30 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



Syracuse, the birthplace of Theocritus and Archi- 

 medes. With the assistance of our telescopes, we 

 distino^uished the walls and towers on the east side 

 of the city, and the roofs of several of the principal 

 buildings, which, indeed, seem to retain but little 

 of the splendour of the opulent Syracuse, which 

 Cicero describes as one of the most beautiful cities 

 of antiquity. Recollections of the noble-minded 

 Timoleon, — of the tyrant Dionysius, — of the 

 grandeur and magnificence which Syracuse attained 

 after the conquest of its rival Agrigentum, strike 

 upon the mind of the observer. 



The sea in this latitude, as well as in the gulf 

 of Tarento, is of a light-green colour, which is 

 principally owing to its inferior depth. As this 

 colour changes according as the rays of the sun 

 fall, it is hardly possible accurately to determine 

 the various degrees of the blue, green, and grey 

 colour ; for the sea apppears in the same place of 

 a much brighter hue when it is strongly illuminated 

 by the sun, than when the horizon is overspread 

 with dark clouds. It is in this place also that we 

 first discovered the phosphorescence of the sea. It 

 was, however, much fainter and more dispersed 

 than we afterwards noticed it on the coasts of Spain, 

 at Gibraltar, and in the ocean, and seemed to arise » 

 chiefly from minute mollusca. 



The stormy weather had driven birds of various 

 kinds from the Sicilian coast, which came and 

 rested upon the frigate. We caught several turtle- 



