32 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



ballasted, and urged onwards by the wind which 

 strikes their vertical plates like so many sails, the 

 Velellas often float in large numbers on the waves. 

 We did not, it is true, meet with any of these living 

 flotillas, but we saw several isolated individuals. 

 We also collected some specimens of the lanthina, a 

 charming little Gasteropodous Mollusc, whose body, 

 enclosed in a pale violet-coloured shell, is suspended 

 to a spongy mass looking like consolidated soap 

 froth, which prevents the animal from sinking to the 

 bottom. These various captures enabled us patiently 

 to support the wearisomeness of our voyage, which at 

 one time was interrupted by calms, and at another 

 by contrary winds. At length, after a second night 

 on the sea, which we passed within a mile and a half 

 of the lighthouse of Messina *, we entered the narrow 

 channel, which separates Sicily from Italy, and in 

 another hour we were standing on the quay at the 

 moment when the sun, rising behind the Calabrian 



* Messina is one of the most ancient cities of Sicily. It is 

 believed to have been founded about ten centuries before our era, 

 when it bore the name of Zancle, and subsequently that of Messana. 

 The position of Messina, its vicinity to the continent, and the 

 beauty of its situation and excellence of its harbour, have made it 

 play a considerable part in the history of Sicily. It has always been 

 regarded as the key of the island, and from this very importance it 

 has suffered greatly. Again and again taken and retaken, re- 

 peatedly destroyed, and as often rebuilt, it has resisted alike the 

 attacks of man and the convulsions of nature. The earthquake of 

 1783, amongst others, destroyed it almost entirely, and hence it 

 contains none of those ancient edifices which one might expect to 

 meet with in a city whose origin dates back nearly three thousand 

 years. 



