taunting and jeering the monster. Thereupon Homer says:--

[Illustration: Cyclopean Isle]

"These words the Cyclops' burning rage provoke:
From the tall hill he rends a pointed rock;
High o'er the billows flew the massy load,
And near the ship came thund'ring on the flood.
It almost brushed the helm, and fell before:
The whole sea shook, and refluent beat the shore."

Pope's _translation_.

The huge missile having thus missed its mark, Ulysses, with great
impudence, renewed his jeers, taunting the giant, and telling him
who it was that had poked out his eye; whereupon Polyphemus invokes
the vengeance of Neptune upon him, and--

"A larger rock then heaving from the plain,
He whirled it round--it rung across the main:
It fell and brushed the stern: the billows roar,
Shake at the weight, and refluent beat the shore."

Pope's _translation_.

The rocks of which the Cyclopean Isles are composed are entirely of
volcanic origin, and it is far from improbable that they may have
at one time been attached to Sicily, and severed from it by some
great volcanic convulsion. A careful examination of these large
piles of basaltic columns led Dr. Daubeny to the conclusion, that