FOUNTAIN IN THE SEA. 39 



repel the successive assaults of wave after wave, with 

 ever the same result. 



We watched the war of the elements, the conflict 

 of Land and Sea, a while, with somewhat of the inte- 

 rest that attaches to a doubtful combat, though we 

 well knew the fortress could not be taken by assault ; 

 and at length we turned to other features of interest 

 which our vantage-ground commanded. 



Looking over the battlemented margin of the 

 platform on which we stood, we could see the en- 

 trance of a fine cavern, sixty feet in height, about 

 thirty in width, and perhaps eight hundred in length. 

 It completely perforates a projecting promontory, the 

 part of the coast, indeed, which we had been skirting, 

 on which our principal observations on the birds had 

 been made. A boat can go right through, but only 

 at high water, because there is a rock in the midst of 

 the course, which, at any other state of the tide, leaves 

 too narrow a channel on either side. But the most 

 interesting fact connected with the cavern is, that a 

 spring of fresh-water is said to rise in its centre, bub- 

 bling up through the sea-water that overlays its 

 mouth. Mr Heaven could not vouch for this on per- 

 sonal observation ; but the well-known occurrence of 

 similar phenomena renders credence in this case no 

 great difficulty. The breaking of the sea into the 

 mouth of the cave, narrowed as it is, and the rever- 

 beration of its hollow roar from the sides of the chasm, 

 were particularly grand and striking. 



When our first emotions of admiration at the grander 



