438 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



and tliea* now form a curious but rather disgusting collec- 

 tion. In the course of clearing the rubbish from the floors 

 of the caverns, many petrifactions or casts of shells and 

 other marine bodies, were found imbedded in the frag- 

 ments of the sandstone rock. These exist only in parti- 

 cular layers or beds of the sandstone, and the shells have 

 evidently been very different from those now found in 

 the neighbouring seas. These are also arranged in a re- 

 cess, forming a subterranean museum. A rude model of 

 Port Mahon, long ago cut in the solid rock by one of the 

 quarriers who in his youth had served as a soldier in the suc- 

 cessful expedition against Minorca in 1756, is carefully pre- 

 served, and deserves a visit from strangers. In other places, 

 altars rise from the floor. We found that these had been 

 hewn out, and really form part, of the native rock. They 

 must have owed their origin to the religious feelings or to 

 the superstitions of the quarriers ; for we were assured that 

 they existed long before the human bones were deposited, 

 although they are now curiously adorned with skulls and 

 thigh-bones. In a well about three feet deep, dug in the 

 floor of the cavern, two or three gold and silver fishes ap- 

 pear : on the approaching of lights, they come to the sur- 

 face, and, being very tame, are often fed with crumbs of 

 bread from the hands of their visitants. 



On emerging from these caverns, we returned towards 

 the Tuileries, and entered the 



Louvre Galleries. 

 Any details regarding the Royal Museum of Statuary 

 and Painting will not be expected in this journal. Al- 

 though deprived of its principal glories, by the just restitu- 

 tion in 1815 of the chef-d\euvres, in both departments, to 

 their former owners at, Rome, Milan, Venice, Brussels, 

 Nntvcrj), and othei places, its extent and riches are still 



