y part of
1865, continuing with more or less force for a period of three months.
In 1669, one of these eruptions, besides costing hundreds of human
lives, destroyed twenty-two towns and villages, on its mad course to the
seaport of Catania, where the lava rushed into the Mediterranean in a
stream eighteen hundred feet in width and forty feet in height! This
extraordinary statement is in accordance with the local chronicles of
the time. It was perhaps the most violent and destructive eruption of
which we have any record; many have been slight and harmless. This
latter fact accounts for the hardihood of the Sicilians in continuing to
plant vineyards and farms within reach of this great subterranean
furnace. So the people of Torre del Greco, at the foot of restless
Vesuvius, ignore past experience, and all former outbreaks of the
mountain which destroyed Pompeii.

In the absence of late and reliable statistics upon the subject, the
present population of the Maltese group may be safely assumed as about a
hundred and seventy-five thousand, of which number one half centre in
and about Valletta. Borgo, Senglea, and Burmulo, on the opposite side of
the harbor, eastward from the capital, are populous suburbs of the city,
and contain many well-built stone edifices, but none to compare with
those of the city proper. These suburbs are the residence of an humbler
class of the community than those who live in Valletta. The estimate
which is given above as to the population of the group includes the
English garrison, which seldom amounts to less than six thousand men. A
brigade of infantry is always kept here upon a war footing, known as the
"Indian Contingent." The whole number of troops at the present time, in
and about the capital, is eight thousand of all arms. In case of another
Indian mutiny, which would surely follow an invasion by Russia, England
could draw at once from this source. The troops at Malta would be
already half way toward their objective point, if ordered to Calcutta or
Bombay.

Her Majesty's government also maintains an infantry regiment one
thousand strong, whose ranks are filled by natives of the islands, a
policy which is also adopted to a large extent in India, and more or
less in all English dependencies. Even in Hong Kong, the large body of
men who constitute the local police are Sikhs brought from India for
this special service. They are tall, dark, fine-looking men, with heavy
beards. The Maltese regime