130 ISLAND OF ANTIPAROS. 
CHAP, circumference 1 . Its fracture is not rhombo'idal : 
and its dispersion into a powder, by heat, exhibits 
the mouldering appearance of arragonite; and not 
the decrepitation of such particles of carbonated 
lime as contain water, of which specific nature 
ure the generality of the stalactites in this grotto. 
From all these circumstances, Professor Tennant 
ite. had no doubt of its being ARRAGONITE, and in 
the STALACTITE FORM, which had never before 
been noticed. Indeed, the mineral itself has 
been considered so rare, that were it not for the 
attention shewn to it in consequence of its 
being the only anomaly in Hauys theory of 
crystallization, very little of its chemical history 
would be known ; nor can there be a greater 
inducement now offered to naturalists to visit 
the Grotto of Antiparos, than the discovery thus 
made of a new locality of this curious sub- 
stance. Another singular circumstance in the 
nature of the grotto is, that the incisions made 
by persons who have formerly inscribed their 
names in the alabaster, have been filled up by a 
natural process ; and the letters, so marked, have 
since protruded, in relief, from the surface of the 
(l) A similar formation was noticed hy TOURNEFORT : " Disiingvez 
par six cercles concentriques, dont Its Jibres font du centre a la circon- 
ference." (Voy. du Lev. torn. I. p. 228. Lyon, 1717.) It is remark- 
able that the same writer denies the dropping of water in the grotto. 
*' // ne tombe pas ttne seule goutte d'eau dans ce lieu." Ibid. 
