152 THE OCEAN. 



vault is less elevated than at the two extrcnntics. Seen through 

 this gigantic telescope, 900 feet long, the promontories, islets, in- 

 numerable reefs, and the thousand white crests of the breakers, 

 form a spectacle of incomparable beaut}^ especially when the sun 

 illumines the whole landscape with its rays.* 



AVhen the waves of the sea cannot enter into the caverns remote 

 from the shore except by narrow channels, it often happens that a 

 rivulet of salt water regularly flows towards the interior of the land, 

 without ever returning to the ocean. This strange fact, which may 

 seem at first sight a reversal of the laws of nature, may be observed 

 on various points on the coast of calcareous countries, and especially 

 on the coasts of Greece and the neighbouring islands. 



Near Argostoli, a commercial town in the island of Cephalonia, 

 four little torrents of sea-water, rolling on an average 55 gallons of 

 water per second, penetrate into the fissures of the clifls, flow 

 rapidly among the blocks that are scattered over the rocky bed, and 

 gradually disappear in the crevices of the soil. Two of these water- 

 courses are sufficiently powerful to turn throughout the year the 

 wheels of two mills constructed by an enterprising Englishman. 

 Though tlie subterranean cavities of Argostoli are in constant com- 

 munication with the sea, and the entrance to the canals is carefully 

 freed from the seaweed that could obstruct the passage, or at least 

 retard the current, tlie waters are not the same height in the grottoes 

 as in the neighbouring gulf. This is because the calcareous rocks of 

 Cephalonia, dried on the surface by the sea-breeze and the heat of the 

 sun, are pierced and cracked throughout by innumerable crevices, 

 which are so many flues aiding the circulation of the air, and the 

 evaporization of the hidden moisture. "We can compare the entire 

 mass of the hills of Argostoli, with all their caverns, to an immense 

 Alcaraza, the contents of which are gradually evaporated through the 

 porous clay. In consequence of this constant loss of liquid, the level 

 of the water is always lower in the caverns than in the sea, and to 

 restore the equilibrium, the brooklets, which are fed by the waves, 

 descend incessantly by all the fissures towards the subterranean reser- 

 voirs. It is probable that the constant evaporation of the salt water has 

 resulted in the accumulation in the cavities of the island of enormous 

 saline masses. Professor Ansted has calculated that the discharge of 

 the two great marine streams of Argostoli would be sufficient to form 

 each year a block of more than 1800 cubic yards of salt.f 



* Vibe, Eiisten nnd Meer Norwegens, Mittheilimgen von Petarmann, 1860. 

 t The Ionian Islands in the year 1863. 



