GROTTO OF ANTIPAROS.
Antiparos, one of the Cyclades, is situated in the Egean sea, or Grecian archipelago. It is a small island, about sixteen miles in circumference, and lies two miles to the west of the celebrated Paros, from which circumstance it derives its name, anti in the Greek language signifying opposite to. Its singular and most interesting grotto, though so inferior in size to the cavern in Kentucky of which we shall soon speak, has attracted the attention of an infinite number of travelers. The entrance to this superb grotto is on the side of a rock, and is a large arch, formed of craggy stones, overhung with brambles and creeping plants, which bestow on it a gloominess at once awful and agreeable. Having proceeded about thirty paces within it, the traveler enters a low, narrow alley, surrounded on every side by stones, which, by the light of torches, glitter like diamonds; the whole being covered and lined throughout with small crystals, which give by their different reflections, a variety of colors. At the end of this alley or passage, having a rope tied round his waist, he is led to the brink of an awful precipice, and is thence lowered into a deep abyss, the gloom pervading which makes him regret the “alley of diamonds” he has just quitted. He has not yet, however, reached the grotto, but is led forward about forty paces, beneath a roof of rugged rocks, amid a scene of terrible darkness, and at a vast depth from the surface of the earth, to the brink of another precipice, much deeper and more awful than the former.
Having descended this precipice, which is not accomplished without considerable difficulty, the traveler enters a passage, the grandeur and beauty of which can be but imperfectly described. It is one hundred and twenty feet in length, about nine feet high, and in width seven, with a bottom of a fine green glossy marble. The walls and arched roof are as smooth and polished as if they had been wrought by art, and are composed of a fine glittering red and white granite, supported at intervals by columns of a deep blood-red shining porphyry, which, by the reflection of the lights, presents an appearance inconceivably grand. At the extremity of this passage is a sloping wall, formed of a single mass of purple marble, studded with sprigs of rock crystal, which, from the glow of the purple behind, appear like a continued range of amethysts.
Another slanting passage, filled with petrifactions, representing the figures of snakes and other animals, and having toward its extremity two pillars of beautiful yellow marble, which seem to support the roof, leads to the last precipice, which is descended by means of a ladder. The traveler, who has descended to the depth of nearly fifteen hundred feet beneath the surface, now enters the magnificent grotto, to procure a sight of which he has endured so much fatigue. It is in width three hundred and sixty feet; in length three hundred and forty; and in most places one hundred and eighty in hight. By the aid of torch-light, he finds himself beneath an immense and finely vaulted arch, overspread with icicles of white shining marble, many of them ten feet in length, and of a proportionate thickness. Among these are suspended a thousand festoons of leaves and flowers, of the same substance, but so glittering as to dazzle the sight. The sides are planted with petrifactions, also of white marble, representing trees; these rise in rows one above the other, and often inclose the points of the icicles. From them also hang festoons, tied as it were one to another, in great abundance; and in some places rivers of marble seem to wind through them. In short, these petrifactions, the result of the dripping of water for a long series of ages, nicely resemble trees and brooks turned to marble. The floor is paved with crystals of different colors, such as red, blue, green and yellow, projecting from it, and rendering it rugged and uneven. These are again interspersed with icicles of white marble, which have apparently fallen from the roof, and are there fixed. To these the guides fasten their torches; and the glare of splendor and beauty which results from such an illumination, may be better conceived than described.
To the above description we subjoin an extract from the one given by Dr. Clarke, a learned traveler, who visited this celebrated grotto.
“The mode of descent is by ropes, which, on the different declivities, are either held by the guides, or 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 enchanted grotto. The roof, the floor, the sides, of a whole series of magnificent caverns, were 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 numerous travelers, who during many ages, have visited this place, that no one has been able to injure or remove them. Others extended from the roof to the floor, with diameters equal to that of the mast of a first-rate ship of the line. The incrustations of the floor, caused by falling drops from the stalactites above, had grown up into dendritic and vegetable forms, which first suggested to Tournefort the strange notion of his having here discovered the vegetation of stones. Vegetation itself has been considered as a species of crystallization; and as the process of crystallization is so surprisingly manifested by several phenomena in this grotto, some analogy may perhaps be allowed to exist between the plant and the stone; but it can not be said, that a principle of life existing in the former has been imparted to the latter. The last chamber into which we descended surprised us more by the grandeur of its exhibition than any other. Probably there are many other chambers below this, yet unexplored, for no attempt has been made to penetrate further: and, if this be true, the new caverns, when opened, would appear in perfect splendor, unsullied, in any part of them, by the smoke of torches, or by the hands of intruders.”
