In succeeding experiments not any alteration was perceptible in the flame, or manner of burning, of the lighted phosphorus, either at the moment of its entrance into the mephitis, or during its continuance in it. When suddenly withdrawn, it ignited gunpowder equally well. Hence the abbe deduces, that the mephitic gas of Grotta del Cane, however it may be utterly unfit for the respiration of animals, and for the inflammation of common combustible substances, readily allows that of phosphorus, which not only burns in it, but emits, as usual, luminous sparks. [Illustration: GROTTO OF ANTIPAROS.] 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.