ilders, whoever they were, did their work thoroughly. It is
entered by two massive doorways, twenty feet in height and five or six
wide. The interior is cut up into various apartments, the use of which
can only be conjectured. The diameter of the whole is about ninety feet,
a considerable portion being paved with large, hewn stones. The whole is
supported by a foundation which no earthquake has yet been able to
undermine, though, as we are aware, the island has experienced many
shocks.

CHAPTER VII.

A Maltese Fishing Hamlet.--Old Fort Chambray.--A Grotto
shorn of Poetic Adornment.--The "Azure Window."--Bay of
Scilendi.--Pirates' Caves.--Prehistoric Bones and
Skeletons.--The Vast Changes of Land and Sea.--Suez
Canal.--Geological Matters.--Native Race of Arabic
Descent.--Curious Stone Mortars.--Primitive Artillery.
--Maltese Fungus.--Springtime.--Riches of the Harvest.
--Origin of the Island of Gozo.

The Bay of Migiarro, which means "the carting place," is the commercial
port of Gozo, so to dignify it, and was once considered of sufficient
importance to cause the Knights to erect a substantial stone tower or
fort for its defense. This is now in ruins, but the place has become a
busy and populous settlement, whose interests centre upon the fisheries
of this coast. The beach is a fine one, much resorted to for bathing
purposes. Close at hand, southward, is the grand cliff of Ras-el-Taffal,
a promontory nearly two hundred feet in height, crowned by old Fort
Chambray, which was named for the member of the brotherhood of St. John
whose liberality built it. He was a very rich Knight from Normandy, and
when he died, he left one fifth of his large estate to finish this
defensive work. The whole sum was required, and much more besides, to
complete the well-designed and elaborate fort. It was begun in 1749, and
was many years in course of construction, but it is now gradually
crumbling away, not being considered of importance.

Notwithstanding their many ancient monuments, the object which seems to
be of the most interest to the inhabitants and to tourists is the Grotto
of Calypso. This is a rocky fissure on the northwestern shore of the
island, situated about a league from Rabbato, and is the spot where the
grotto is supposed to have existed. It is now only a simple limestone
cavern, presenting no peculiarities worthy of detail. It has the usual
stalactitic incrustatio