54 HISTORY OF 



Bides were regularly formed with spars ; and the whole presented 

 the idea of a magnificent theatre, illuminated with an immense 

 profusion of lights. The floor consisted of solid marble ; and in 

 several places magnificent columns, thrones, altars, and other 

 objects appeared, as if natiu^e had designed to mock the curiosi- 

 ties of art. Our voices, upon speaking or singing, were re- 

 d oubled to an astonishing loudness, and upon the firing of a gun, 

 the noise and reverberations were almost deafening. In the 

 midst of this grand amphitheatre rose a concretion of about fifteen 

 feet high, that in some measure resembled an altar ; from which, 

 taking the hint, we caused mass to be celebrated there. The 

 beautiful columns that shot up round the altar, appeared like 

 candlesticks ; and many other natural objects represented the 

 customary ornaments of this sacrament. 



" Below even this spacious grotto there seemed another ca- 

 vern ; down which I ventured with my former mariner, and de- 

 scended about fifty paces by means of a rope. I at last arrived 

 at a small spot of level ground, where the bottom appeared dif- 

 ferent from that of the amphitheatre, being composed of a 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 particulai'ly 

 resembled a table. Upon our egi'ess from this amazing cavern, 

 we perceired a Greek inscription upon a rock at the mouth, but 

 so obliterated 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 

 caveni, he does not think fit to inform us." 



Such is the account of this beautiful scene as communicated 

 in a letter to Earcher. 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 commurucated 

 by the first discoverer, and because it is a simple narrative ol 

 facts, without any reasoning upon them. According to Tounie. 

 fort's account, indeed, we might conclude from the rapid growth 

 of the spars in this grotto that it must eveiy year be growing 

 narrower, and that it must in time be choked up with them entire- 

 ly ; but no such thing has happened hitherto, and the grotto at 

 this day continues as spacious as we ever knew it. 



This ii net a place for an inquiry into the seeming vegetation 



