CAVES OF KEREFTO. 
541 
and clear stream. My mehmandar rode off to fetch the patriarch 
of this little mountain establishment, who, with its people, had 
pitched his few summer-tents in a sheltered glen at no great 
distance. The robust and venerable peasant soon made his 
appearance, followed by others bearing us ample store of pro¬ 
visions. He was to guide our research into the mountain, while 
part of my train remained with his, to pitch our tent and pre¬ 
pare us dinner against our return. A steep ascent of half a 
mile brought us to the foot of a perpendicular cliff of white 
marble; several fragments of which I examined, and found it 
contain fossil remains of shells resembling cockles, and of nearly 
the same size. The height of this mass exceeds 400 feet in 
many places, and in the face of one of its most elevated points 
we found the entrance of the caves. This opening appears 
about thirty feet from the foot of the rock; being attainable by 
a scramble over huge loose pieces lying at the base, and thence 
by broken remains of steps, which have originally been made in 
the solid body of the cliff. On reaching the top of this almost 
impracticable escalade, we arrived at two door-ways close to 
each other, about six feet high, in width four, nicely hewn and 
leading into the mountain side. That to the right conducts 
directly into the chief cavern ; the other, to the left, to a couple 
of square rooms, leading into each other; their size six yards 
by seven. Their roofs are arched, and in height fifteen feet, the 
whole bearing the rough marks of the chisel. Three square 
window apertures for light have been broken out here through a 
thickness in the rock measuring nine feet; and on each side of 
them, as well as of the doors, we see holes where iron grating, 
or shutters, must have been formerly. Out of the first of these 
two apartments, a door-way communicates with the passage that 
