Page:Once a Week June to Dec 1863.pdf/121

 18, 1863.] though the infinitely blue heaven vaulted itself above me: singular ball-shaped clouds, blue as itself, floated in the air. My very clothing seemed intensely blue; I extended my hand down into the strangely shining air below me; it was water into which I thrust it, silvery, blue, cold as the sea. Close beside me stood a column, tall, and of a sparkling blue; after some moments I ventured to touch it: it was as hard as stone and as cold also, and, similar to all else in this fairy-like place, intensely blue. I stretched out my hands into the half-dark space behind me, and felt only hard, rocky wall, but dark blue as the bright heavens. Where was I? Was that below me, which I had taken for air, a shining blue sea, which seemed to burn of a sulphurous hue? Was the illumined space around me, light-diffusing walls of rock, and arches high above me? Every object was illumined in every shade of blue. I myself seemed enveloped in the same exquisitely-transparent blue light. Close beside me was a vast flight of steps which seemed to be made of vast sapphires, every step being a block of this beautiful stone. I ascended them, but a wall of rock forbade further advance. Where were the boatmen? I was alone, or seemed to be so. The glorious beauty which I beheld was, like myself, actual and physical. Close to the surface of the water, and not far from where I stood, I saw a clear blue star, which cast a single ray of light, pure as ether, over the mirror of the water, and while I yet looked I saw it darken itself like the moon eclipsed; a blacker object showed itself, and a little boat glided onward over the silvery blue water!”

“It was the opening to the outward air that had more the fancied resemblance of a star. Others of the party now advanced to take their share in this exquisite and most unrivalled spectacle, and my solitary dream was at an end.”

I can add but little to this beautiful description; and I will only say that, however fanciful it sounds, it is strictly correct in every detail. The spot is in itself so unlike reality, that, short of seeing it, a more perfect impression could scarcely be given of it than these eloquent words I lay before the reader. The silvery water is one of the great curiosities of the cave: a man in a suitable dress plunges into it, and you seem to see a moving silver statue. The silvery flooring is formed of the most beautiful silvery-looking white sand, quite unlike anything I have ever seen, as indeed everything in the cave is. The bright blue light, reflected on your own dress and on everything within the cave, is most accurately described. One feels when in this grotto as if it was but the creation of some fairy’s hand, that would disappear and leave you to sober reality. None have ever been able to account for it, though it has been examined by numerous scientific men. Whether it is the strong power of reflection (through the singular-shaped aperture) of the blue sea and the still bluer sky, or whether it is any inherent property in the grotto itself, yet remains to be discovered. The same enchantingly clear atmosphere pervades it that renders all these southern regions so delightful.

The boatmen entertained us with many a curious legend respecting the enchanted cave. Some of the older inhabitants of the island still