BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY AT NAPLES 



hand man of the institution in all that pertains to its 

 practical working outside the range of the microscope. 

 Each night Signor Lo Bianco directs his band of 

 fishermen as to what particular specimens are most to 

 be sought after next day to meet the needs of the work- 

 ers in the laboratory. Before sunrise each day, weather 

 permitting, the little scattered fleet of boats is far out 

 on the Bay of Naples ; for the surface collecting, which 

 furnishes a large share of the best material, can be 

 done only at dawn, as the greater part of the creatures 

 thus secured sink into the retirement of the depths dur- 

 ing the day, coming to the surface to feed only at night. 

 You are not likely to see the collecting party start out, 

 therefore, but if you choose you may see them return 

 about nine or ten o'clock by going to the dock not far 

 from the laboratory. The boats come in singly at 

 about this hour, their occupants standing up to row, 

 and pushing forward with the oars, after the awkward 

 Neapolitan fashion. Many of the fishermen are quaint 

 enough in appearance; some of them have grown old 

 in the service of the laboratory. The morning's catch 

 is contained in glass jars placed in baskets especially 

 constructed for the purpose. The baskets have han- 

 dles, but these are quite superfluous except to lift them 

 from the boats, for in the transit to the laboratory the 

 baskets are carried, as almost everything else is carried 

 in Naples, on the head. To the novitiate it seems a 

 striking risk to pile baskets of fragile glass and even 

 more fragile specimens one above another, and attempt 

 to balance the whole on the head, but nothing could be 

 easier, or seemingly more secure, for these experts. 

 Arrived at the laboratory, the jars are turned over to 



123 



