xc 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



species of birds which wing their way to this 

 quarter ; and I can conceive that the family 

 of hawks, especially the windhover, would be 

 very numerous. 



I got considerable information concerning 

 the nautilus in the Sicilian seas from an excel- 

 lent gentleman who accompanied me in the 

 steamer, and to whom I had been introduced 

 in Naples the day before we sailed. His name 

 was Larkins, and he was a clergyman of the 

 Established Church. I shall long remember 

 his attentions to us in Messina. We corre- 

 sponded for some time after my return to Rome ; 

 but as he was much out of health, and did not 

 answer my last letter, I cannot divest myself of 

 the fear that he is now no more. 



In Sicily we saw an exhibition, the recollec- 

 tion of which haunted me like a spectre for 

 many a week afterwards. It might be termed 

 a melancholy parade of death decked out in a 

 profusion of gay and splendid colours. I could 

 not comprehend by what species of philosophy 

 these islanders had brought themselves to the 

 contemplation of objects once so dear to them, 

 but now shrunk into hideous deformity, and 

 seeming, as it were, to ask for a removal from 



