a small, but very remarkable island, about five miles from the castle of Bombay in Elephanta, the East Indies. Of this we have the following description in Mr Grofe's Voyage to the East Indies. "It can at most be but about three miles in compass, and consists of almost all hill; at the foot of which, as you land, you see, just above the shore, on your right, an elephant, coarsely cut out in stone, of the natural bigness, and at some little distance not impossible to be taken for a real elephant, from the stone being naturally of the colour of that beast. It stands on a platform of stones of the same colour. On the back of this elephant was placed, standing, another young one, appearing to have been all of the same stone, but has been long broken down. Of the meaning, or history, of this image, there is no tradition old enough to give any account. Returning then to the foot of the hill, you ascend an easy flight, which about half way up the hill brings you to the opening or portal of a large cavern hewn out of a solid rock into a magnificent temple: for such surely it may be termed, considering the immense workmanship of such an excavation; and seems to me a far more bold attempt than that of the pyramids of Egypt. There is a fair entrance into this subterraneous temple, which is an oblong square, in length about 80 or 90 feet, by 40 broad. The roof is nothing but the rock cut flat at top, and in which I could not discern anything that did not show it to be all of one piece. It is about ten feet high, and supported towards the middle, at equidistance from the sides and from one another, with two regular rows of pillars of a singular order. They are very massive, short in proportion to their thickness, and their capital bears some resemblance to a round cushion prefaced by the superincumbent mountain, with which they are also of one piece. At the further end of this temple are three gigantic figures; the face of one of them is at least five feet in length, and of a proportionable breadth. But these representations have no reference or connection either to any known history or the mythology of the Gentoos. They had continued in a tolerable state of preservation and wholeness, considering the remoteness of their antiquity, until the arrival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters of the place; and in the blind fury of their bigotry, not suffering any idols but their own, they must have even been at some pains to maim and deface them, as they now remain, considering the hardness of the stone. It is said they even brought field-pieces to the demolition of images, which so greatly deserved to be spared for the unequalled curiosity of them. Of this Queen Catherine of Portugal was, it seems, so sensible, that she could not conceive that any traveller would return from that side of India without visiting the wonders of this cavern; of which too the sight appeared to me to exceed all the descriptions I had heard of them. About two-thirds of the way up this temple, on each side, and fronting each other, are two doors or outlets into smaller grotts or excavations, and freely open to the air. Near and about the door-way, on the right hand, are several mutilated images, single and in groups. In one of the last, I remarked a kind of resemblance to the story of Solomon dividing the child, there standing a figure with a drawn sword, holding in one hand an infant with the head downwards, which it appears in act to cleave through the middle. The outlet Elephant outlet of the other on the left hand is into an area of about 20 feet in length and 12 in breadth; at the upper end of which, as you turn to the right, presents itself a colonnade covered at top, of 10 or 12 feet deep, and in length answering to the breadth of the area: this joins to an apartment of the most regular architecture, an oblong square, with a door in perfect symmetry; and the whole executed in quite a contrary taste and manner from any of the oldest or best Grecian buildings anywhere extant. I took particular notice of some paintings round the cornices, nor for anything curious in the design, but for the beauty and freshness of the colouring, which must have lasted some thousands of years, on supposing it, as there is all reason to suppose it, contemporary with the building itself. The floor of the apartment is generally full of water, its pavement or ground-work not permitting it to be drawn off or to be soaked up. For it is to be observed, that even the cavern itself is not visitable after the rains until the ground of it has had time to dry into a competent hardness."