Geographical Collections, 125 



tliis cliff is ploughed up on one side, and its base clothed with green vineyards ; 

 on the other, the streams issue from different clefts of the rock, and huge angular 

 masses are strewed on their course, and heaped in ruinous profusion. 



One of the streams issued from the limestone, in a pent up mass of two feet in 

 breadth and one in depth ; its temperature was 13° centigrade. 



Vegetation in the neighbourhood of these springs is luxuriant. The Samolus 

 Valerandi, Lysimachia Linum stellatum, Anagallis repens, Staticeferulacea, pu- 

 lesceiis, Decand. ? Linaria supina, Saponaria ocimoides, and a host of more 

 common plants ; but the numerous ferns, their green fronds sparkling with drops 

 of scattered spray, constitute the characteristic feature of the vegetation of this 

 moist and shady cliff. Among these the Adianthum capillus, Pteris aquilina^ 

 Asplenium Halleri, ( Aspidium fontanum, Svf.) A. adianthum nigrum, &c. &c. 



The fall of a portion of rock has exposed the opening of a cavern a little to the 

 south, and at an elevation of about 30 feet above the springs. The entrance pre- 

 sents the form of a triangle, whose two sides are constituted by the opening of 

 the cleft, and the base by the line of junction of the strata, placed superiorly, and 

 putting, as it were, a bar to the continuation of the fracture. This opening pre- 

 sents in its disposition several interesting features : it is not in fact an outlet, but 

 has formed part of a passage, through which the water coursed in an inward di- 

 rection, and when we gain the entrance, the elevation of the floor is found to be 

 greater as it is nearer the external opening, leading interiorly on a slightly inclin- 

 ed plane, and before penetrating farther, a slight elevation is to be passed over. 



The cavern makes many abrupt turns, descending constantly towards the lower 

 part of the rock. Stalactites are numerous, but not very transparent, and stalag- 

 mites attain a very great size in one or two places, tending to block up the cavern. 

 There is no vegetation beyond the entrance, but hosts of gnats and pale moths 

 flutter around the lights. The stranger's progress is stopped by a deep pool of 

 water, long before which he is obliged to walk in a wet slippery mud. Matters 

 thrown into this pool, have been known to find their way out of the springs of 

 Sales ; and, according to our guides, fish of a species unknown to them, were 

 sometimes carried out by the waters. Might these be the fish of subterranean 

 lakes ? Fortis mentions the occurrence of such in the subterranean lakes of Dal- 

 matia, and such were the fish mentioned by De Humboldt as thrown up by the 

 volcanoes of the Andes. 



In many parts of the cavern, water had been retained in circumscribed basins ; 

 its long residence there had given rise to a kind of efflorescence, the abstraction 

 of part of the lime leaving the more argillaceous parts in irregular mammelonary 

 concretions. 



The taH mountain rock throws its shadow upon a village church and a few 

 cottages by the side of the brook. The harmony and stillness of the valley, sel- 

 dom broken by any rude storm, is felt still more intensely under a soutliem sky, 

 where vegetation is luxuriant, and flowers shed sweetness around, perfuming the 

 air with their rich fragrance. The hurrying traveller smiles for a moment on the 

 peace and contentment of the cottager, — glances in passing admiration at the 

 symetry and expression of native beauty, that, like a simple flower growing on 

 the cataract side, is radiant and calm, while all is noise and ruin around ; and in 

 the cemetry of such a home, he sees the cypress veiling the shrine of many an 

 unrecorded fair, and the rock entombing the wreck of many a virtuous life. 



Beyond the platform on which these few hamlets are grouped, the rock is again 

 cleft vertically, and the stream is precipitated over a fell of about forty feet in 

 height. The point where the waters are precipitated over the rock, is clothed 

 with a rich carpet of pendulous grass, and the green branches of a few shrubs 

 hanging in festoons divide the waters, while the angry spray, dashing on the 

 plants and trees around, glitters in the sunbeam like points of fire. 



At the foot of the fall is an expanded cavern, from whose roof a small quanti- 

 ty of water drops the greater part of the year, and whose floor is covered with in. 

 crustations and stalagmites, with occasional pools of water. The sides are decked 

 with plants of the genera Jungermannia and Marchantia, and a few ferns. 



