Letters from Europe (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1886. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Hopkins some four or five years since, and I am very glad to know that you are to have such a valuable auxiliary to your natural history department. With kind regards, I am sincerely yours, Saml. F. Clarke, Professor of Zoology in Williams College, Mass. P. S.--I was carrying on some investigations at the Zoological Station when Mr. Bartlett was in Naples, and thus came to select the specimens for your collection. S. F. C. Hotel Costanzi, Rome, February 9, 1884. My Dear Ned: You see by the dating of this that, after three weeks stay in Naples, we are in the Eternal City again, for a short stay before going north. Naples is the first city that we have left with regret. We found the weather there more to our taste than anywhere else in Europe. The sun had some effect, and I felt more like myself. What is every thing, we had fine weather for excursions, which are the great feature of Naples. The museum and picture galleries are very fine. In the museum most of the things recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum are placed. It is one of the most interesting collections in Europe and the statuary is hardly inferior to that in the Vatican. The same building contains a large and valuable library, but the objects of greatest interest to me are the curiosities from Pompeii and Herculaneum. There are many thousands of them -- specimens of the frescoes taken from the walls in great numbers, and bronze household implements of all descriptions. The artistic taste shown in the simplest of these things is very surprising. It makes no difference whether it be an intentional work of art, a skillet, or a common pan, they all have the same beautiful lines, and the bronze ornaments that these people had in their houses do not differ very much from those we have at the present day; in...