Trans. N. V. Ac. Scz. 36 Nov. 20, 



sun of quite small size, and a fourth near the eastern limb, consisting 

 really of a group of three conjoined." 



The President [referred to the death this morning, from acute 

 disease, of a resident member of the Academy, Dr. Henry W. 

 Draper, at the [age of 45 — a great loss to science — and to his 

 distinguished researches and labors in celestial physics. 



The lecture of the evening was delivered by Rev. Horace C. 

 HovEY, of Fair Haven, Conn., on the subject of — 



SUBTERRANEAN SCENERY. 



(Abstract.) 



An impression prevails that having seen one cave you have seen all 

 caves. As well might you say that, having seen one hill you have seen all 

 hills, or that, having seen one cataract, you have seen all cataracts. There 

 is variety in the subterranean world, almost as great and striking as 

 that encountered in the surface-region men are more familiar with. 

 Just as there are prairies and table-lands without the semblance of a 

 hill, so there are broad areas of non-cavernous rocks ; and indeed only 

 a limited portio.T of the globe is favorable to the formation of large 

 cavities beneath its crust. The causes producing those that exist are 

 as unlike and distinct as those carving the contour of the mountains. 



Volcanic agencies are conspicuous in undermining the earth. Exam- 

 ples of flaming caves, like those in the mountains of Cumana, are due 

 to the fires of still active volcanoes. Caves of great size and beauty 

 are sometimes caused in beds of lava by the over-lapping of the fiery 

 torrent, or by the sinkmg away of a partion of the fluid mass from the 

 cooling crust — in either case leaving walls lined with blister-holes and 

 lava-froth. Iceland claims the finest of known lava caves, adorned 

 with superb black icicles of obsidian, rivaling in beauty the rarest 

 zeolites. 



Marine caves differ materially from those formed by volcanic causes. 

 They are found wherever the swell and lash of the billows have exca- 

 vated rocks too hard to be wholly displaced by their action. Long 

 galleries join each other in bold and grotesque arches, whose walls are 

 polished by the waves and painted by the sea-water. At low tide it is 

 often as if one were walking at the bottom of a deep sea, and examin- 

 ing objects ordinarily brought to view only by dredging. Here 

 and there one encounters deep pools where fishes swim ; while in shal- 

 lower waters are star-fishes, sea-urchins, and sea-anemones, under a 

 vaulted roof decked by a living tapestry. 



A celebrated example ot marine caves is the Grotto Azuro, in the 



