APPENDIX. 369 



been chiefly interesting from the recollections of what she once 

 was, and her peculiarities of situation and architecture. Situated 

 on numerous islands with water communication between them, 

 there are few or no streets, everything being conveyed by water. 

 In all Yenice there is hardly a conveyance other than boats, and 

 the few streets are short, imimportant, and simply passage-ways 

 for foot-passengers. 



The principal business centre of the city is the Piazza San 

 Marco, or Place of St. ,Mark, a space perhaps six hundred feet 

 long by three hundred broad, around and near which are situated 

 the public buildings and principal shops. At its eastern end is 

 the celebrated church of St. Mark, to me the most interesting of 

 the sights of Venice. It is an extensive and venerable old pile, 

 covering, with its various parochial edifices, several acres. The 

 church itself is a mass of rich marbles of various colors, inter- 

 spersed with porphyry, alabaster, and other costly stones. The 

 floor is paved in mosaic, with millions of fragments of the same 

 material wrought in elaborate patterns, with here and there even 

 more costly stones, such as jasper, amethyst, cornelian, and mala- 

 chite interspersed. The waUs and arches are covered with mosaic 

 pictures, wrought with tiny cubes of many- colored glass, repre- 

 senting various scenes in sacred history, while the high altar is a 

 mass of artistic work in gold, silver, and precious stones, a de- 

 scription of which alone would require a chapter, perhaps a vol- 

 ume. The smoke of the candles upon the altar and the incense 

 burnt during the ceremonies of centuries, have darkened all this 

 splendid work, and given the whole interior a dark, even diiigy 

 look, and it is only when the church is lighted up during festival 

 times that it appears at its best. We were fortunate in witness- 

 ing one of these services, and when the long procession of white- 

 robed priests, with their Cardinal, slowly made the circuit of the 

 church, bearing gaily colored banners, around which the smoke of 

 the burning incense curled in graceful clouds, I could not but 

 think that the Koman Catholic Church knew best how to make 

 an impression upon the mass of humanity which instinctively 

 seeks some method of worshipping the Infinite. Whether the 

 conditions under which I have seen St. Mark have anything to do 

 with my impression or not I cannot say, but it seems to me the 

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