan Macdonald, by the Macleods, the unburied bones of the victims still are strewed over the floor; and in the inmost recesses are found those of the last victims, who gradually retreated there to escape from the suffocating smoke and heat of the fires kindled at the mouth by their blood-thirsty murderers, and to which they at last fell a prey; when the desperate exertions by which these victims could alone attain these final places of retreat are recalled to mind, some idea may be formed of the dreadful agony they must have previously endured, when, finding themselves cut off from all possibility of escape, they resigned themselves to their fate, and awaited a slow and lingering death. These dark scenes in history ought to convey a lesson to those who, from a blind perversity of intellect, regard those ages as the period of heroism and grandeur of the human race, and deplore the progress of civilization and refinement!

In many of the other islands in this quarter, are found caves of different sizes and forms; but they are not interesting either for their physical structure and appearance, or for any traditions attached to them.

IN some caverns, especially those in volcanic countries, deleterious vapour and gases escape from apertures, which render them dangerous. The most celebrated of these is the GROTTA DEL CANE, near Pozzuoli, four leagues from Naples; it is a small cave, about twelve feet long, six broad, and eight high, from the floor of which carbonic acid gas, a species of air, well known, and fatal to life, is constantly arising. This, however, from its being heavier than the common air of the atmosphere, only lies at the bottom of the cave, like a pool of water, so that no bad effects are felt from it by any person or animal tall enough to have their mouth above the surface of the fluid; but, when a dog is forced in he speedily becomes inanimate, and if kept long enough, would die; if, however, he is brought out again in time, he recovers; hence is derived the name of the place, which signifies the "Grotto of the Dog." This cruel experiment is made with some animals kept for the purpose, for a small remuneration, at the desire of those travellers who possess more curiosity than humanity, and more money than wit.

The GROTTA DEI SERPI is another small cavern, of a similar description, eight miles from Braccano in Italy. The hissing noise made by the air in escaping from the numerous apertures in the rock, gave rise to an absurd belief that serpents issued from them, and lepers and other persons suffering from cutaneous complaints, finding the warm air beneficial to them, asserted that they were "licked whole again by these reptiles."

THE GROTTO OF ANTIPAROS. ANTIPAROS, a small island in the Archipelago, about sixteen miles in circumference, and about a mile east of Paros; is celebrated for a remarkable cavern, of great extent and beauty: it is supposed to have been known from a remote period of antiquity, there being two inscriptions on natural pillars near the entrance, bearing the names of several persons celebrated in Grecian history; and, there exists a tradition among the inhabitants of the island, that Antipater and others, who conspired against Alexander the Great, took refuge there from pursuit, on the frustration of their designs. However this may be, either all knowledge of the interior was lost, or terror prevented any body from again exploring it, till Magni, an Italian in the seventeenth century, entered it; after him, it was visited by Tournefort and others, who have given more exact accounts of its structure, and removed the fabulous and exaggerated tales related of its splendour and magnificence, as well as of the dangers of visiting it.

The entrance is by a low arch, about thirty feet wide, which presents itself in the face of a cliff, this is divided into separate parts, by the pillars above alluded to, to one

of which a rope is fixed, to assist the curious in descending and returning from the grotto. A series of descents of different degrees of declivity and length, separated by level landing places, as it were, conducts the traveller about half way down, when a long and gentle descent, rendered very slippery by the moisture which is constantly exuding from the rocks, renders it necessary to him to avail himself of the assistance of the rope, or to descend by means of a ladder. On turning a rock at the bottom of this passage, which seems to close the entrance, he finds himself in a vast hall, the magnitude of which cannot be perceived by the faint light of the torches borne by the guides, rendered still more obscure by the humid exhalations which fill the space. The sides and roof are covered with immense incrustations of calcareous matter, which form either stalactites, depending from above, or irregular pillars rising from the floor, and several perfect columns reaching from this to the ceiling have been formed, and are still in the process of formation, by the union of the stalactite from above with the stalagmite below. All these being composed of matter slowly deposited, have assumed the most fantastic shapes, while the pure white and glittering spar beautifully catches and reflects the light of the torches, in a manner which causes all astonishment to cease at the romantic tales told of the place, of lanes of diamonds and ruby walls, the real truth, when deprived of all exaggeration, is, however, quite sufficient to excite admiration and awe. Some of these concretions form a kind of thin curtain, which is transparent when torches are placed behind it. The forms of all the depositions being governed by that of the fissures in the rock, from whence the matter exudes; and thus, when these are long and narrow, a thin veil as it were, is deposited.

In the middle of the great hall, as it is called, there is a remarkably large and fine stalagmite, more than twenty feet in diameter, and four and twenty high, this is termed the altar, from the circumstance of the Marquis de Nointe!, Ambassador from Louis XIV. to the Sultan, having caused a high mass to be celebrated in the Grotto in 1673. The ceremony was attended by 500 persons, and the place was illuminated by 100 large wax torches, and 400 lamps, burned in it day and night, for the three days of the Christmas festival. This event the Marquis caused to be recorded in an inscription cut on the base of the altar.

That the sight of such a natural temple, should excite a feeling of grateful devotion to the Author of all good, is natural to every thinking right-minded being, who may visit the place; but a simple prayer, suggested by a purer faith, we conceive, would be a more acceptable offering to be made in it, than the ostentatious ceremony of the French nobleman.

The length of the grotto, from the entrance to the further end of the part as yet visited, is about 1000 feet; the breadth of the hall is 300, and the floor of the lowest part is about 254 feet below the surface of the earth, but the whole extent of the cavern is far from being known, many recesses not having been explored.

As examples of other grottoes or caverns celebrated for the beauty of their stalactites, but which do not require, for causes already given, any detailed description, we may mention, that of ARCY SUR EURE, near to Vermanton, which is of considerable extent; and the GROTTO OF BALME, between Grenoble and Lyons, through which a torrent runs, which is said to have a subterraneous course of two kilometres in length.

Baron Humboldt, in his Personal Narrative, gives an account of a remarkably interesting cavern, in the province of New Andalusia, about three short leagues from the convent of Caripe, and called the cavern of the GUACHARO.

A narrow path led the travellers across a fine verdant plain, when they turned westward, and were guided by a small river, which issues from the mouth of the cave. During three-quarters of an hour, they continued to ascend, sometimes walking in the water, and sometimes between the torrent and a wall of rocks, by a path rendered slippery and fatiguing by masses of earth and trunks of fallen trees, which they had to surmount. On a sudden turn of the road, which winds like the stream, they found them selves before the immense opening of the grotto. Baron Humboldt states that the aspect of the place was majestic, even to an eye accustomed to the picturesque scenery of the Alps; he had visited the Peak Cavern, in Derbyshire, and was acquainted with the different caves of Franconia,

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