AUSTRIAN ITALY. 



671 



other by narrow canals.* These are crossed by 500 bridges, and as the streets are so extremely 

 narrow as to render the use of carriages impossible, the usual vehicle of transportation is a sort 

 of little bark <"illed a gondola, which plies back and forth upon the canals. A great number of 

 sumptuous palaces still remind the visiter of the glorious times of the now fallen city, once the 

 commercial capital of the world, the mistress of the seas, and the cradle of modern civilization. 

 Among the bridges is the famous Rialto, one of the most magnificent in Europe ; it is 187 feet 



Rialto. 



long, and of a single arch. There are 41 public squares, but that of St. MarK, surrounded by 

 splendid buildings, and commanding a fine view of the sea, is the most remarkable. There 

 stand the church of St. Mark, an ancient building in the Oriental style, and the ducal palace, a 

 vast and magnificent edifice, ornamented with the splendid masterpieces of the Venetian paint- 

 ers, and connected with the prisons called the leads (piombi, lead roofs), by the Bridge of 

 Sighs. The arsenal, long famous as the largest in Europe, still contains everything necessary 

 for equipping a fleet. There are several literary institutions and learned societies of reputation, 

 and the library of St. Mark's is one of the richest in Italy. The comraei'ce and manufactures 

 of Venice, though much declined from their former importance, are yet considerable. The 

 book trade is extensive, and glass, silk, woolen, and linen goods, artificial flowers, gold wire, 

 &c., are manufactured here. Population, 150,000. The Square of St. Mark is SOO feet in 

 length, and has a magnificent appearance. The traveler at evening r.ay view this fine square 

 in all its marble beauty, with the domes and minarets of its ancient church, the barbaric 

 gloom of the Doge's palace, and its proud, towering campanile ; he may here see the 

 Corinthian horses, the workmanship of Lysippus, and the winged lion of the Pirfeus ; he 

 may walk in the illumination of a long line of coftee-houses, and observe the variety of cos- 



* To the very naturo of the country which they inliiih- space of between '20 and 30 miles from tlie chore, is cov- 



ited, the Venetians, like the Dutch, were inninly indebted ered with about 2 feet of water, but is intersected by clian- 



lor their independence. T'he Adriatic Gulf receives in nels which afford a passatre and safe anchorage to the 



its upper part all the waters which flow from the southern lartrest vessels. Amid these shoals and mud-banks, are 



declivities of the Alps. Every one of them carries down certain firmer and more elevated sites, which have been 



in the rainy season enormntis quantities of mud and sand, inhabited from remote antiquity- ^V'ilen Rome was in- 



eo that the head of the gulf, o-riidually filled up with their vaded by Alaric, these islands were peopled by refugees 



deposite, is neither sea nor land. Tlie Laguna,\is this from the continent, and tins was the commencement of 



immense tract of shoals and mud is called, comprising a the powerful republic of Venice 



