retiarius, Nepimus, triumphant already on five preceding occasions, has
seized him by the belt, and has planted one foot upon his leg, but the
trident not being sufficient to finish him, a second secutor, Hippolytus
by name, who has survived five previous victories, has come up.
Hippolytus rests one hand upon the helmet of the vanquished secutor who
vainly clasps his knees, and with the other, cuts his throat.

Death--always death! In the paintings; in the bas-reliefs that I
describe; in the scenes that they reproduce; in the arena where these
combats must have taken place, I can see only unhappy wretches
undergoing assassination. One of them, holding his shield behind him,
is thinking only how he may manage to fall with grace; another,
kneeling, presses his wound with one hand, and stretches the other out
toward the spectators; some of them have a suppliant look, others are
stoical, but all will have to roll at last upon the sand of the arena,
condemned by the inexorable caprice of a people greedy for blood. "The
modest virgin," says Juvenal, "turning down her thumb, orders that the
breast of yonder man, grovelling in the dust, shall be torn open." And
all--the heavily armed Samnite, the Gaul, the Thracian, the secutor; the
_dimachoerus_, with his two swords; the swordsman who wears a helmet
surmounted with a fish--the one whom the retiarius pursues with his net,
meanwhile singing this refrain, "It is not you that I am after, but your
fish, and why do you flee from me?"--all, all must succumb, at last,
sooner or later, were it to be after the hundredth victory, in this same
arena, where once an attendant employed in the theatre used to come, in
the costume of Mercury, to touch them with a red-hot iron to make sure
that they were dead. If they moved, they were at once dispatched; if
they remained icy-cold and motionless, a slave harpooned them with a
hook, and dragged them through the mire of sand and blood to the narrow
corridor, the _porta libitinensis_,--the portal of death,--whence they
were flung into the spoliarium, so that their arms and clothing, at
least, might be saved. Such were the games of the amphitheatre.

[Footnote K: M. Campfleury has reproduced this design in his very
curious book on _Antique Caricature_.]

IX.

THE ERUPTION.

     THE DELUGE OF ASHES.--THE DELUGE OF FIRE.--THE FLIGHT OF THE
     POMPEIANS.--THE PREOCCUPATIONS OF THE POMPEIAN WOMEN.--THE VICTIMS:
     THE FAMILY OF DIOMED; THE SENTINEL; THE WOMAN WALLED UP IN A TOMB;
     THE PRIEST OF ISIS; THE LOVERS CLINGING TOGETHER, ETC.--THE
     SKELETONS.--THE DEAD BODIES MOULDED BY VESUVIUS.

It was during one of these festivals, on the 23d of November, 79, that
the terrible eruption which overwhelmed the city burst forth. The
testimony of the ancients, the ruins of Pompeii, the layers upon layers
of ashes and scoriæ that covered it, the skeletons surprised in
attitudes of agony or death, all concur to tell us of the catastrophe.
The imagination can add nothing to it: the picture is there before our
eyes; we are present at the scene; we behold it. Seated in the
amphitheatre, we take to flight at the first convulsions, at the first
lurid flashes which announce the conflagration and the crumbling of the
mountain. The ground is shaken repeatedly; and something like a
whirlwind of dust, that grows thicker and thicker, has gone rushing and
spinning across the heavens. For some days past there has been talk of
gigantic forms, which, sometimes on the mountain and sometimes in the
plain, swept through the air; they are up again now, and rear themselves
to their whole height in the eddies of smoke, from amid which is heard a
strange sound, a fearful moaning followed by claps of thunder that crash
down, peal on peal. Night, too, has come on--a night of horror; enormous
flames kindle the darkness like the blaze of a furnace. People scream,
out in the streets, "Vesuvius is on fire!"

