of the Piedmontese Coast. 159 



in breadth. The tide recedes (for the Mediterranean, consider- 

 ably) from its head or upper end, laying bare a large tract of 

 sand. Farther seawards is a fringe or belt of Zostera marina 

 (or Sea Riband), which appears to be a favourite haunt of the 

 Murex Brandaris and trunculus, as well as of our common sand- 

 eel (or anguille of the Italians), the Murcena marina of ichthyo- 

 logists. Beyond this, to a depth of twelve fathoms, is a variety 

 of ground; a great part being covered with Zostera and other 

 kinds of sea-weed, another part being gravelly with occasional 

 patches of shell-sand, another being rocky, and the rest stony 

 and favourable for the growth of sponges and corals. The 

 sponge and coral of commerce are not, however, found on that 

 part of the coast. One day^s dredging I devoted to the exa- 

 mination of a remarkable spring of fresh water which rises 

 about fifty yards from the western shore of the Gulf, and is of 

 such an extraordinary depth and volume as to be visible at a 

 considerable distance, and even dangerous to small boats. It 

 resembles in petto the Corrievreckan on the Scotch coast. I 

 made two or three hauls in the vortex and round the edges of 

 the spring, but got nothing except dead shells of littoral species, 

 which must have been washed off the shore by the tide and 

 waves and absorbed into the whirlpool. It is said that Napo- 

 leon the First had an idea of using the water of this spring for 

 his projected harbour. On my dredging-days I always had a 

 plunge into the bright and deep blue sea, either from the boat, 

 or from a rock after I landed ; but the difference of temperature 

 between the atmosphere and water was too slight to make it a 

 refreshing or invigorating process, there being no reaction after 

 bathing. On one occasion this amusement had more of fright 

 than refreshment in it. I had swum out from the rocks at 

 Palmaria, leaving the men to moor their boat, and was return- 

 ing, when I heard loud cries of ^^ Guarda, guarda, signore V I 

 fully expected that a white shark (which Admiral Smyth de- 

 scribes in his list of Mediterranean fishes as " the most 

 voracious of human food of all fishes ^^) wished to make my 

 acquaintance, or see whether the flesh of a Welshman was as 

 good-eating as that of an Italian ; and having somewhere read 

 or heard that they were cowardly as well as greedy, I splashed 

 about in the water as much as I could until I reached land, and 

 then I understood what the boatmen meant by their caution. 

 It was to look where I trod when I touched ground, because (as 

 I then perceived) the rocks were stuck all over with a large sea- 

 egg [Echinus esculentus), which might have lamed me if the 

 sharp and stout spines with which they are armed had pene- 

 trated the sole of my foot. The men were at the time busy in 

 collecting a quantity of this delicacy for home consumption. 



