64 HISTORY OF 



by means of a rope. I at last arrived at a small 

 spot of level ground, where the bottom appeared 

 different from that of the amphitheatre, being com- 

 posed of soft clay, yielding to the pressure, and 

 in which I thrust a stick to about six feet deep. 

 In this, however, as above, numbers of the most 

 beautiful crystals were formed ; one of which, 

 particularly, resembled a table. Upon our egress 

 from this amazing cavern, we perceived a Greek 

 inscription upon a rock at the mouth, but so obli- 

 terated by time that we could not read it. It 

 seemed to import that one Antipater, in the time 

 of Alexander, had come thither ; but whether he 

 had penetrated into the depths of the cavern, he 

 does not think fit to inform us." 



Such is the account of this beautiful scene, as 

 communicated in a letter to Kirch er. We have 

 another, and a more copious description of it by 

 Tournefort, which is in every body's hands ; but 

 I have given the above, both because it was com- 

 municated by the first discoverer, and because it 

 is a simple' narrative of facts, without any reason- 

 ing upon them. According to Tournefort's ac- 

 count, indeed, we might conclude, from the rapid 

 growth of the spars in this grotto, that it must 

 every year be growing narrower, and that it must 

 in time be choaked up with them entirely ; but 

 no such thing has happened hitherto, and the 

 grotto, at this day, continues as spacious as we 

 ever knew it. 



This is not a place for an inquiry into the seem- 

 ing vegetation of those stony substances with 

 which this and almost every cavern are incrusted. 



