ent of land and sea which it
commands, as well as for its beautiful garden. A study of the topography
of Malta from this point will enable the visitor to bring away with him,
impressed upon the tablets of his memory, a truthful map of the group.
Experience soon teaches the traveler to adopt this expedient when he
finds himself in any new locality which admits of so doing, until he
finally possesses many photographic pictures stored within his brain,
forming delightful reminiscences of which no misfortune can rob him.

One of the most charming pictures which lives in the author's mind is
that of a bird's-eye view enjoyed from a lofty standpoint in the Maltese
capital, on a beautifully clear afternoon in early spring. The larger
portion of the yellow-hued city lay far below, with its myriads of
cream-colored, flat-roofed houses, and its thrifty, business-like
boulevard; while its many blooming fruit trees afforded warm bits of
color here and there. The Strada Reale recalled the Via Victor Emanuel
as seen from the top of the Milan cathedral. Both harbors of Valletta,
with their numerous shipping and stately warehouses, were in view. Half
a dozen iron-clads with their grim, threatening batteries formed a
prominent feature. The broad Mediterranean stretched far away to the
horizon, dotted at intervals by the picturesque maritime rig of these
waters, its placid surface now serene and quiet, radiating the afternoon
light like liquid sapphire. A fleet of gaudily emblazoned native boats
shot hither and thither over the near surface of the bay. Large,
broad-winged sea-gulls sailed lazily through the air, dipping now and
then into the water, and rising again upon outspread pinions of
stainless purity, dazzling as new-fallen snow. One or two long,
irregular lines of dark smoke, floating among the distant clouds,
pointed out the course of the big continental steamers bound east or
west. Far away to the northward, the conical outline of grand old Mount
AEtna, king of volcanoes, was faintly limned upon the sky which hung over
the Sicilian coast.

How soft and summer-like was the still atmosphere, how suggestive the
comprehensive view! Can one who was brought up on these islands ever be
content to live in the cities of the mainland? How they must hunger for
a horizon!

As we viewed the scene, the hum of the busy town rose upon the air like
the drone of insects in a tropical forest, mingled at the moment with
the soft chimes from the