, and is resorted to by both naval and
commercial shipping for needed repairs, while it is also the
headquarters of the British Mediterranean war fleet. The aggregate
tonnage of vessels entering and clearing is double that of Gibraltar. As
regards social life, and the usual associations of a commercial capital,
Valletta is far and away in advance of the City of the Rock. One comes
quickly to this conclusion upon comparing the commonplace Water-port
Street of Gibraltar with the unique Strada Reale--"King Street"--of
Valletta. The former is like a dull, narrow lane in an English seaport
town, while the latter, full of life and color, resembles a picturesque
boulevard in an Italian or French capital. Each is, however, above all
else a place of arms; everything is and has ever been made subservient
to this idea.

Malta is more distant from the mainland than any other Mediterranean
island. It is less than twenty miles in length, not quite so large as
the umbrageous Isle of Wight, on the coast of England, though it has
nearly three times as many inhabitants. One often hears that garden of
England compared with Malta, but wherefore, it is impossible to
understand. It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than
these two isolated places present. One, embowered in grand old trees and
the rural accessories of a land which nature has delighted to clothe in
verdure; the other, a solitary rock, a convulsive upheaval of the sea,
reclaimed only by patient toil from utter sterility.

The various natural causes which have operated to reduce Malta to its
present size and shape have been very thoroughly discussed by
scientists, a majority of whom agree that it was once attached to the
continent of Europe or of Africa. Our own humble opinion is that it was
probably the connecting link between them both, some time in the long,
long ages which have passed,--a deduction which will seem more
reasonable to the patient reader as we progress in our narrative.

The island is of an irregular oval form, having a superficial area of
about one hundred square miles. The Malta of to-day is only a
diminutive, sea-girt, limestone rock, cropping out of the watery depths
to a height, at its culminating point, of between seven and eight
hundred feet, partly covered with a thin though fertile soil. But its
associations are of a character closely bordering upon romance, and
intensely interesting for their antiquity and novelty. The highest point
o