CAVERNS IN GERMANY AND HUNGARY,
CONTAINING FOSSIL BONES.
Among the most remarkable of these caverns are those of Gaylenreuth, on the confines of Bayreuth. The opening to these, which is about seven feet and a half high, is at the foot of a rock of limestone of considerable magnitude, and in its eastern side. Immediately beyond the opening is a magnificent grotto, of about three hundred feet in circumference, which has been naturally divided by the form of the roof into four caves. The first is about twenty-five feet long and wide, and varies in hight from nine to eighteen feet, the roof being formed into irregular arches. Beyond this is the second cave, about twenty-eight feet long, and of nearly the same width and hight with the former.
A low and very rugged passage, the roof of which is formed of projecting pieces of rocks, leads to the third grotto, the opening into which is a hole three feet high, and four feet wide. This grotto is more regular in its form, and is about thirty feet in diameter, and nearly round; its hight is from five to six feet. It is very richly and fantastically adorned by the varying forms of its stalactitic hangings. The floor is also covered with a wet and slippery glazing, in which several teeth and jaws appear to have been fixed.
From this grotto commences the descent to the inferior caverns. Within only about five or six feet an opening in the floor is seen, which is partly vaulted over by a projecting piece of rock. The descent is about twenty feet. This cavern is about thirty feet in hight, about fifteen feet in width, and nearly circular; the sides, roof and floor, displaying the remains of animals. The rock itself is thickly beset with teeth and bones, and the floor is covered with a loose earth, the evident result of animal decomposition, and in which numerous bones are imbedded.
A gradual descent leads to another grotto, which, with its passage, is forty feet in length, and twenty feet in hight. Its sides and top are beautifully adorned with stalactites. Nearly twenty feet further is a frightful gulf, the opening of which is about fifteen feet in diameter; and, upon descending about twenty feet, another grotto, about the same diameter with the former, but forty feet in hight, is seen. Here the bones are dispersed about; and the floor, which is formed of animal earth, has great numbers of them imbedded in it. The bones which are here found, seem to be of different animals; but in this, as well as in the former caverns, perfect and unbroken bones are very seldom found. Sometimes a tooth is seen projecting from the solid rock, through the stalactitic covering, showing that many of these wonderful remains may here be concealed. A specimen of this kind has been preserved, and is rendered particularly interesting, by the first molar tooth of the lower jaw, with its enamel quite perfect, rising through the stalactitic mass which invests the bone. In this cavern the stalactites begin to be of a larger size, and of a more columnar form.
Passing on through a narrow opening in the rock, a small cave, seven feet long, and five feet high, is discovered; another narrow opening leads to another small cave; from which a sloping descent leads to a cave twenty-five feet in hight, and about half as much in its diameter, in which is a truncated columnar stalactite, eight feet in circumference.
A narrow and most difficult passage, twenty feet in length, leads from this cavern to another, twenty-five feet in hight, which is everywhere beset with teeth, bones and stalactitic projections. This cavern is suddenly contracted, so as to form a vestibule of six feet wide, ten long, and nine high, terminating in an opening close to the floor, only three feet wide and two high, through which it is necessary to writhe, with the body on the ground. This leads into a small cave, eight feet high and wide, which is the passage into a grotto, twenty-eight feet high, and about forty-three feet long and wide. Here the prodigious quantity of animal earth, the vast number of teeth, jaws and other bones, and the heavy grouping of the stalactites, produce so dismal an appearance, as to become a perfect model of a temple for a god of the dead. Here hundreds of cart-loads of bony remains might be removed, pockets might be filled with fossil teeth, and animal earth was found to reach to the utmost depth to which the workmen dug. A piece of stalactite, being here broken down, was found to contain pieces of bones within it, the remnants of which were left imbedded in the rock. From this principal cave is a very narrow passage, terminating in the last cave, which is about six feet in width, fifteen in hight, and the same in length. In this cave were no animal remains, and the floor was the naked rock.
Thus far only can these natural sepulchers be traced; but there is every reason to suppose, that these animal remains are disposed through a greater part of this rock. Whence this immense quantity of the remains of carnivorous animals could have been collected, is a question which naturally arises; but the difficulty of answering it appears to be almost insurmountable.
THE MAMMOTH CAVE.