Robert Merry's museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)Various
General
Robert Merry's museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
The festivities were kept up through the following day. The river was
covered with barges, galleys, boats, and small craft of every
description, decked out with banners and streamers in the gayest and
most fantastic manner. There were boat-races and other naval sports,
which kept the river and the shores all alive with people through the
day. For my part, I had seen sufficient of the crowd, confusion and
tumult of these gayeties, and took more pleasure in strolling about
the neighborhood. The fields are richly cultivated, and the soil
naturally rich, till you approach the sea, where it becomes sandy and
barren. Even here, however, I found, in the midst of a forest of oaks,
a beautiful thriving farm belonging to the grand duke. It is true,
there was not much cultivation, owing to the thinness of the soil; but
there were immense herds of horned cattle, sheep and wild horses which
roamed at large through the woods, and over the desert tracts along
the shore, and, what surprised me most of all, about two hundred
_camels_. These latter animals, I was told, were first brought to this
region in the time of the crusades, and have been naturalized on the
spot. They are used as beasts of burthen, and carry loads of wood to
Pisa every day. It seems that all the camels which are carried about
in caravans over Europe and America, are obtained here, where they may
be bought for it hundred dollars apiece. Very probably, this breed,
having been so long from its original territory, has degenerated, so
that the genuine animal is never seen in our menageries. An attempt
was made some years ago to introduce camels into Carolina and Georgia,
where it was thought they might be of essential service in the low,
sandy regions, but the animals dwindled away and died. The camel
requires a dry air, and could not resist the moisture of our
atmosphere.
A SAILOR, who had heard of musical accompaniments, symphonies, &c.,
being one night at the theatre where the audience were calling upon
the orchestra for their favorite tunes, determined to put in his
claims; and standing up in the pit, he set the whole house in a roar
by calling out, “Hallo! you mess-mate with the big fiddle, give us
_Yankee Doodle with the trimmings_.”
* * * * *
AMONGST the literary curiosities in the National Library at Berlin is
the Bible used by Charles I. on the scaffold.
Farewell, for a time, to Correspondents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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