On the instant, the Pompeians, terrified, bewildered, rush from the
amphitheatre, happy in finding so many places of exit through which they
can pour forth without crushing each other, and the open gates of the
city only a short distance beyond. However, after the first explosion,
after the deluge of ashes, comes the deluge of fire, or light stones,
all ablaze, driven by the wind--one might call it a burning
snow--descending slowly, inexorably, fatally, without cessation or
intermission, with pitiless persistence. This solid flame blocks up the
streets, piles itself in heaps on the roofs and breaks through into the
houses with the crashing tiles and the blazing rafters. The fire thus
tumbles in from story to story, upon the pavement of the courts, where,
accumulating like earth thrown in to fill a trench, it receives fresh
fuel from the red and fiery flakes that slowly, fatally, keep showering
down, falling, falling, without respite.

The inhabitants flee in every direction; the strong, the youthful, those
who care only for their lives, escape. The amphitheatre is emptied in
the twinkling of an eye and none remain in it but the dead gladiators.
But woe to those who have sought shelter in the shops, under the arcades
of the theatre, or in underground retreats. The ashes surround and
stifle them! Woe, above all, to those whom avarice or cupidity hold
back; to the wife of Proculus, to the favorite of Sallust, to the
daughters of the house of the Poet who have tarried to gather up their
jewels! They will fall suffocated among these trinkets, which, scattered
around them, will reveal their vanity and the last trivial cares that
then beset them, to after ages. A woman in the atrium attached to the
house of the Faun ran wildly as chance directed, laden with jewelry;
unable any longer to get breath, she had sought refuge in the tablinum,
and there strove in vain to hold up, with her outstretched arms, the
ceiling crumbling in upon her. She was crushed to death, and her head
was missing when they found her.

In the Street of the Tombs, a dense crowd must have jostled each other,
some rushing in from, the country to seek safety in the city, and others
flying from the burning houses in quest of deliverance under the open
sky. One of them fell forward with his feet turned toward the
Herculaneum gate; another on his back, with his arms uplifted. He bore
in his hands one hundred and twenty-seven silver coins and sixty-nine
pieces of gold. A third victim was also on his back; and, singular fact,
they all died looking toward Vesuvius!

A female holding a child in her arms had taken shelter in a tomb which
the volcano shut tight upon her; a soldier, faithful to duty, had
remained erect at his post before the Herculaneum gate, one hand upon
his mouth and the other on his spear. In this brave attitude he
perished. The family of Diomed had assembled in his cellar, where
seventeen victims, women, children, and the young girl whose throat was
found moulded in the ashes, were buried alive, clinging closely to each
other, destroyed there by suffocation, or, perhaps, by hunger. Arrius
Diomed had tried to escape alone, abandoning his house and taking with
him only one slave, who carried his money-wallet. He fell, struck down
by the stifling gases, in front of his own garden. How many other poor
wretches there were whose last agonies have been disclosed to us!--the
priest of Isis, who, enveloped in flames and unable to escape into the
blazing street, cut through two walls with his axe and yielded his last
breath at the foot of the third, where he had fallen with fatigue or
struck down by the deluge of ashes, but still clutching his weapon. And
the poor dumb brutes, tied so that they could not break away,--the mule
in the bakery, the horses in the tavern of Albinus, the goat of Siricus,
which had crouched into the kitchen oven, where it was recently found,
with its bell still attached to its neck! And the prisoners in the
blackhole of the gladiators' barracks, riveted to an iron rack that
jammed their legs! And the two lovers surprised in a shop near the
Thermæ; both were young, and they were tightly clasped in each other's
arms.... How awful a night and how fearful a morrow! Day has come, but
the darkness remains; not that of a moonless night, but that of a closed
room without lamp or candle. At Misenum, where Pliny the younger, who
has described the catastrophe, was stationed, nothing was heard but the
voices of children, of men, and of women, calling to each other, seeking
each other, recognizing each other by their cries alone, invoking death,
bursting out in wails and screams of anguish, and believing that it was
the eternal night in which gods and men alike were rushing headlong to
annihilation. Then there fell a shower of ashes so dense that, at the
distance of seven leagues from the volcano, one had to shake one's
clothing continually, so as not to be suffocated. These ashes went, it
is said, as far as Africa, or, at all events, to Rome, where they filled
the atmosphere and hid the light of day, so that even the Romans said:
"The world is overturned; the sun is falling on the earth to bury itself
in night, or the earth is rushing up to the sun to be consumed in his
eternal fires." "At length," writes Pliny, "the light returned
gradually, and the star that sheds it reappeared, but pallid as in an
eclipse. The whole scene around us was transformed; the ashes, like a
heavy snow, covered everything."

