THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES 225 



again in the peristyle of the house of the Vettii. In the present ex- 

 cavations one sees the volcanic debris removed from an atrium wall 

 revealing in its pristine freshness a fresco of the brief period of recon- 

 struction after the earthquake of 63. After the excursions from 

 Naples certain pictures will always linger in the mind. The wonderful 

 panorama from the Camaldulensian monastery extending from the 

 Ponza Islands in the west to Monte Sant' Angelo in the southeast, 

 and embracing the City of Naples with omnipresent Vesuvius in the 

 background, and the islands of Nisida, Procida, Ischia and Capri. The 

 view from the rose-garden of the Palazzo Eufolo, at Ravello, on the 

 heights of Monti Lattari, with the fishing-boats of the bay of Salerno 

 like winged creatures suspended just above the waves and gliding 

 back to the gods who sent them forth. The temple of Neptune at 

 Paestum, having withstood the devastation of wind and storm for 

 twenty-five centuries, rising from the green meadows, with its massive 

 yet graceful fluted Doric columns, sepia tinted by age, outlined against 

 the blue sky and bluer sea. The blue grotto of Capri entered by a hole 

 in the cliff so small that our little skiff scraped the rock, lighted by 

 the sunshine which permeates the water from the one opening, and 

 transformed into a great hall of fairyland with an atmosphere of 

 silvery greenish-blue so clear that the primeval rock of the vaulted 

 cavern is reflected in the shimmering depths below. The naturalists 

 from many countries, all representing different phases of biological 

 work and thought, create a cosmopolitan atmosphere most profitable 

 and inspiring to each investigator. During the year ending March, 

 1910, there were 163 workers at the zoological station. Thus there is 

 a perpetually changing and yet permanent congress wherein the 

 exchange of ideas is not by means of formal lectures but rather in the 

 conversation of two or three workers in some nook about the buildings, 

 or upon the deck of the Johannes Miiller. For the thirty-six years of 

 its existence the Naples Zoological Station has been one of the most 

 potent factors in the development of modern biology, and now this 

 institution world-wide in its influence, stands as the chief monument 

 to the remarkable personality of Anton Dohrn. 



vol. lxxvii. —16. 



