238 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



the fancy readily turns to it as a memorial of sorrow, on the grave of a city engulfed 

 by the encroaching waters the Novioregum of antiquity. 



A melancholy spectacle is presented farther north, towards Rochefort, that of flat 

 barren wastes, and salt marshes, with here and there a spot planted with trees, and 

 occasionally there is a village deserted and in ruins, high grass, and elder bushes 

 mingling with its remains. It is hence with pleasure that the traveller descries the 

 dome of the hospital and the walls of Rochefort ; but, notwithstanding its fresh and 

 smiling aspect, and the pleasant murmuring of its large elms, the town has been literally 

 snatched, at an immense cost, from the morass, and no sooner is it passed than the 

 dismal swamp again appears. The whole road to La Rochelle is of a melancholy 

 character, and especially so if traversed under a cloudy sky. It crosses a dreary steppe, 

 of which the sea is the limit on one hand, and which is apparently boundless on the 

 other. At distant intervals are a few tamarind trees ; or a lonely farm-house sends out 

 its gloomy smoke ; or some conical hay ricks are passed, standing round a neglected barn ; 

 or a meagre horse, with scanty mane, stands beside the road, and neighs at the approaching 

 storm. The sea beats against the foundations of the road, and the sea-mews cross it, 

 driven by the wind, their white wings contrasting strongly with the dark and louring 

 clouds. Thus, at both extremities of the flat land of Europe, the western, where it 

 reaches the Atlantic, and the eastern, where it ends with the Caspian, we find the same 

 superficial aspect a monotonous, desolate, and treeless waste. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CAVERNS AND SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES. 



HEN we reflect upon the manner in which the 

 solid crust of the earth appears to have been 

 formed, upon the powerful upheaving force by 

 which its elevated sites have been raised, and the 

 posterior agency of subterranean gases, volcanoes, 

 and earthquakes, it is natural to expect chasms in 

 the surface of tremendous depth, spaces also in 

 the interior which have not been filled up with 

 masses of stone similar to the materials of the 

 earth itself, but by water, air, or vapour, with 

 those cavities of grotesque and romantic ap- 

 pearance that are found in mountainous re- 

 gions. There are few natural objects which 

 have more awakened curiosity, or more strongly 

 affected the imagination, than the hollow places, 

 of various form and size, common in districts 

 which have been subject to great physical dis- 

 turbance. Their seclusion and gloom their fantastic architecture the effect of 

 torch-light upon their numerous crystallisations the augmentation of sound and its 

 reverberation together with their unknown extent in many cases all these causes 



