148 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



displaying before us the image of Palermo la felice, 

 which seemed slumbering in a balmy atmosphere 

 amid the gentle murmurs of the waves, as they 

 flowed softly back from its shores. 



How painful, when the thoughts are elevated by 

 the contemplation of scenery at once sublime and 

 beautiful, to be abruptly recalled to earth by some 

 importunate and trivial consideration. Almost before 

 our vessel had reached the harbour it was literally 

 stormed by a crowd of seamen closely akin to the 

 native lazzaroni, and in an instant we were plunged 

 into all the miseries of landing, which in our case 

 were of more serious moment than they might have 

 been to travellers in general, as our trunks and boxes 

 were filled with instruments, bottles, and glass 

 vessels of different kinds ; no wonder then, that we 

 dreaded the prospect of encountering the delays, 

 risks, and difficulties appertaining to a search by 

 custom-house officers. Fortunately for us our own 

 apprehensions were the only evils we experienced on 



where their brightness is gradually extinguished amid the gentle 

 undulations of the waves. Besides these we saw some fireworks 

 which were perfectly unique of their kind. Some of these appeared 

 like large banana trees, blazing from the base to the summit in a 

 rich deep green fire, which is probably produced by means of 

 alcohol and a salt of copper. The crowning piece of this pyro- 

 technical exhibition was a representation of a castle in a state of 

 siege, which was being bombarded and burnt in the midst of a 

 thunderstorm, and the combined effects of the thunder, fireballs and 

 the conflagration were most admirably given. The castle, moreover, 

 was 200 feet in length, and of a proportional height, while the line 

 of fireworks directed against it measured more than 500 feet in 

 length, and was arranged in several successive rows. 



