AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS. 



167 



covered with, brown calcareous earth, about sixty or seventy feet, at the 

 top of which are numerous stalagmites, one in particular of a large size, 

 perfectly white, and resembling at a distance a full length marble statue 

 standing on a pedestal. The top of one of a smaller size forms No. 7 of 

 the series. From this point the cave branches off in several directions ; 

 the torches cast a lurid glare over the nearer walls, occasionally shewing 

 stalactites hanging from the roof, but the darkness of the more distant 

 passages was impenetrable. So far as we could see, the roof and sides 

 were very irregular, the latter being rugged and precipitous. 



The fourth cave is situated apparently at the north-west end of the rock. 

 I say apparently ; for not having a compass with us, we were obliged to 

 guess in what direction we went, and on that account I cannot be so correct 

 as I could have wished to be. In our way to it, at the foot of a detached 

 limestone rock, at an elevation of from eight to ten feet above the level of the 

 surrounding plain, we found a mass of shells, principally cockles, oysters, 

 and a larger kind of muscle, connected together by calcareous matter, the 

 interstices being filled with soft earth containing numerous smaller shells, 

 (Specimens 8 and 9). The mass was of irregular shape between three and 

 four feet square, and about the same in thickness, perfectly superficial, 

 and not connected in any way with the rocks near it. No appearance of 

 strata of shells was discovered in the neighbourhood. It will rest with 

 better Geologists than myself to determine whether these are to be con- 

 sidered of a fossil nature, and in this enquiry the nature of the small shells, 

 embedded in the soft earth, may be of material use. Leaving the shells, 

 we ascended about thirty feet among large loose fragments of limestone of 

 the same nature as No. 1, and by a small opening in the rock, entered a 

 dark and spacious cave, which, as the eye became gradually accustomed 

 to the change from the previous glare of sunshine, and distinguished the 

 surrounding objects, appeared to us like a spUMidid gothic (\\tiiodr;il in 

 ruins. The walls are worn smooth, as if by the action of water, and 



