CHAPTEK XVIII. 



ECLIPSE VISITS OF SCIENTIFIC MEN LIFE AT NAPLES DARWIN's BOOKS 

 REMARKS ON CIVILISATION FINE AURORA BORIS A LIS DEATH OF 

 HERSCHEL SUMMER AT SORRENTO BILL FOR PROTECTION OF 

 ANIMALS NINETY-SECOND YEAR LETTER FROM PROFESSOR 8EDG- 

 W1CK GRAND ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS LAST SUMMER AT 

 SORRENTO, PLANTS FOUND THERK CONCLUSION. 



THE summer of 1870 was unusually cool; but 

 the winter has been extremely gloomy, with torrents 

 of rain, and occasionally such thick fogs, that I 

 could see neither to read nor to write. We had no 

 storms during the hot weather ; but on the after- 

 noon of the 21st December, there was one of thb 

 finest thunderstorms I ever saw ; the lightning was 

 intensely vivid, and took the strangest forms, dart- 

 ing in all directions through the air before it struck, 

 and sometimes darting from the ground or the sea 

 to the clouds. It ended in a deluge of rain, which 

 lasted all night, and made us augur ill for the solar 

 eclipse next day ; and, sure enough, when I awoke 

 next morning, the sky was darkened by clouds and 

 rain. Fortunately, it cleared up just as the eclipse 



