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i f it is true that it is above two hundred feet perpendicular, and'
probably fome interefting obfervations might be made there.
The celebrated Scheuchzer has adorned his alpine travels with?
many prints, reprefenting fuch like gigantick works o f nature.
But the rich, and learned men of his time, contributed towards
the charge o f engraving, chufing one or two each, in order to
bring to light the amazing architedtonick labours which the
waters, time, and other more prompt and impetuous agents
had concealed among the wild afperities o f the mountains, and in
delert places o f difficult accefs, where no other travellers but the:
lovers o f natural hiitory chufe to go» *
The other cavern, or foiba, which we vifited, is three miles,
from the city o f OJiro, near the Jianza di Gbermofall. In that
fituation there are, properly Ipeaking, three caves which communicate
one with the other. The variety of their fymmetry,
within the fmall fpace of about three hundred feet of ground,,
ferves manifeftly to Ihew what curious and' confiderable differences
might be found in the gulfs, precipices, and fubterraneous
caverns fcattered over the illand, and efpecially in thofe that run
under ground in the higheft parts o f it, where, probably, no
man has hitherto had the courage to penetrate,, and where L
would penetrate with pleafure!
Yon
* I, Scheuchzeri Itinera Alpina. Londi. Sir Ifkac Newton* Woodward, andj
many of the firft names in tngland, contributed to the impreflion of this work,
Scheuchzer had nothing to think of,, but'only to fend his MSS, to the Royal;
Society,
You go down by an uneven deep path into a large hole, the
aperture o f which forms an irregular parallelogram, and runs
between two ftrata of marble inclined in the fame direfticn.
The furface o f that on which you tread in defcending is unequal,
and full o f broken pieces.' It appears to have bceh torn
fuddenly from the other ftratum, which hangs, out o f its perpendicular
about twenty feet, me furing from its greateft
height, which is- about ftxty.. In falling, it feeiiis t have
ftruck againft a very unequal plain, and tnereby to have been
broken in feveral places. The circumference o f this hole,
which wants none of the wild ornaments o f trees, bufhes, and
uncouth chafms, is o f fixty-feven feet. The two leffer fides
are formed o f hanging grottos, fupported with mafterly negligence,
or rather by the niceft art of nature. Below thefe the
entry into the two lateral caverns opens on both fides. The
fmall eft o f thefe, which lies on the left hand o f thofe who
defcend, reaches about fifty-five feet under ground, having no
where more than fifteen feet in breadth, nor lefs than ten in
height. 1 he arch of the entry is very regular, but within, it
is neither magnificent nor ornamented. It has fèmething, however
to fupply this deficien cy : In the fartheft corner oft the
cave, where, with the rnoft fcrupulous and exadt curioiity, wc
went with lights in our hands, we found a depofit. o f ferwi-
petrified bones conneited together’ by a kind of iron ftoney
ochre. The bones lie, as it were, concealed on- the left hand-vof
the fat theft hole in the cavern, not above two feet from the
ground, and buried above thirty feet under the fuperficies o f the
hill, which is all compofed o f marble. Above this hole, not
above two feet broad, the vault is very high, infomuch that it
looks like the cylindrical infide o f a tower y in entering, one
is obliged to ftoop very much.
We