Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The coral shops make an elegant and showy display. We visited the Aquarium, which occupies the ground floor of a building situated in the Villa Nazionale, a beautiful pleasure ground embellished with palm-trees, flowers, sculpture and shady walks, affording the fashionable promenade of Naples. The Aquarium consists of large tanks extending around the building, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, inclosed in glass cases, containing an extensive stock of curious marine animals of all descriptions, and is considered one of the most interesting establishments of the kind in the world. Most of the animals are from the Mediterranean, which is the richest in animal life of all European seas. It is certainly a most enchanting sight to watch these. millions of sea-animals with their different shapes, sizes, colors, and habits. Beautiful fish of delicate shades of pink, lavender, green, in fact all sorts of tints, striped and spotted, dart hither and thither, glittering in the sunshine. And oh, the beautiful specimens of living coral! We had often seen pretty white and red branches adorning a mantel-piece or incased in a museum in our own country; but here we actually saw it in living form, and found by study and observation that these beautiful branches and twigs are stony substances produced by the coral polypes which have secreted it as the common support and skeleton of their soft vital parts. The living branch of coral is covered with a softer rind, just as the trunk of a real tree is covered with bark, and the little coral insects may be seen, like' delicate white flower-cups with eight feathery leaves, unfolding themselves at innumerable points on the surface of the branch. The pretty Medusa, another specimen of marine life, with their graceful motions and splendid colors, look like anything rather than animals, as you can discover no arms, legs or head. They are merely a sort of shallow cup resembling a mushroom or umbrella, and move by the contractions of their bodies. On the edge of the cup are the organs of sight and hearing, and from the centre of the hollow of the cup hangs a long, gelatinous, transparent stem, which is provided with a mouth orifice. The tank containing the Annelids looked more like a garden planted

with miniature palm-trees of various rich colors, than a collection of worms. There, shoot forth bright red tassels from a white calcareous tube; there, wave feathery spiral crowns on slender stems; there, a confused mass of tubes seem set with hundreds of dainty colored brushes; and yet all these creations are real worms. They are so sensitive that a passing cloud or a slight disturbance of the water will cause these tiny crowns to be drawn into the tube, to wait until the supposed danger is over, then cautiously something resembling a camel's-hair brush, will begin to peep out of the mouth of the tube, and finally unfold its gorgeous beauty. One could watch them for hours! The electric ray is a peculiar and interesting fish, having a flat, round, naked, slimy body, with a large bean shaped electric organ on each side. The nervous electricity is collected in this apparatus, and discharged when pressed with the thumb and finger. The back is positive and the belly negative.

Of

The keeper of the Aquarium caught one of them, and Mr. Culler received quite a shock by pressing it in this manner. course (being a woman) I was too cowardly to touch it. Some of the animals have a very disgusting appearance, as the Octopus Vulgaris, with a body like a bag which we could distinctly see breathing. The small head at the top contains two big eyes, and eight long, slimy arms branch out from the head, with which it creeps, climbs, and seizes and holds its prey. We watched the keeper feed it with great interest. It is continually contracting and expanding its long arms, wriggling and twisting about, and appears to be trying to turn itself wrong side out. They are very strong, and drag quite good-sized stones into a heap and then hide behind them. They grow to a considerable size in the ocean. The arms of some of them which have been caught, measured twenty-five feet in length. These in the Aquarium are young, with arms only three or four feet long. If ever I am so unfortunate as to be drowned in the sea, I hope one of these creatures will not take after me. The star-fish, sea urchins, young sharks, the murex, from which was obtained the purple fluid with which the ancients dyed their royal robes, and

in fact everything we saw there, was intensely interesting and enjoyable.

