d elevations, and cliffs of chalk and calcareous
sandstone, surmounted by a succession of beautiful vineyards. And
perhaps the most singular feature in this varied landscape, is the vast
chain of human habitations, which, like a whitened irregular stratum may
be seen stretching out as far as the eye can reach in opposite
directions, along the whole slope of the southern elevations just
adverted to. They contain a large population, principally constituted of
the cultivators of the adjacent plain and hills, the slopes being
chiefly occupied by pretty white villas belonging to the better classes,
while in the abrupt intermediate precipices of rock, the poor have
scooped out their indestructible dwellings. And which, certainly possess
some considerable advantages over those of their more pretending
neighbours, being warm in winter, cool in summer, and dry in all
seasons. These subterranean abodes, together present an exceedingly
curious and novel spectacle. Sometimes the excavations are continued a
considerable height up the cliff, and the numerous doors and windows in
the face of it, apprize the spectator that, his species here literally
"live and have their being" in the foundations of the earth! A kind of
fret work or fantastically wrought sculpture not unfrequently
over-arches the entrance, or hangs like an ornamental frieze above
entire dwellings, which on a close inspection we discover to be the
mystical workings and embellishments of nature herself, being actually
constituted of a bed of fossil zoophytes, which in the very spot they
now occupy, vegetated at the bottom of the antediluvian Ocean! How
strange the transformation! How astounding the physical revolutions
time has here effected!--The identical _bed of coral_, over which the
turbulent waves of the Ocean rolled for centuries, and amid which the
finny tribe disported, now, in its pristine position, forms a roof for
the permanent dwellings of man! Which, with their fruitful vines
flourishing around the doors, and the smoke from the domestic hearth
rising in graceful curls through the submarine production, or as
sometimes seen, peering through some verdant knoll, present a singular,
but pleasing picture of humble contentment security and peace.

Near the western visible extremity of these thickly peopled hills, the
lofty turrets of Tours cathedral are distinctly visible in the horison.

But in our enumeration of the more striking features of this
interesting pa