124 ISLAND OF ANTIPAROS. 
who enters the grotto will soon perceive, that 
all the theories he may form have been set at 
nought by Nature, in the darksome wonders of 
Mode of her subterraneous laboratory. The mode of 
Descent. 
descent is by ropes, which, on the different 
declivities, are either held by the natives, or 
they are joined to a cable which is fastened at 
the entrance, around a stalactite pillar. In this 
manner we were conducted, first down one 
declivity, and then down another, until we 
entered the spacious chambers of this truly 
t?oToM!>e enchanted grotto. Having visited the stalactite 
interior, caverns of the Gulph of Salernum upon the 
coast of Italy, those of Term, and many others, 
the author expected to find something similar 
here; but there is nothing which resembles this 
grotto. The roof, the floor, the sides of a whole 
series of magnificent caverns, are entirely 
invested with a dazzling incrustation, as white 
as snow. Columns, some of which were five- 
and-twenty feet in length, pended in fine icicle 
forms above our heads : fortunately, some of 
them are so far above the reach of the nume- 
rous travellers who, during many ages, have 
visited this place, that no one has been able 
to injure or to remove them. Others extend 
from the roof to the floor, with diameters equal 
to that of the mast of a first-rate ship of the 
1 
