THE ZOOLOGICAL STATION AT NAPLES 225 
again in the peristyle of the house of the Vettii. In the present ex- 
cavations one sees the volcanic debris removed from an atrium wall 
revealing in its pristine freshness a fresco of the brief period of recon- 
struction after the earthquake of 63. After the excursions from 
Naples certain pictures will always linger in the mind. The wonderful 
panorama from the Camaldulensian monastery extending from the 
Ponza Islands in the west to Monte Sant? Angelo in the southeast, 
and embracing the City of Naples with omnipresent Vesuvius in the 
background, and the islands of Nisida, Procida, Ischia and Capri. The 
view from the rose-garden of the Palazzo Rufolo, at Ravello, on the 
heights of Monti Lattari, with the fishing-boats of the bay of Salerno 
like winged creatures suspended just above the waves and gliding 
back to the gods who sent them forth. The temple of Neptune at 
Paestum, having withstood the devastation of wind and storm for 
twenty-five centuries, rising from the green meadows, with its massive 
yet graceful fluted Doric columns, sepia tinted by age, outlined against 
the blue sky and bluer sea. The blue grotto of Capri entered by a hole 
in the cliff so small that our little skiff scraped the rock, lighted by 
the sunshine which permeates the water from the one opening, and 
transformed into a great hall of fairyland with an atmosphere of 
silvery greenish-blue so clear that the primeval rock of the vaulted 
cavern is reflected in the shimmering depths below. The naturalists 
from many countries, all representing different phases of biological 
work and thought, create a cosmopolitan atmosphere most profitable 
and inspiring to each investigator. During the year ending March, 
1910, there were 163 workers at the zoological station. Thus there is 
a perpetually changing and yet permanent congress wherein the 
exchange of ideas is not by means of formal lectures but rather in the 
conversation of two or three workers in some nook about the buildings, 
or upon the deck of the Johannes Miiller. For the thirty-six years of 
its existence the Naples Zoological Station has been one of the most 
potent factors in the development of modern biology, and now this 
institution world-wide in its influence, stands as the chief monument 
to the remarkable personality of Anton Dohrn. 
VOL. LXxvil.-—16. 
