ISLAND OF PATMOS. 7 
cliffs, in the face of which appeared a dark CHAP. 
chasm, the narrow mouth of this port. Through 
this passage we entered ; and, having brought 
our vessel to anchor, perceived that the harbour 
in which we were now stationed was opposite 
to that of La Scala, being separated from it 
only by a small isthmus. It proved to be a 
fine, clear day. The mercury in Fahrenheit's 
thermometer stood, at noon, at 75^. Soon after 
coming to anchor, the author landed, with a 
view of examining the cliffs ; as the ports of 
the island have the appearance of craters, and 
substances resembling lava are common among 
the fragments of its rocks. The Monastery of 
St. John is situate upon the highest verge of 
a crater of this description ; and the harbour of 
La Scala owes its origin to another. Perhaps 
there is not a spot in the Archipelago with more 
of the semblance of a volcanic origin th&nPatmos. 
The cliffs exhibit no form of regular strata, Geological 
but one immense bed of a porous black rock, in 
which are numerous nuclei of a white colour, 
as large as a pullet's egg, in the form of crosses. 
Those crosses are, of course, considered by the 
ignorant inhabitants as so many miraculous 
apocalyptical types : and it is singular that the 
monks have not, as is usual in such cases, some 
marvellous tale to relate of their origin. The 