We began to change our minds about Naples and think it was rather a nice place after all. The museum at Naples, containing excavated treasures from Pompeii, Herculaneum and other valuables, forms one of the finest collections in the world. Seven rooms and a corridor are filled with ancient frescoes from the above-mentioned cities. Among the finest are Medea brooding over the murder of her children, the Dancing Girls, the Three Graces, various representations of Cupid, and some very fine mosaic pictures, the most remarkable of which is the Battle of Alexander. These works are almost the only specimens of ancient painting which have been handed down to our generation, and are therefore of priceless value. They give us an idea of the style, shading and coloring of the ancients, and many of them are beautifully designed and richly executed, including animal life, landscapes, fruit pieces, designs for architecture, historical and mythological subjects. They were painted between A. D. 63, and A. D. 79. The sculpture and bronze are exceedingly fine. We studied carefully the celebrated colossal marble group of the Farnese Bull. Two strong young men are engaged in tying a helpless woman to the horns of a furious bull, which is plunging violently, and in the background stands a female figure. The story which it represents is as follows: "The two sons of Antiope, Amphion and Zethus, avenge the wrongs of their mother by binding Dirce, who had treated her with the greatest cruelty for many years, to the horns of a wild bull. Antiope in the background entreats them to forgiveness." Near this group stands the so-called Farnese Hercules. They both belonged formerly to the Farnese family. There are three rooms filled with books and papers, scrolls rolled up that were burned black at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and are now being carefully unrolled by a chemical process, and the writing on them read and transcribed into a book. They are then hung around the walls of the room for exhibition.

We saw a bracelet,

pair of ear-rings and chain, found on a female skeleton at

Pompeii. In this museum are hundreds of bottles from drugshops, fruits, raisins, prunes, walnuts, honey, bread, meat, sugar, eggs, fish, wheat, coffee, all found at Pompeii. Think of them. being so securely locked up for seventeen centuries. In addition to these ancient relics the museum is rich in books and manuscripts, modern paintings, an extensive and valuable collection of handsome vases of immense proportions, exquisitely painted, mosaics, gold and silver ornaments, and gems; altogether too much for one pair of eyes to take in.

About eight o'clock one morning we took train for Pompeii, a distance of fifteen miles. We became almost feverish with excitement, and the train did not run half fast enough to suit us, for we were on our way to see that wonderful city that had been buried for seventeen centuries. And when we were actually within its walls, we felt like holding our breath and treading softly. The earliest record that we can gather from history of Pompeii is B. C. 310. It was once a prosperous city of thirty thousand inhabitants. On the twenty-fourth of August, in the year A. D. 79, by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii was covered with a shower of ashes three feet deep. The ashes were followed by a shower of red-hot pumice stones of all sizes; then ashes again, and so on until the mass was about twenty feet thick. Excavations have been made from time to time, but during the middle ages Pompeii was entirely unknown. In the years intervening between 1861 and 1872 there were found eighty-seven human skeletons, and those of three dogs and seven horses. The whole number of those who perished is estimated at two thousand. An average number of eighty men are constantly employed in excavating. They watch visitors with a jealous eye, for fear they may discover and pick up anything valuable. We saw a bed-room that had only been excavated four day's, and a skeleton that was found only six months before. It is estimated that if the work progresses at the present rate, the complete excavation will take seventy years longer. Only about onethird of the town is unearthed at present; but it is probably the most important part, as it includes the principal public buildings.

We took a guide to show us through the ruins, and there we walked all the forenoon, looking at these old, old things of the past. The movable objects found, as well as the most important frescoes, have been removed to the museum at Naples, as they would soon be ruined by exposure to the sun and rain. However, quite a number of the frescoed walls remain, so one can get an idea of what it once was; also some beautiful fountains in mosaic work, marble statuary, etc. One of the old wells has been cleaned out, and the water found to be sweet and pure; so we had our guide draw up a pail full, and after he had tested it, we took a good draught from this crystal fountain. Think of drinking from a well seventeen hundred years old! The streets are straight and narrow, about twenty-four feet wide, and some only fourteen feet; but they are well paved with blocks of lava, and have a very narrow pavement for foot-passengers, about - twelve inches higher than the carriage road. At street corners are public fountains ornamented with the head of a god, lion, flowers, etc.

The houses are built of brick with corner-blocks of stone, and by the staircases it is plain to be seen that they were generally two or three stories high, although they are roofless. They are built with an open court in the centre, and the side facing the street was usually occupied by merchants and shopkeepers. All their best rooms were on the ground floor, and the servants or slaves occupied the upper floor. Many of the business places are recognizable by the signs painted on the front of the building. Thus two men carrying a large jug indicated a wine shop, a goat signified that milk could be bought within, a man whipping a boy, indicated a schoolroom, and houses of ill-fame are even marked with an indelicate figure over the door. Vice is as old as the world!

We went into the Basilica, the Temple of Venus, the Forum, Temple of Mercury, Temple of Jupiter. We ascended to the top of the latter by a flight of steps, where we had a fine panorama of Pompeii, with its ruined walls, broken columns, and grand old Mount Vesuvius, her destroyer, over yonder, quietly

« AnteriorContinuar »