156 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Marine Testacea 



or a conchologist before, and whose patois it was very difficult 

 to understand, is quite a different affair from having, hke my 

 friend Mr. M'Andrew, a well-found yacht with a crew of trained 

 and semi-conchological seamen ; to say nothing of the heat, dirt, 

 and insects which render an autumnal lodging in any town on 

 the Mediterranean coast anything but comfortable. Although 

 I do not possess one-half of the qualities which Mr. Kingsley 

 attributes to a model field or out-door naturalist, I was often 

 obliged to " rough it." The first difficulty I had to surmount 

 was in " clearing'^ my dredges and sieves at the custom-house 

 on my arrival in Paris. The ordinary searchers could make 

 nothing out of these outlandish articles, and referred to the 

 superintendent, who, after further investigation and inquiry, 

 decided that they were "machines," and therefore liable to duty. 

 After some further explanation, however, I succeeded in inducing 

 him to reconsider and alter his decision, and I escaped any pay- 

 ment. Still greater, and more frequent trouble awaited me on 

 my journey homewards, in getting my cargo of shells passed by 

 the douaniers on the Lago Maggiore, and in Switzerland and 

 France ; but I had no reason to complain of our own custom- 

 house officers. 



I started from London on the 1st of August, 1855, and went 

 to Genoa, via Paris, Lyons, Chambery and Turin ; this being the 

 most direct and expeditious, as well as the cheapest, route. At 

 Genoa I succeeded in getting a boat with two men for six francs 

 a day, exclusive of the hire of ropes, for which I had to pay a 

 like sum ; and this made my dredging there expensive, besides 

 not being able to do much work, in consequence of having to 

 get out of the port and offing on each occasion. The best 

 ground I met with there was off Foci (two or three miles east 

 of Genoa), in about forty fathoms water. After staying at Genoa 

 three or four days, I took the steamer to Spezia, where I arrived 

 after a boisterous voyage of sixteen hours, the distance run 

 being not much more than sixty miles. I there put up at a 

 tolerable inn, called the Hotel de PUnivers, where I made the 

 usual preliminary bargain, and got a good- sized bedroom, with 

 cafe au lait, bread and butter for breakfast, the table d^hote din- 

 ner, and cafe noir in the evening, for five lire di moneta regia 

 (or four shillings) per day, besides wax-lights and attendance. 

 The former I bought at a shop ; and I paid a lire per day alto- 

 gether for attendance. The table d'hote was, during the first 

 week of my stay at the inn, tolerably well filled, ten or a dozen 

 guests being the average number ; but the company afterwards 

 dwindled away to such an extent, that an officer in the Pied- 

 montese army (Captain Chiavarini, whose civility I shall not 

 easily forget) and myself were the only guests; and on one 