This vast shroud was not lifted until in the last century, and the
excavations have narrated the catastrophe with an eloquence which even
Pliny himself, notwithstanding the resources of his style and the
authority of his testimony, could not attain. The terrible exterminator
was caught, as it were, in the very act, amid the ruins he had made.
These roofless houses, with the height of one story only remaining and
leaving their walls open to the sun; these colonnades that no longer
supported anything; these temples yawning wide on all sides, without
pediment or portico; this silent loneliness; this look of desolation,
distress, and nakedness, which looked like ruins on the morrow of some
great fire,--all were enough to wring one's heart. But there was still
more: there were the skeletons found at every step in this voyage of
discovery in the midst of the dead, betraying the anguish and the terror
of that last dreadful hour. Six hundred,--perhaps more,--have already
been found, each one illustrating some poignant episode of the
immense catastrophe in which they were smitten down!

[Illustration: Bodies of Pompeians cast in the Ashes.]

Recently, in a small street, under heaps of rubbish, the men working on
the excavations perceived an empty space, at the bottom of which were
some bones. They at once called Signor Fiorelli, who had a bright idea.
He caused some plaster to be mixed, and poured it immediately into the
hollow, and the same operation was renewed at other points where he
thought he saw other similar bones. Afterward, the crust of pumice-stone
and hardened ashes which had enveloped, as it were, in a scabbard, this
something that they were trying to discover, was carefully lifted off.
When these materials had been removed, there appeared four dead bodies.

Any one can see them now, in the museum at Naples; nothing could be more
striking than the spectacle. They are not statues, but corpses, moulded
by Vesuvius; the skeletons are still there, in those casings of plaster
which reproduce what time would have destroyed, and what the damp ashes
have preserved,--the clothing and the flesh, I might almost say the
life. The bones peep through here and there, in certain places which
the plaster did not reach. Nowhere else is there anything like this to
be seen. The Egyptian mummies are naked, blackened, hideous; they no
longer have anything in common with us; they are laid out for their
eternal sleep in the consecrated attitude. But the exhumed Pompeians are
human beings whom one sees in the agonies of death.

One of these bodies is that of a woman near whom were picked up
ninety-one pieces of coin, two silver urns, and some keys and jewels.
She was endeavoring to escape, taking with her these precious articles,
when she fell down in the narrow street. You still see her lying on her
left side; her head-dress can very readily be made out, as also can the
texture of her clothing and two silver rings which she still has on her
finger; one of her hands is broken, and you see the cellular structure
of the bone; her left arm is lifted and distorted; her delicate hand is
so tightly clenched that you would say the nails penetrate the flesh;
her whole body appears swollen and contracted; the legs only, which are
very slender, remain extended. One feels that she struggled a long time
in horrible agony; her whole attitude is that of anguish, not of death.

