entifully besprinkled with giant snowdrops in the spring, then through
wide stretches of lagoon along a channel, marked by piles, sometimes
approaching the fishermen's huts, which occupy the summit of slight
elevations rising but little above the surface of the water. These huts
are mere shelters of reeds, and, one would think, quite unfit for human
habitation, but close by them the nets may be seen drying, and perhaps
food in course of preparation over an open fire, while the boat, thrust
into a creek or tied to a stake, occupies the foreground. These
wide-spreading lagoons, the resort of many kinds of water-fowl in their
passage from north to south and _vice versa_, are very pictorial. The
enclosures in which fish brought in by the tide are retained, the beds
of reeds and rushes with yellow water-lilies, the figures of women and
children wading and seeking fishy treasures, provide excellent material
for the artist. Occasionally a boat passes in which a woman is taking
fish to Aquileia, leaving behind it a long trail of ripples. The two
great campanili, of Grado which we are nearing, and of Aquileia passing
into the distance behind us, each with its cluster of low buildings
around, are prominent against the horizon showing dark against the fine
cumulus clouds, which are heaped in sharply defined masses against the
blue of the upper sky and rise in threatening billows like exhalations
from some vast cauldron, soon to fade away innocuously in the late
afternoon.

Grado is on one of the islands of which a chain stretches from the mouth
of the Isonzo to that of the Brenta right across the northern border of
the Adriatic. Its port was one of the harbours of Aquileia, at first for
purposes of war, but later for those of commerce. The town was square in
plan, walled, and full of people. Cassiodorus speaks of its material
conditions. The modern town is most picturesque, with narrow streets and
numerous courtyards, with outside staircases, quaint shops, and
fascinating plays of light and shade, and so much of the life of the
people passes in the open air that there is always interesting matter
for observation. It is a seaside resort, visited a good deal for bathing
during the summer months, and there is also, as at Rovigno, an
establishment for scrofulous children. But its chief attraction for us
is archaeological, for it contains early Christian antiquities of
considerable importance.

[Illustration: A CORNER IN GRADO

_To