223 
TO THE HERACLEOTIC CHERSONESUS, 
walls. The mountain upon the north-east side chap. 
is covered with its mouldering towers; and the 1 — ' 
rock itself has been so excavated, as to contain 
stately magazines and chambers, whose sides 
are lined with coloured stucco. It is surprising 
that the inhabitants of Balaclava do not make 
use of these caves ; for they are very habitable, 
and the stucco is still in the highest preservation. 
We entered one of them : it was a spacious 
oblong chamber, lined throughout with stucco, 
resembling that of the famous Piscina mirabile a , 
near the supposed villa of Lucullas, at Baia in 
Italy. We could form no conjecture for what 
purpose this place was designed, unless it were 
intended for a granary or store-room : it bore 
no marks of any aqueous deposit, therefore it 
could not have been used as a reservoir for 
water. The mountains, surrounding the port, 
are of red and white marble, full of cracks and 
fissures ; but calculated for ample quarries, if 
worked beyond the surface. The shore is in 
some parts covered by fine glittering sand, 
whose particles entirely consist of gold-coloured 
mica, in a state of extreme division ; fitted for 
(2) A cement containing arenaceous pumke, or puuolana, so indu- 
rated by age and the effect of water, that .1 is susceptible of a high 
polish. Specimens of this substance, hearing the name of “polished 
mortar are sold as curiosities by the lapidaries ol Naples* 
