102 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



something mysterious between the two ; blue day- 

 light so changed and mysticised by its passage 

 through the blue water, that there is no familial- 

 feature left by which to recognise the well-known 

 morning. It is not that the limestone arch is blue, 

 but that the reflection from the marvellous tint of the 

 water, which is like the blue of a forget-me-not or a 

 child's eyes, floats about it in a magical haze of reflec- 

 tion, shrouding its austere proportions, and making 

 the rugged grot into a mystic chapel As the boat 

 glides noiseless over the sapphire floor, the soft 

 silence hushes out even the joyous voices that are 

 hushed nowhere else. Nothing less lofty than a Te 

 Deum should wake the echoes of that solemn vault. 

 In the gloom at the upper end, the swart boatman, 

 perched on a ledge of a rock, looks like a great white 

 angel, fit to be there ; and here, from where the altar 

 should be, to look at the ever-brightening blue, as it 

 opens to the narrow arch, is like looking into some 

 blue doorway in the sky, such as must lead to heaven. 

 Hush ! here comes another boat, black and noiseless, 

 with bowing heads, that sink to the level of the sea, 

 and one solemn crouching figure at the prow, guid- 

 ing the silent voyage. Is it Charon, with his fixed 

 blank eyes and helpless passengers ? or is it only a 

 ruddy English party from Sorrento, with all the roses 

 quenched out of their cheeks by what looks like awe, 

 but is perhaps only atmosphere ? Away before they 

 recover themselves and begin to talk, for here comes 



