( 99 ) 



admit fmall veflels to pafs through. The 

 forms of prifms are diftindly difcernible in 

 thefe rocks. 



At the dlftance of fifty paces farther, a 

 fpacious cavern opens in the lava of the 

 (here ; an obje£l highly interefling and 

 beautiful in the eyes of the volcanift. It is 

 called the Grotta del Bove Marino (or Grotto 

 of the Sea-ox), perhaps becaufe it was once 

 the retreat of fome phoca or feal, as in the 

 Lipari iflands, and many other places, the 

 phocsE are called fea- calves. The mouth of 

 this cavern, in the upper part, is oval, and is 

 fixty feet in breadth, and above forty in 

 height. The mouth opens into a kind of 

 porch, which leads into a fpacious hall two 

 hundred feet long, or nearly, one hundred 

 and twenty broad, and fixty-five high. 

 This hall terminates the cavern. The fea 

 enters it ; and as its force is broken by the 

 narrownefs of the entrance, fmall barks 

 when furprlfed by a ftorm may there find 

 fhelter. 



H 2 Some 