Behind her had fallen a woman and a young girl; the elder of the two,
the mother, perhaps, was of humble birth, to judge by the size of her
ears; on her finger she had only an iron ring; her left leg lifted and
contorted, shows that she, too, suffered; not so much, however, as the
noble lady: the poor have less to lose in dying. Near her, as though
upon the same bed, lies the young girl; one at the head, and the other
at the foot, and their legs are crossed. This young girl, almost a
child, produces a strange impression; one sees exactly the tissue, the
stitches of her clothing, the sleeves that covered her arms almost to
the wrists, some rents here and there that show the naked flesh, and the
embroidery of the little shoes in which she walked; but above all, you
witness her last hour, as though you had been there, beneath the wrath
of Vesuvius; she had thrown her dress over her head, like the daughter
of Diomed, because she was afraid; she had fallen in running, with her
face to the ground, and not being able to rise again, had rested her
young, frail head upon one of her arms. One of her hands was half open,
as though she had been holding something, the veil, perhaps, that
covered her. You see the bones of her fingers penetrating the plaster.
Her cranium is shining and smooth, her legs are raised backward and
placed one upon the other; she did not suffer very long, poor child! but
it is her corpse that causes one the sorest pang to see, for she was not
more than fifteen years of age.

The fourth body is that of a man, a sort of colossus. He lay upon his
back so as to die bravely; his arms and his limbs are straight and
rigid. His clothing is very clearly defined, the greaves visible and
fitting closely; his sandals laced at the feet, and one of them pierced
by the toe, the nails in the soles distinct; the stomach naked and
swollen like those of the other bodies, perhaps by the effect of the
water, which has kneaded the ashes. He wears an iron ring on the bone of
one finger; his mouth is open, and some of his teeth are missing; his
nose and his cheeks stand out promimently; his eyes and his hair have
disappeared, but the moustache still clings. There is something martial
and resolute about this fine corpse. After the women who did not want to
die, we see this man, fearless in the midst of the ruins that are
crushing him--_impavidum ferient ruinæ_.

I stop here, for Pompeii itself can offer nothing that approaches this
palpitating drama. It is violent death, with all its supreme
tortures,--death that suffers and struggles,--taken in the very act,
after the lapse of eighteen centuries.

ITINERARY.

AN ITINERARY.

In order to render my work less lengthy and less confused, as well as
easier to read, I have grouped together the curiosities of Pompeii,
according to their importance and their purport, in different chapters.
I shall now mark out an itinerary, wherein they will be classed in the
order in which they present themselves to the traveller, and I shall
place after each street and each edifice the indication of the chapter
in which I have described or named it in my work.

In approaching Pompeii by the usual entrance, which is the nearest to
the railroad, it would be well to go directly to the Forum. See Chap.
II.

The monuments of the Forum are as follows. I have _italicized_ the most
curious:

_The Basilica_.                See Chap. II.

_The Temple of Venus_.              "

The Curia, or Council Hall.         "

_The Edifice, or Eumachia_.         "

The Temple of Mercury.              "

_The Temple of Jupiter_.            "

The Senate Chamber.                 "

The Pantheon.                       "

From the Forum, you will go toward the north, passing by the Arch of
Triumph; visit the _Temple of Fortune_ (see Chap. VI.), and stop at the
Thermæ (see Chap. V.).

On leaving the Thermæ, pass through the entire north-west of the city,
that is to say, the space comprised between the streets of Fortune and
of the Thermæ and the walls. In this space are comprised the following
edifices:

_The House of Pansa_. See Chap. VI.

_The House of the Tragic Poet_. Chap. VII.

_The Fullonica_. Chap. III.

_The Mosaic Fountains_. Chap. VII.

_The House of Adonis_. Chap. VII.

The House of Apollo.

The House of Meleager.

The House of the Centaur.

_The House of Castor and Pollux_. Chap. VII.

The House of the Anchor.

The House of Polybius.

The House of the Academy of Music.

_The Bakery_. See Chap. III.

_The House of Sallust_. Chap. VII.

The Public Oven.

A Fountain. Chap. III.

The House of the Dancing Girls.

The Perfumery Shop. Chap III.

The House of Three Stories.

The Custom House. Chap. IV.

The House of the Surgeon. Chap. III.

The House of the Vestal Virgins.

The Shop of Albinus.

The Thermopolium. Chap. III.

Thus you arrive at the _Walls_ and at the Gate of Herculaneum, beyond
which the _Street of the Tombs_ opens and the suburbs develop. All this
is described in Chap. IV.

