THE COASTS OF SATNTONGE. 331 



the interior of the cupola of the Pantheon. These 

 are so many scaffoldings, which enable the workers 

 to reach every part of the vault. As to the attics, 

 they serve the part of a double flooring, or an air- 

 chamber, whose utility may be readily understood 

 when we consider the intense noon-day heats and 

 the bitterly cold nights of those regions. This upper 

 chamber thus secures equable temperature through- 

 out the entire building, whilst it screens the nur- 

 series, which are situated below it, from daily vari- 

 ations of heat. 



Having passed in review the walls, cellars, and 

 attics of the building, we will now proceed to the 

 apartments themselves. On a level with the soil, and 

 on the centre of the ground floor, rises the palace of 

 the sovereigns, which we are now about to describe. 

 This royal chamber is a large oblong cell, with a 

 flat floor, and a rounded vault, which when first formed 

 measures about an inch in length. The walls are very 

 thick, more especially in the lower part, and are 

 pierced with round doors and windows, at regular 

 distances from one another. All around the sanc- 

 tuary, extending for a space of more than a foot in 

 diameter in all directions, there appears a perfect la 

 byrinth of vaulted chambers, which are always round 

 or oval, and which either communicate freely with one 

 another, or open into wide passages. These are the 

 waiting rooms, exclusively appropriated to the use of 

 the workers and soldiers, who are in attendance upon 

 the royal pair. On the sides rise, to the very roof of 

 the attics, storerooms which line the walls of the 

 general covering. These are large irregular cells, 



