THE EARTH. 6l 



pelago.* The account he gives of it is long and 

 inflated, but upon the whole amusing. " Hav- 

 ing been informed," says he, " by the natives of 

 Paros, that in the little island of Antiparos, which 

 lies about two miles from the former, of a gigan- 

 tic statue that was to be seen at the mouth of a 

 cavern in that place, it was resolved that we (the 

 French consul and himself) should pay it a visit. 

 In pursuance of this resolution, after we had land- 

 ed on the island, and walked about four miles 

 through the midst of beautiful plains and slop- 

 ing woodlands, we at length came to a little hill, 

 on the side of which yawned a most horrid ca- 

 vern, that with its gloom at first struck us with 

 terror, and almost repressed curiosity. Recover- 

 ing the first surprise, however, we entered bold- 

 ly ; and had not proceeded above twenty paces, 

 when the supposed statue of the giant presented 

 itself to our view. We quickly perceived, that 

 what the ignorant natives had been terrified at as 

 a giant, was nothing more than a sparry concre- 

 tion, formed by the water dropping from the roof 

 of the cave, and by degrees hardening into a 

 figure that their fears had formed into a monster. 

 Incited by this extraordinary appearance, we 

 were induced to proceed still farther in quest of 

 new adventures in this subterranean abode. As 

 we proceeded, new wonders offered themselves : 

 the spars, formed into trees and shrubs, presented 

 a kind of petrified grove ; some white, some 



* Kircher, Mund. Subt. 122. I have translated a part of Kircher's des- 

 cription, rather than Tournefort's, as the latter was written to support an 

 hypothesis. 



