34 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



world habits and customs. On the slopes that lie 

 beneath Sciarra stand the ruins of the Torre 

 Gigantea, a Phoenician structure of barbaric design 

 and colossal proportions, the origin of which has been 

 ascribed by the oracles of the peasantry to the 

 fabulous one-eyed Cyclops. 



The temple has been laid out in an elaborate, but 

 roughly symmetrical plan. Its walls are massive, 

 and are formed either with cyclopean blocks piled 

 one on the other, or rows of enormous slabs 

 standing on end. The various chambers have 

 been arranged so as to allow of the edifice 

 assuming an elliptical, or egg-shaped form. They 

 are connected the one with the other by means of 

 doorways, the portals and arches of which are 

 ornamented with small circular indentations, sym- 

 bolical of the starry heavens. Save that many of the 

 outlying courts have now disappeared, the temple is 

 much the same as it, was 3,000 years ago when the 

 Phoenician priesthood solemnized their first 

 ceremonies within its walls. Its stones are greyer. 

 The storms of centuries and depredations of the goat- 

 herds and the vandalism of tourists have displaced ot 

 destroyed some parts of the structure ; but with these 

 exceptions the edifice is still substantially the same. 



The uncouth, roughly-hewn stones are invested 

 with a melancholy charm such as would be sought 

 for in vain in more modern and pretentious ruins. 

 They stimulate the imagination with their old-world 

 associations and memories, and, as long as a bond of 

 union exists between science and her handmaid art, 

 so long will these hoary relics of a lost people have a 

 fascination for all thinking minds. 



The folk-lore of the peasantry locates the scene of 

 Ulysses's shipwreck on the shores of the little bay 

 that lies beneath Sciarra, and it points out a cave 

 that is situated on the same hill, as the place in which 

 he was detained for seven years by anrorous Calypso. 



Viewing Calypso's Cave as it now appears, it 

 would seem that Homer's knowledge of forestry and 

 of botany was about equal to that possessed by the 

 average descriptive writer of modern times; too much 

 reliance should not therefore be placed on his free use 

 of pre-Linnean lists. 



Where, the visitor to the "Flordel Mondo'' might 

 ask, are now the "groves of poplars" and "of 

 aiders," "the limpid fountains" and the "mazy 

 windings of the rills." The grotto itself is but a 

 small, common-place roclc' excavation. The stern 

 reality is rendered all the more disappointing on 

 account of the glowing description with which the 

 poet has immortalised it, and the historical halo in 

 which it is enshrined. The vicinity is, however, very 

 charming. A swarded olive grove lies immediately 

 beneath, and the bright green grass dappled with the 

 shadows of the olives, contrasts prettily with the more 

 sombre colourings of. the caroubas around. In the 

 evening when the setting sun shoots its rays athwart 

 the valley and lights up the sculpturing of the cliffs 

 and pinnacled crags of Inna Torra, bathing them in a 

 flood of softened glory, the view from the mouth of 

 the grotto is exquisitely beautiful. 



It is not easy to understand why this cave should 

 have been selected by tradition as having been the 

 abode of the nymph queen, when there are so many 

 fine caverns in the immediate vicinity. One of these, 

 which is situated but a few hundred yards away, is 

 specially interesting. Suspended from its roof, like 

 icicles after a severe frost, are thousands of crystalline 

 semitransparent stalactites the colours of which range 

 from a snowy-white to a deep golden yellow. Through 

 the roof and sides of the cavern a never failing supply 

 of lime charged water slowly finds its way, and 

 decorates with living pearls the pendants and traceries 

 that hang around. When- the light of the tapers falls 

 on these and on the fantastic arcades and columns that 

 are attached to the roof and sides, the reflections shed 

 a softness and mellowness around, causing the back- 

 ground to appear as though it were hung with the 

 most delicate of crystalline draperies. The whole is 

 very charming and fairy-like, so much so it almost 

 makes one regret that the Gozitans were not more 

 discriminating, when they assigned the abode of the 

 goddess a place in their folk-lore. The hills and 

 seacliffs of both Malta and Gozo are honey-combed 

 with retreats such as these ; always away from 

 the beaten tracks, but nevertheless easily accessible 

 td those who do not begradge a little labour in 

 ' reaching them. 



Mediterranean sunsets are famed for the gorgeous 

 softness of their colourings, and for the grandeur of 

 their effects. Beautiful from any part of the islands, 

 on the Sciarra mount they seem to have lent to them 

 additional and indescribable charms. Above the rich 

 purple undertones of colour of the massive clifts of 

 Ras il Dimitri, the sinking sun fires the peaks that 

 fringe the western horizon, shooting forth into the 

 wondrous, filmy, vaporous clouds that cap their 

 summits, strong bars of red and yellow and less 

 vigorous rays of more subdued tints. They present a 

 mass of colouring the adequate description of which is 

 quite beyond the power qf the pen. Among our 

 painters Turner's efforts probably approach nearest to 

 the original ; among our litterateurs Mark Twain's 

 simile that a Mediterranean sunset is " like a tortoise- 

 shell cat having a fit in a dish of sliced tomatoes" is 

 not at all ,an inapt one. 



Very few tourists penetrate to the north-western 

 parts of Gozo, the most attractive and picturesque 

 district in the Maltese Islands. The region has been 

 much broken up by earthquake shocks, and the 

 scenery therefore is varied, rugged and weird. The 

 little bay of Cala Dueira is of special interest to 

 lovers of I he picturesque. On its shore-line lies a 

 huge circular depression which has been formed by 

 the subsidence of the roof of an enormous cavern. On 

 three sides, the depression is surrounded by vertical 

 cliffs that descend sheer, without a break, into the 

 the waters of a lakelet that lies in the bottom. The 

 shore on the southern side shelves from the mouth of 

 the gorge to the base of the opposite bluff. A broad 

 bank of pearly white limestone pebbles extending 

 over the bottom of the hollow, causes the waters to 

 .seem to shallow, and thus gives them the appearance. 