Here are the monuments in the Street of the Tombs:

The Sentry Box.                  See Chap. IV.

_The Tomb of Mamia_.                   "

The Tomb of Ferentius.                 "

The Sculptor's Atelier.                "

The Tomb with the Wreaths.             "

The Public Bank.                       "

The House of the Mosaic Columns.       "

The Villa of Cicero.                   "

The Tomb of Scaurus.                   "

The Round Tomb.                        "

The Tomb with the Marble Door.         "

The Tomb of Libella.                   "

_The Tomb of Calventius_.              "

_The Tomb of Nevoleia Tyché_.          "

_The Funereal Triclinium_.             "

The Tomb of Labeo.                     "

The Tombs of the Arria Family.         "

_The Villa of Diomed_.                 "

Having visited these tombs, re-enter the city by the Herculaneum Gate,
and, returning over part of the way already taken, find the Street of
Fortune again, and there see--

_The House of the Faun_. Chap. VII.

The House with the Black Wall.

The House with the Figured Capitals.

The House of the Grand Duke.

The House of Ariadne.

_The House of the Hunt_. Chap. VII.

You thus reach the place where the Street of Stabiæ turns to the right,
descending toward the southern part of the city. Before taking this
street, you will do well to follow the one in which you already are to
where it ends at the _Nola Gate_, which is worth seeing. See Chap. IV.

The Street of Stabiæ marks the limit reached by the excavations. To the
left, in going down, you will find the handsome _House of Lucretius_.
See Chap. VII.

On the right begins a whole quarter recently discovered and not yet
marked out on the diagram. Get them to show you--

_The House of Siricus_.  Chap. VII.

_The Hanging Balconies_. Chap. III.

The New Bakery. Chap. III.

Turning to the left, below the Street of Stabiæ you will cross the open
fields, above the part of the city not yet cleared, as far as the
_Amphitheatre_. See Chap. VIII.

Then, retracing your steps and intersecting the Street of Stabiæ, you
enter a succession of streets, comparatively wide, which will lead you
back to the Forum. You will there find, on your right, the _Hot Baths
of Stabiæ_. See chap. V. On your left is the _House of Cornelius Rufus_
and that of _Proculus_, recently discovered. See Chap. VII.

There now remains for you to cross the _Street of Abundance_ at the
southern extremity of the city. It is the quarter of the triangular
Forum, and of the Theatres--the most interesting of all.

The principal monuments to be seen are--

_The Temple of Isis_. See Chap. VII.

The Curia Isiaca.

_The Temple of Hercules_. Chap. VII.

_The Grand Theatre_. Chap. VIII.

_The Smaller Theatre_.   "

_The Barracks of the Gladiators_. Chap. VIII.

At the farther end of these barracks opens a small gate by which you may
leave the city, after having made the tour of it in three hours, on this
first excursion. On your second visit you will be able to go about
without a guide.

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Herald_.

"Cannot fail to prove entertaining to the juvenile reader."--_Albion_.

"The adventures are gathered from the histories of famous travellers and
explorers, and have the merit of truth as well as interest."--_N.Y.
Observer_.

"Just the book for boys during the coming Winter evenings."--_Boston
Daily Journal_.

=Pompeii.=

WONDERS OF POMPEII. By MARC MONNIER. With 22 illustrations. One volume
12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 19._

There are here summed up, in a very lively and graphic style, the
results of the discoveries made at Pompeii since the commencement of the
extensive excavations there. The illustrations represent the houses, the
domestic utensils, the statues, and the various works of art, as
investigation gives every reason to believe that they existed at the
time of the eruption.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

"It is undoubtedly one of the best works on Pompeii that have been
published, and has this advantage over all others--in that it records
the results of excavations to the latest date."--_N.Y. Herald_.

"A very pleasant and instructive book."--_Balt. Meth. Prot_.

"It gives a very clear and accurate account of the buried
city."--_Portland Transcript_.

