POPULAR MISCELLANY 



861 



The Bine Grotto of Bnsi.— The "Blue 

 Grotto " of the Island of Busi, in the Dal- 

 matian Archipelago, which i.s illuminated 

 by submarine light, was discovered in 1884, 

 and has become one of the most noteworthy 

 Bights of that interesting quarter of the 

 Adriatic. The Island of Busi, which is in- 

 h ibited and well cultivated, takes its name 

 from the Venetian busi (Italian buchi) caves, 

 on account of the dozen, more or less, of 

 grottoes that exist upon it. It lies south- 

 west of the Island of Lissa, and being only 

 about five miles from the port of Cornise 

 on that island, can be reached from it after 

 about seventy or eighty minutes of rowing. 

 It is rich in subterranean and submarine 

 caverns, which have been only partly ex- 

 plored. Count von Ransounet is acquaint- 

 ed with ten of these, all accessible only by 

 boat. The largest of them, which is called 

 Medvedina, or the Bear's Cave, is about 

 five hundred feet long, and presents a spa- 

 cious interior with imposing rock-effects. 

 The most remarkable of the caves so far 

 explored, is the Blue Grotto, which is called 

 by the inhabitants the ballon-cave, from 

 the name of the rock promontory Ballon, 

 on the northeastern coast of the island un- 

 der which it lies. The entrance to the cave 

 is in the farthest recess of a bay on the 

 northeast side of the island, and is about 

 seven feet wide and five feet high, with 

 sixteen feet depth of water, and spacious 

 enough to admit, when the sea is still, a 

 boat carrying ten or twelve persons. This 

 entrance forms a thread-like canal, inclosed 

 between steep walls, which is shrouded in its 

 first half in deep darkness ; but the farther 

 one presses in, the more evident and clear 

 becomes a peculiar twilight effect, by which 

 one can soon discern the breadth and height 

 of the interior, illuminated by a surprising 

 play of colors. At first the water under the 

 keel of the boat appears of a dark blue- 

 green ; then the color gradually changes to 

 a clear blue, and at last to an azure, which 

 grows lighter and brighter. Soon the vis- 

 itor finds himself set, as if by enchantment, 

 into a broad, high space, the ground of 

 which is filled with a brilliant, shimmer- 

 ing, blue flood, whence streams out a soft 

 light, covering everything visible with a 

 strange glamour. The illumination appears 

 to come from under the sea. The oars ap- 



pear silver-white in the transparent blue 

 flood, and the stones under the water like 

 semi-lustrous silver, while the waves them- 

 selves exhibit the various changes of the 

 shades of blue. The hollow of the grotto 

 is thirty-one metres long, from fifteen to 

 seventeen metres wide, and between sixteen 

 and eighteen metres deep. The water, which 

 appears to extend still farther under the 

 rocks, receives its light through a submarine 

 door of ten and a half by eighteen metres ; 

 and the silvery shimmer with which the 

 submerged rocks are lighted is an effect of 

 the sunlight reflected from the water. This 

 effect is particularly charming on a rock- 

 bridge under the water, extending clear 

 across the cave. Beyond this bridge may 

 be seen, through a cleft in the rock, a sec- 

 ond blue cave of smaller dimensions and 

 different light-effects. 



British Health Resorts.— The health re- 

 sorts of Great Britain have the advantages 

 — to Englishmen — of being convenient of 

 access and of being conducted according 

 to British ideas of comfort. Their disad- 

 vantages are those of a cool and humid 

 climate, and the long, dreary, sunless win- 

 ter. The sea-side resorts are probably the 

 most important. Of them, those of the 

 east coasts — Eamsgate, Cromer, Redcar, 

 and Whitby — are stimulating; those of 

 the west, especially of the southwest — 

 Bournemouth, Torquay, Penzancp, and II- 

 f racombe — sedative ; and those upon the 

 southeastern littoral — Eastbourne, Folke- 

 stone, and Ilastings — hold an intermediate 

 position. The selection must depend upon 

 the physician's appreciation of the finer 

 points in his patient's case, but it is far 

 from being a matter of indifference, and 

 the indiscriminate recommendation of sea- 

 air, without regard to the different water- 

 ing-places, is an inexcusable error. If the 

 invalid is intolerant of marine influence, 

 he may make a selection from a variety 

 of inland resorts. Tunbridge Wells is mild 

 and sheltered, Malvern is more tonic, and 

 Buxton, Ilkley, Harrogate, Weymouth, and 

 Crieff are bracing and stimulant. The 

 gouty and rheumatic may find benefit at 

 the mineral springs of Bath, Cheltenham, 

 Droitwich, Matlock, Leamington, Woodhall, 

 and narrogate in England, Moffat and 



