56 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



Spoglio, in visiting the wonderful caves of Adelsberg. 

 A view over the Adriatic when driving up the moun- 

 tain-side on the way to that place, remains still in my 

 mind as one of the three or four most glorious views 

 that I have had the privilege to see. The long walk 

 underground at Adelsberg, the black and vicious 

 stream that ran through it, looking like a river of 

 death, and the fantastic stalactites and stalagmites 

 were indeed astonishing. I bought two of the curious 

 creatures called Proteus, that live in these underground 

 waters. They have no real eyes, but sightless dots in 

 the place of them ; their colour is that of the buried 

 portion of stems of celery (etiolated, as it is commonly 

 called), and they have both gills and lungs. They 

 were the first living creatures of their kind brought 

 to England. I gave them to King's College ; one 

 soon died, the other lived and was yearly lectured 

 on, as I heard, until fate in the form of a cat ended 

 him. 



I went from Trieste by steamer to Venice, and 

 thence by diligence to Milan, whence I travelled by 

 diligence to Geneva, with the bottle containing the 

 two Proteus under my thin coat, for fear of the water 

 freezing while crossing the Alps. At Geneva I had 

 a few evening hours to spare, which I spent at the 

 theatre, and thence on by diligence to Boulogne. It 

 took me either seven days and eight nights, or con- 

 versely, to reach Boulogne from Milan, and it was of 

 course tiring to sit up and be shaken in a diligence 

 during that long time. My legs began to swell before 

 I reached Boulogne, but the two or three hours of 

 lying down in the Channel steamer quite restored 

 them. 



