I do not remember to have seen assigned any where, the cause of the
apparent color of the sea. Its water is generally clear and colorless,
if taken up and viewed in a glass. That of the Mediterranean is
remarkably so. Yet in the mass, it assumes, _by reflection_, the color
of the sky or atmosphere, black, green, blue, according to the state of
the weather. If any person wished to retire from his acquaintance, to
live absolutely unknown, and yet in the midst of physical enjoyments,
it should be in some of the little villages of this coast, where air,
water, and earth concur to offer what each has, most precious. Here are
nightingales, beccaficas, ortolans, pheasants, partridges, quails, a
superb climate, and the power of changing it from summer to winter at
any moment, by ascending the mountains. The earth furnishes wine, oil,
figs, oranges, and every production of the garden, in every season. The
sea yields lobsters, crabs, oysters, tunny, sardines, anchovies, &c.
Ortolans sell, at this time, at thirty sous, equal to one shilling
sterling, the dozen. At this season, they must be fattened.
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