only on its entering the black fea, but never in going out j
“ becaufe, fays he, it does not ordinarily go out. The ièafon
“ of this is, that o f all the other fpecies o f fiilies, the Sardine
*j alone fwims up the Danube ; and when it comes to thè diramation
of the river, is carried into the Adriatick.’ - * We
ihall a little further on take notice again o f this voyage o f the
> let it fuffice juft now to have hinted, that fome, not
without reafon, derive the origin o f the refluent lakes o f thefe
parts, and the large fifties that are found in them, from a dira-
mation o f the Danube, or of fome large river communicating
with it, fuch as the Sava, perhaps open in former times, and
now covered by the ruins o f mountains, and deviated. This
is a point o f natural hiftory nearly connected with other points
o f ancient hiftory, and which deferves to be accurately dif-
eufled. -{*
O f the Caverns and Gulphs.
There are feveral gulfs in this iiland of CherJb, though not fo
many as in the neighbouring continent, and particularly o f
Iflria. We vifited two o f them, but could not go down into
the firft for want o f time, and the neceffary helps, fuch as ropes,
ladders, lights, &c. It is fituated a ihort mile from the habitation;
* Arift. Hift. Anim. Lib. VIIT. Cap: ig :
+ Under the title of the jmall ijlands adj-acent to Cherfo tmd'Ofero I (hall treat more
at large on the changes wrought in litrra by the fiMdendes o f the marble
ftrata. The lakes, the dreadful caves, the gulfe, and the vait depofites of land
that are to oe feen on the hills of that province, and the adjacent little fandy
iflands, have all, in my opinion, one common origin, from which, however, I
would except fome particular effeifs, as proceeding from caufes purely local.
T h is fubject would require to be treated exprefsly by iti elf.
tation o f the courteous Signor Jacopo Colombls, at 3 . Pietro di
Mezzavia.
The ground all around is covered with very fliarp and cutting
pieces o f rocks, among which fome few trees grow, and bruih-
wood exceedingly cloie together. This incommodious road
goes bending a little in declivity, as you come nearer the mouth
o f the gulf, and there the trees are pot fo rare. The maffes
that furround the cavern are very large, and parts o f a ftratum
two feet and a half thick, disjoined by the water, and fubverted
for want o f an equal bafe, yet fupported, a.s it were hanging in
the air by the large roots o f the trees, The aperture is about
fifteen feet wide; and is eroded by the toot of a large ilex The
branches o f that old tree that incumber the entrance, render it
ftill more dark and frightful. The depth of this cavern cannot
be afcertained. A paufe is feen from the brink, which may be
about twenty feet below j but the gulf do.es not end there,
another lateral hole opening near it, through which the ftones
thrown in by the curious roll, and rebound a long time before
they ftop. O f this abyfs, whofe fubterraneous obfeurity muft
be vaft and intcrpfting, I hope one day to be able to give a
more particular account, i f circumftances permit me to return
to that iiland; as I look upon exait defcriptions o f the interior
parts of our globe, to be equally ufeful to mineralogy, as anatomical
diffeftions o f the human body are to phyfick. In the
northern part of Cherfo, which we had not time to vifit, there
are many precipices, and magnificent grottos, caverns and dens
well worthy o f obfervation, at leaft, i f they correfpond to the
defcriptions given h s of them. The rent of the mountain near
Smergo, where they ufually pafs from Cherfo to the neighbouring
iiland of Vaglia, muft be a magnificent fpeftacle to a geologift,
K k k 2 i f