NAPLES BAY AND FISH-MAEKET. 87 



mentarily the oily mappings of the tranquil sea ; mugils 

 in a noisy troop splashing up the waters like sportive 

 bathers ; the blue-finned gurnard bouncing away many 

 feet into the air from his hungry pursuer the bone- 

 tus, and after tracing a momentary parabola of great bril- 

 liancy^ dropping again with aU his turquoises displayed 

 into the element he had just quitted. These are but a 

 scantling of the members of a tribe remarkable every- 

 where for variety of form and tinting ; but which here 

 present such an endless, ever charming, ever new series 

 of kaleidoscopic combinations as after awhile to bewilder 

 the braiu of the beholder, and conjure up to him, as lost 

 in pleasiug reverie he continues gazing down into the 

 deep, the dazzling glories of the Patriarch's vision. 



In rowing across the Bay in the opposite direction of 

 Puteoli and Baise, the liae of traject Has necessarily and 

 continually athwart tessellated pavements, marble moles, 

 and colossal substructures in brick, whence stately yUlas, 

 dedicated to good cheer, once rose high above the waves, 

 but are now ia possession of those very mullet for whose 

 e<fffication they were originally constructed; while oyster- 

 crusted amphorse and other broken potteries, receding 

 under the keel, speak ever and anon a lively memento mori 

 from out of their sandy sepulchre, telling of an earlier 

 date, when^ standing in goodly row in some great man's 

 cellar, carefully sealed and labelled, they were filled, not 

 as now, with ooze and cockle-shells, but with Venafrian 

 oU, such as Virro's lampreys were wont to swim in, and 

 choice Falernian, to pledge the illustrious giver of the 

 tripatinum entertainment. 



On landing at Baije, Piscator finds himself absolutely 

 surrounded by objects of interest. Here, it is the piscina 

 mirabilis that calls forth his admiration ; there, that other 

 brick edifice, the cento cam,arelle, makes equal calls on 

 his attention ; and though the object of this has hitherto 

 puzzled antiquaries, he finds no difficulty, on consulting 



