THE COASTS OF SICILY. 163 



board. The men ran the boat close into land, and 

 made her fast by a grappling iron. Having arranged 

 two oars crossways at each extremity of the bark, 

 they rested the mast of our latteen sail upon this 

 rude framework and covered the whole with tarpaulin. 

 We opened our box of provisions by the light of a 

 smoky lamp, and made our first bivouacing meal on 

 rancid sausage and the cacio cavallo of the district, 

 the taste of which bears some resemblance to 

 old Gruyere cheese. Having re-arranged our mat- 

 tresses and put on our weather-proof capes, M. 

 Edwards and myself stretched ourselves at full 

 length, while M. Blanchard took up his quarters 

 for the night at our feet ; our men, in the meanwhile, 

 had stowed themselves away as best they could, some 

 between the benches, others on the sails and ropes, 

 and soon the gentle rocking of the boat, as it was 

 moved by the feeble oscillations of the waves, had 

 buried alike naturalists and seamen in profound 

 sleep. 



There was an unforeseen circumstance, however, 

 which unfortunately soon came to destroy any ro- 

 mantic sentiments that the strange nature of our 

 position might otherwise have tended to encourage- 

 Seven Sicilian sailors, whose ordinary fare is garlic 

 and onions, sleeping in clothes which have probably 

 served them well for many long years, did not 

 conduce to the purity of the atmosphere of a narrow 

 and lo\v tent, which the keenness of the night air 

 had compelled us to keep perfectly closed. These 

 exhalations were, moreover, blended with a far worse 

 odour, some whiffs of which had already several times 



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