le wider 

 ttrower, 



»y con- 

 interest 



-Is more 



of their 



so con- 



nber of 

 is clear 

 escape. 



sir vain- 

 ieletons 



lite of a 

 venteen 



the 



:om 



tliirated 

 ist of a 

 afant in 



roctj 



ia 



ie 



of g° 



ran? 



ed 



519- 



Ch. xxv.] 



HERCULANEUM AND POMPEII. 



649 



The writings scribbled by the soldiers on the walls of their 

 barracks, and the names of the owners of each house written 

 over the doors, are still perfectly legible. The colours of 

 fresco paintings on the stuccoed walls in the interior of 

 buildings are almost as vivid as if they were just finished. 

 There are public fountains decorated with shells laid out in 

 patterns in the same fashion as those now seen in the town 

 of Naples ; and in the room of a painter, who was perhaps a 

 laturalist, a large collections of shells was found, comprising 



Teat variety of Mediterranean species, in as good a state 

 of preservation as if they had remained for the same number 

 of years in a museum. A comparison of these remains with 

 those found so generally in a fossil state would not assist us 

 in obtaining the least insight into the time required to pro- 

 duce a certain degree of decomposition or mineralisation; 

 for, although under favourable circumstances much greater 



11 



a 



alteration might doubtless have been brought about 



m a 



animal and vegetable substances of more perishable 



shorter period, yet the example before us shows that an in- 

 humation of seventeen centuries may sometimes effect nothing 

 towards the reduction of shells to the state in which fossils 

 are usually found. 



The wooden beams in the houses at Herculaneum are black 

 on the exterior, but, when cleft open, they appear to be almost 

 in the state of ordinary wood, and the progress made by the 



whole mass towards the state of lignite is scarcely appreciable. 



Some 



kinds have of course suffered much change and decay, yet 

 the state of preservation of these is truly remarkable. 

 Fishing-nets are very abundant in both cities, often quite 

 entire ; and their number at Pompeii is the more interesting 

 from the sea being now, as we stated, a mile distant. Linen 

 has been found at Herculaneum, with the texture well de- 

 fined ; and in a fruiterer's shop in that city were discovered 

 vessels full of almonds, chesnuts, walnuts, and fruit of the 

 ' carubiere/ all distinctly recognisable from their shape. A 

 loaf, also, still retaining its form, was found in a baker's 



shop, with his name stamped upon it. On the counter of 

 an apothecary was a box of pills converted into a fine earthy 

 substance; and by the side of it a small cylindrical roll 



