152 BROWN : 



two thousand years ago was called "otiosa," which means, 

 being fully interpreted, " having so much leisure as naturally 

 to take to gossip," and the boy bag story must go for what it 

 will fetch. A few hours spent in Naples in 1875 left no 

 impression of corribolo, and the strong probability is that the 

 last wheel of the kind has echoed away. 



When we need ice we have nothing to do but to get it in 

 any quantity by squabbling a little with the ice man and pay- 

 ing the bill. In Naples, when I lived there, ice, especially for 

 invalids, was a question full of poise and difficulty. It is 

 probable that since then a great change for the better has 

 supervened, but fifty years ago or so the chief dependence of 

 the Neapolitan cafe haunter for his ' ' mezzetta ' ' was on snow 

 brought down from the far side of Vesuvius on men's backs. 

 There is in winter time no lack of snow at 4000 feet or so and 

 on one occasion it seems there was a specially heavj' fall 

 which drifted into a gorge and filled the same completely up. 

 If we may believe it, a timely eruption covered this gorge 

 entirely over with a thick stratum of ashes and then lava, 

 which had preserved the snow up to my time and presumably 

 until long since then. A treasure better worth than a gold 

 mine. I do not know this of my own knowledge, and have 

 never seen it mentioned in any book. But it was a matter of 

 common talk, and after all there is no natural reason why it 

 should not be perfectly true. Think of Pompeii — and find 

 the snow story by no means difficult of belief. 



I remember the Museum, full of the displaced landmarks 

 hinted at above, some more interesting than others. At the 

 head of the list I venture to place a bit of water main which 

 was unearthed in Pompeii. It was, I assure you, nearly five 

 inches in diameter, an ordinary bronze, three-way pipe. The 

 unhapp3' water which was in there when Vesuvius broke loose 

 never got out. It was sealed up somehow by the forces of 

 nature. And if the bit of pipe be picked up by a couple of 

 men and shaken, the water may be heard to splash and gurgle 

 within. I do not know by direct evidence about the sealing 



