88 HAECKEL 



' 1 am very glad, because I heard I was to be alone. 

 It starts at nine o'clock/ That was all that had 

 passed between us before the crossing. What I 

 have described in the above verses only began 

 when we, the only Germans on board, made our- 

 selves comfortable on the open deck. Before the 

 journey was over we were intimate friends, and 

 have remained friends in joy and sorrow to this 

 moment, though the mental differences between 

 us are enormous. However, Casamicciola brought 

 us together in a wonderful way. We had common 

 quarters, and always went out together for walks 

 or botanising ; we were never separated when we 

 painted or drew, as Haeckel did with real passion. 

 On the third morning, when we found some rare 

 thermal plants in an almost broiling meadow and 

 discovered nearly at the same spot the ruins of an 

 ancient Eoman bath, the remarkable coincidence 

 affected us so much that we embraced each other 

 joyously and dedicated the rest of our flask to them. 

 We both felt that we could not do otherwise. So 

 we pleasantly enjoyed the magnificent scene that 

 lay at our feet from the height of Epomeo. We 

 stripped off nearly the whole of our clothes, and 

 dipped, in almost primitive nakedness, in the warm 

 muddy streams that shot up out of the dark depths 

 under a growth of tendrils and ferns. We shouted 

 out, * How fine it is in these warm and beauti- 

 fully shaded brooks ! How delightful it must be in 

 the ravines of Atlas! We must go there.' We 

 spent more than a whole day in the most marvel- 

 lous ravines of Atlas, though neither of us had 



