THE COASTS OF SICILY. 161 



density of the calcareous stone of which the beach is 

 formed, have made it yield in every direction to 

 the force of the waves, which have entered every 

 crevice and washed over every point, until the entire 

 mass has been undermined and broken up on all sides. 

 These semi-arches, which are crowned and garlanded 

 by the cactus and other shrubs, give rise to a perfect 

 labyrinth of grottoes, which defies all description. 

 It would require the skill of the most accomplished 

 artist to give an idea of the marvellous admixture of 

 forms, colours, and effects produced by the vast halls, in 

 which a far larger pinnace than ours might have found 

 shelter; where irregular porticoes, with strangely 

 contorted pillars, seemed cut out of colossal agates ; 

 and where all the most widely differing colours, 

 from milky white to blood red or raven black, were 

 blended to^^ether, varied and contrasted in the most 

 striking manner. But no artist's touch could convey 

 an idea of those submarine grottoes, those narrow 

 and deep fissures in which the waves which had only 

 just rippled over the arches at the water's edge, 

 Avere engulfed and swallowed up amid the strangest 

 and wildest sounds. The slight ripple raised by our 

 small bark sufficed to awaken these singular voices 

 of the shore, which fell upon the ear like the 

 prolonged cry of some colossal monster whose rest 

 had been abruptly disturbed. What then must be 

 the awful rush of sounds given forth from these 

 thousand mouthed openings when they meet the 

 shock of the high waves as they are driven onwards 

 by the blast of the tempest ! 



However, Ave had already doubled the Capo di 

 yOL. I. M 



