in the place. It may be
doubted if there is a dog. There certainly is not a cow. The people
use goats' milk. The horse is as unknown as the pterodactyl,
icthyosaurus, dodo, iguanodon, mastodon, great awk. How do they go
about? Where are the conveniences for moving to and fro?

Then, at the platform of the station, a score or two of light
gondolas await you. The gondolier is the cabman. He waits for you,
with his hand toward you, and the true "Keb, Sir!" tone and smile.
A double-sized gondola is here called an "omnibus," and the name is
painted on the side in huge letters. And these are the substitutes
for wheeled vehicles.

[Illustration: Dick's Luggage.]

Now after entering one of these you go along smoothly and
noiselessly. The first thing one notices in Venice is the absence of
noise. As the boat goes along the only sound that is heard is the
sharp cry from the boatman as he approaches a corner. At first the
novelty interests the mind, afterward it affects the spirits. In
three days most people leave the city in a kind of panic. The
stillness is awful. A longer stay would reduce one to a state of
melancholy madness. A few poets, however, have been able to endure,
and even to love, the sepulchral stillness of the city. But to
appreciate Venice one must be strongly poetical.

There are many things to be seen. First of all there is the city
itself, one grand curiosity, unique, with nothing on earth that
bears a distant approach to it. Its canals, gondolas, antique
monuments, Byzantine architecture, bridges, mystery: its pretty
women with black lace veils, the true glory of Venice--though
Murray says nothing about them.

For Murray, in what was meant to be an exhaustive description of
Venice, has omitted all mention of that which makes it what it is.
Whereas if it had been Homer instead of Murray he would have rolled
out the following epithets: [Transcriber's Note: Greek
transliteration] euplokamoi, apalai, choroetheis, eukomoi,
rodopechees, erateinai, kalliplokamoi, elkechitones, kuanopides,
imeroessai, bathukolpoi, ligumolpoi: k. t. l. [/end Greek]

The travellers visited the whole round of sights. They remained in
company and went about in the same gondola. The Senator admired what
he saw as much as any of them, though it appeared to be out of his
particular line. It was not the Cathedral of St. Mark's, however, nor
the Doge's Palace, nor the Court of the Inquisition, nor the Bridge
of Sighs, nor the Ria