THE COASTS OF SICILY. 205 



of labours of the most incontestable importance, and 

 who has thus attained a distinguished place in the 

 foremost rank of science, renounces the comfort 

 and quiet of his own home for the sake of prose- 

 cuting new researches, exposing himself cheerfully 

 to all the privations and fatigues which we endured, 

 with no other hope of reward but the success of the 

 inquiries he was prosecuting, it must be admitted 

 that he gives the strongest proof of devotion to 

 science, and acquires by the very act an influence 

 and authority which no one will dispute who can 

 appreciate the honourable manner in which they 

 have been won. 



It must be admitted, however, that all these minor 

 miseries were very quickly forgotten when they 

 were accompanied by the acquisition of ample 

 materials for study ; but, at Santo- Vi to this just 

 compensation was not always awarded us in return 

 for our many privations. The same wind which 

 drove an icy rain through the casements to our 

 working tables threw the angry waves upon the 

 exposed beach, and either carried away the little 

 marine animals, of which we were in search, or 

 compelled them to take shelter in the depths of the 

 sea, far beyond the reach of all our means of 

 capture. It thus happened that we frequently 

 returned empty-handed from our excursions. M. 

 Blanchard, however, was enabled to carry on some 

 very curious observations. The rocks were covered 

 with numbers of the Vermetus, which, protected by 

 their solid and interlaced tubes, can brave with 

 impunity the shocks of the tempest. The abun- 



