808 Mary Somerville. 



the Eremo there is a place from whence both the 

 Mediterranean and the Adriatic can be seen. 



We occasionally went for sea-bathing to Viareggio, 

 which is built on a flat sandy beach. The loose 

 sand is drifted by the wind into low hillocks, and 

 bound together by coarse grass thickly coated with 

 silex. Among this and other plants a lovely white 

 amaryllis, the Pancratium Maratimum,vriih a sweet 

 and powerful perfume, springs up. We often tried 

 to get the bulb, but it lay too deep under the sand. 

 One evening we had gone a long way in search of 

 these flowers, and sat down to rest, though it was 

 beginning to be dark. We had not sat many 

 minutes when we were surrounded by a number of 

 what we supposed to be bats trying to get at the 

 flowers we had gathered, but at length we discovered 

 that they were enormous moths, which followed us 

 home, and actually flew into the room to soar over 

 the flowers and suck the honey with their long 

 probosces. They were beautiful creatures with large 

 red eyes on their wings. 



* * * # 



Our life at Florence went on pretty much as usual 

 when all at once cholera broke out of the most viru- 

 lent kind. Multitudes fled from Florence ; often in 

 vain, for it prevailed all through Tuscany to a great 

 extent The terrified people were kneeling to the 



