UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 183 



the heat of the lava which overflowed that de- 

 voted city ; but Sir Humphry Davy has proved, 

 that they were protected from the heat by a 

 thick bed of sand and ashes, and, in his opinion, 

 their charred appearance has been the result of 

 a gradual process of decomposition." 



" What means, uncle, could be taken to un- 

 fold and read manuscripts that were in such 

 a state ? Surely all the characters must have 

 been effaced." 



" No, not quite : the characters are seen black 

 and shining upon the black but not shining sur- 

 face ; just in the same way that a letter some- 

 times appears after we have burnt it, the traces 

 of writing being still visible on the gauzy sub- 

 stance, while it flickers about in the smoke, at 

 the back of the grate. To unrol them, many 

 ingenious contrivances were invented ; that 

 which I saw, when at Portici, and which, I be- 

 lieve, has been generally adopted, is to glue 

 some thin flexible material to the back of the 

 papyrus, and then to raise it gently by a number 

 of threads, while the folds are at the same time 

 carefully opened by a pin. In this way a few of 

 the most perfect have actually been restored, and 

 published ; but, to the great disappointment of the 

 world, they are works of no value. One is a 

 treatise on the inutility of music, in Greek ; a 

 few pages of a Latin poem, and some other frag- 

 ments, but all equally uninteresting. One of 



B 2 



