142 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



slept at Genoa, and visited its palaces ; anchored at 

 Livorna; admired the baptistery, and the leaning 

 tower of the Campo Santo at Pisa; and yawned 

 with ennui within the narrow precincts of Civita- 

 Vecchia, until at length we beheld the sun emerging 

 from behind Castellamare, striking the profile of 

 Vesuvius, gilding Pausilippus and Cape Miseno, 

 empurpling the waters of the bay, and flashing from 

 the white houses of that city, of which, it has been 

 said, nothing is left to those who have seen it but 

 to die. 



But Naples, notwithstanding its many seductions, 

 was unable lons^ to detain us. We were all anxious 

 to reach Sicily, and as soon as we were enabled, by 

 the friendly aid of our ambassador, M. de Montebello, 

 to obtain the papers which it was indispensably 

 necessary for us to procure, we embarked in the 

 Palermo^ the first of a new line of steam packets 

 which has now established a regular communi- 

 cation between the island and the continent. The 

 passage, which was even then so tedious and un- 

 certain, is now effected in eighteen, or at most 

 twenty hours. We left Naples at four o'clock, and 

 before long we had passed Capri, which rose to our 

 left, with its rugged rocks — the silent witnesses of 

 the crimes of Tiberius and of the darino; valour of our 

 soldiers. We watched the setting sun, as it gilded 

 with its last rays the serrated peaks of the Calabrian 

 shores, until its fires were extinguished in the limpid 

 waters of the bay, giving place to one of those nights 

 of the south, when all thini^s around are bathed in 

 transparent shadows, which throw a veil of beauty 