=Sublime in Nature.=

THE SUBLIME IN NATURE, FROM DESCRIPTIONS OF CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS AND
WRITERS. By FERDINAND LANOYE. Illustrated with 48 woodcuts. One volume
12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 20._

The Air and Atmospheric Phenomena, the Ocean, Mountains, Volcanic
Phenomena, Rivers, Falls and Cataracts, Grottoes and Caverns, and the
Phenomena of Vegetation, are described in this volume, and in the most
charming manner possible, because the descriptions given have been
selected from the writings of the most distinguished authors and
travellers. The illustrations, several of which are from the pencil of
GUSTAVE DORÉ, reproduce scenes in this country, as well as in foreign
lands.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

"As a hand-book of reference to the natural wonders of the world this
work has no superior."--_Philadelphia Inquirer_.

"The illustrations are particularly graphic, and in some cases furnish
much better ideas of the phenomena they indicate than anything short of
an actual experience, or a panoramic view of them would do."--_N.Y.
Sunday Times_.

=The Sun.=

THE SUN. By AMEDEE GUILLEMIN. From the French by T.L. PHIPSON, Ph.D.
With 58 illustrations. One volume 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 21._

M. GUILLEMIN'S well-known work upon _The Heavens_ has secured him a wide
reputation as one of the first of living astronomical writers and
observers. In this compact treatise he discourses familiarly but most
accurately and entertainingly of the Sun as the source of light, of
heat, and of chemical action; of its influence upon living beings; of
its place in the Planetary World; of its place in the Sidereal World; of
its physical and chemical constitution; of the maintenance of Solar
Radiation, and, in conclusion, the question whether the Sun is
inhabited, is examined. The work embraces the results of the most recent
investigations, and is valuable for its fulness and accuracy as well as
for the very popular way in which the subject is presented.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

"The matter of the volume is highly interesting, as well as
scientifically complete; the style is clear and simple, and the
illustrations excellent."--_N.Y. Daily Tribune_.

"For the first time, the fullest and latest information about the Sun
has been comprised in a single volume."--_Philadelphia Press_.

"The work is intensely interesting. It is written in a style which must
commend itself to the general reader, and imparts a vast fund of
information in language free from astronomical or other scientific
technicalities."--_Albany Evening Journal_.

"The latest discoveries of science are set forth in a popular and
attractive style."--_Portland Transcript_.

"Conveys, in a graphic form, the present amount of knowledge in regard
to the luminous centre of out solar system."--_Boston
Congregationalist_.

=Glass-Making.=

WONDERS OF GLASS-MAKING; ITS DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST
TIMES TO THE PRESENT. By A. SAUZAY. With 63 illustrations on wood. One
volume 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 22._

The title of this work very accurately indicates its character. It is
written in an exceedingly lively and graphic style, and the useful and
ornamental applications of glass are fully described. The illustrations
represent, among other things, the mirror of Marie de Medici and various
articles manufactured from glass which have, from their unique
character, or the associations connected with them, acquired historical
interest.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

"All the information which the general reader needs on the subject will
be found here in a very intelligible and attractive form."--_N.Y.
Evening Post_.

"Tells about every branch of this curious manufacture, tracing its
progress from the remotest ages, and omitting not one point upon which
information can be desired."--_Boston Post_.

"A very useful and interesting book."--_N.Y. Citizen_.

"An extremely pleasant and useful little book."--_N.Y. Sunday Times_.

"The book will well repay perusal."--_N.Y. Globe_.

"A most interesting volume."--_Portland Argus_.

"Graphically told."--_N.Y. Albion_.

"Young people and old will derive equal benefit and pleasure from its
perusal."--_N.Y. Ch. Intelligencer_.

