126 ISLAND OF ANTIPAROS. 
CHAP, and if this be true, the new caverns, when 
L ^ ' _. opened, would appear in perfect splendour, 
unsullied, in any part of them, by the smoke of 
torches, or by the hands of intruders; for 
although, in the general whiteness of the grotto* 
as it now appears, the partial injuries its beauty 
has sustained be not at first perceived, there 
are proofs that, in the course of time, by the 
increased frequency of the visits paid to it, and 
the damage caused by breaking the stalac- 
tites to remove as curiosities, the splendid effect 
produced by the whole must be diminished. 
After this general description, it will now be 
proper to give a more philosophical detail of 
our observations upon its natural history. 
Nature of The substance itself which is thus deposited 
the Stalac- 
tites, is purely alabaster; that is to say, it is a con- 
cretion of carbonated lime which was employed 
by the Antients in the manufacture of their 
unguentary vases'; and it is distinguished by 
(l) " THERE CAME UNTO HIM A \VOMAN HAVING AN ALABASTER BOX or 
VERY PRECIOUS OINTMENT." Moltheii" xxvi. 7. The author found among 
the ruins of the city of Snis, in Egypt, the fragment of one of the 
anguentary vases of the Autients : it consists of white carbonated ala- 
baster. PLINY says, that the best alabaster was of the colour of honey, 
and that it was a defect in the stone to be white and translucid. The 
alabaster of Antiparoa is of a honey colour, like to that which come* 
to us from Gibraltar in a manufactured state. 
