THE GROTTOES OF HAN. 241 



Rochefort, in time for the inevitable poulet and veal 

 of the Belgian rural table-d'hote. 



This is a brief account, and a very imperfect one 

 to boot, of a very notable excursion. To those of my 

 readers who are in want of a new sensation for Easter 

 or summer holidays, I say, " Go to Han and see the 

 grottoes." There you will be taught, as nothing else 

 can teach you, what underground water, aided by the 

 dissolving action of carbonic acid gas, effects in the 

 way of eating out huge caverns in the limestone rocks. 

 Truly, it is the only fashion in which you may study 

 geology this by interrogating Dame Nature per- 

 sonally, and seeing the changes she is able to induce 

 when, through the operation of the element of time, 

 the waters are made to wear the stones, and the huge 

 cliffs are tunnelled into the grottoes and the caves of 

 to-day. 