=Italian Art.=

WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART. By LOUIS VIARDOT. With 28 illustrations. One
volume 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 23._

As a compact, readable, and instructive manual upon a subject the
exposition of which has heretofore been confined to ambitious and
expensive treatises, this volume has no equal. In style it is clear and
attractive; its critical estimates are based upon thorough and extensive
knowledge and sound judgment, and the illustrations reproduce, as
accurately as wood engravings can do, the leading works of the famous
Italian masters, while anecdotes of these great artists and curious
facts regarding their works give popular interest to the volume.

=The Human Body.=

WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY. From the French of A. LE PILEUR, Doctor of
Medicine. Illustrated by 45 Engravings by LEVEILLÉ. One volume 12mo. $1
50

_For specimen illustration see page 24._

While sufficiently minute in anatomical and physiological details to
satisfy those who desire to go deeper into such studies than many may
deem necessary, this work is nevertheless written so that it may form
part of the domestic library. Mothers and daughters may read it without
being repelled or shocked; and the young will find their interest
sustained by incidental digressions to more attractive matters. Such are
the pages referring to phrenology and to music, which accompany the
anatomical description of the skull and of the organs of voice; and the
chapter on artistic expression which closes the book. Numerous simple
but attractive engravings elucidate the work.

=Architecture.=

WONDERS OF ARCHITECTURE. Translated from the French of M. LEFÉVRE; to
which is added a chapter on English Architecture by R. DONALD. With 50
illustrations. One volume 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 25._

The object of the _Wonders of Architecture_ is to supply, in as
accessible and popular a form as the nature of the subject admits, a
connected and comprehensive sketch of the chief architectural
achievements of ancient and modern times. Commencing with the rudest
dawnings of architectural science as exemplified in the Celtic
monuments, a carefully compiled and authentic record is given of the
most remarkable temples, palaces, columns, towers, cathedrals, bridges,
viaducts, churches, and buildings of every description which the genius
of man has constructed; and as these are all described in chronological
order, according to the eras to which they belong, they form a connected
narrative of the development of architecture, in which the history and
progress of the art can be authentically traced. Care has been taken to
popularize the theme as much as possible, to make the descriptions plain
and vivid, to render the text free from mere technicalities, and to
convey a correct and truthful impression of the various objects that are
enumerated.

=Ocean Depths.=

BOTTOM OF THE SEA. By L. SONREL. Translated and edited by ELIHU RICH,
translator of "Cazin's Heat," &c., with 68 woodcuts. (_Printed on Tinted
Paper_) One vol 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 26._

Written in a popular and attractive style, this volume affords much
useful information about the sea, its depth, color, and temperature; its
action in deep water and on the shores; the exuberance of life in the
depths of the ocean, and the numberless phenomena, anecdotes,
adventures, and perils connected therewith. The illustrations are very
numerous, and specially graphic and attractive.

CRITICAL NOTICE.

This book is well illustrated throughout, and is admirably adapted to
those who require light scientific reading.--_Nature_.

=Lighthouses and Lightships.=

LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS. By W.H.D. ADAMS. With sixty illustrations.
One volume 12mo. _Printed on tinted paper_ $1 50

The aim of this volume is to furnish in a popular and intelligible form
a description of the Lighthouse _as it is_ and _as it was_, of the rude
Roman pharos, or old sea-tower, with its flickering fire of wood or
coal, and the modern Lighthouse, shapely and yet substantial, with its
powerful illuminating apparatus of lamps and lenses, shining ten, or
twelve, or twenty miles across the waters. The author gives a
descriptive and historical account of their mode of construction and
organization, based on the best authorities, and revised by competent
critics. Sketches are furnished of the most remarkable Lighthouses in
the Old World, and a graphic narration is presented of the mode of life
of their keepers.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

"The book is full of interest."--_N.Y. Commercial Advertiser_.

"The whole subject is treated in a manner at once interesting and
instructive."--_Rochester Democrat_.

"The illustrations are full, and excellently engraved."--_Phil. Morning
Post_.

=Acoustics.=

THE WONDERS OF ACOUSTICS; or, THE PHENOMENA OF SOUND. By R. RADAU. With
110 illustrations. One volume 12mo. _Printed on tinted paper_ $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 27._

No overweight of technicalities encumber the author's ample and
exceedingly instructive disquisition; but by presenting the results of
curious investigation, by anecdote, by all manner of striking
illustration, and by the aid of numerous pictures, he throws a popular
interest about one of the most suggestive and beautiful of the sciences.
The book opens with an attractive chapter on "Sound in Nature," in which
the language of animals, nocturnal life in the forests, and kindred
subjects are discussed. Among the topics treated of later in the work
are such as "Effects of Sound, on Living Beings," "Velocity of Sound,"
"The Notes," "The Voice, Music, and Science." This volume forms a
valuable addition to the series.

=Bodily Strength and Skill.=

WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. Translated and enlarged from the
French of GUILLAUME DEPPING, by CHARLES RUSSELL. Illustrated with
seventy engravings on wood, many of them full page. One vol. 12mo.
_Printed on tinted paper_ $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 28._

This is decidedly one of the most interesting volumes of the Library of
Wonders. In it the author has collected, from every available source,
anecdotes descriptive of the most remarkable exhibitions of Physical
Strength and Skill, whether in the form of individual feats, or of
national games, from the earliest ages down to the present time. The
author has simply endeavored to make a collection of "Wonders of Bodily
Strength and Skill," from the Literature of all countries, and if any of
them may be assigned to the region of the improbable, he most
respectfully refers doubting inquirers to the original sources. The
grace and skill displayed in the illustrations, which are numerous and
striking, make the volume singularly attractive.

=Balloons.=

WONDERFUL BALLOON ASCENTS. From the French of F. MARION. With thirty
illustrations on wood, many of them full page One volume 12mo. _Printed
on tinted paper_ $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 29._

This volume gives an interesting history of balloons and balloon
voyages, written in an exceedingly readable and graphic style, which
will commend itself to the reader.

The history of the balloon is fully narrated, from its first stages up
to the present time, and the most memorable balloon voyages are herein
described in a most thrilling manner. The illustrations are exceedingly
taken in character.

CRITICAL NOTICE.

"Written in a popular style and with illustrations that give
completeness to the text,... beautifully illustrated, and will be a
fascinating reading book, especially for the young,"--_London
Bookseller_.

=Wonderful Escapes.=

WONDERFUL ESCAPES. Revised from the French of F. BERNARD, and original
chapters added by RICHARD WHITEING. With twenty-six full-page plates.
One volume 12mo. _Printed on tinted paper_ $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 30._

This volume of the "Library of Wonders" is an exceedingly interesting
addition to the series, narrating as it does in the most thrilling
manner the wonderful escapes of noted prisoners, political as well as
criminal. The escapes of over forty well known personages are described
in this book, and their history may be relied upon as entirely accurate,
obtained from official sources. Among the characters treated of we may
mention Marius, Benvenuto Cellini, Grotius, Cardinal de Retz, Baron
Trenck, and Marie de Medicis. A number of full-page plates picturing the
prisoners in the most fearful moments of their escapes accompany the
volume.

=The Heavens.=

WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS. By CAMILLE FLAMMARION. From the French by Mrs.
NORMAN LOCKYER. With forty-eight illustrations. One volume, 12mo $1 50

_For specimen illustration see page 32._

M. FLAMMARION is excelled by none in that peculiar tact, which is so
rare, of bringing within popular comprehension the great facts of
Astronomical Science. Familiar illustrations and a glowing and eloquent
style, make this volume one of the most valuable, as it is one of the
most comprehensive manuals extant upon the absorbingly interesting
subject of which it treats.

ALSO IN PRESS:

WONDERS OF ENGRAVING,
WONDERS OF VEGETATION,
WONDERS OF SCULPTURE,
THE INVISIBLE WORLD,
ELECTRICITY,
HYDRAULICS.

_Due announcement of the appearance of the above new issues of this
series will be given hereafter as they approach completion._