early three thousand years. The houses of the city are
mostly large stone structures, and many have notable architectural
merit, fronting thoroughfares of good width, well paved, and lighted
with gas. An aspect of cleanliness and freshness pervades everything.
Many of the streets run up the steep hillside on which the town stands,
and are flanked by broad stone steps for foot-passengers, the roadway of
such streets being quite inaccessible for vehicles. The principal
thoroughfare is the Strada Reale, nearly a mile long, lined with
attractive stores and dwelling-houses, forming a busy and pleasant
boulevard. The houses over the stores are ornamented by convenient iron
balconies, where the citizens can sit and enjoy the cool evening breezes
after the hot days that linger about Malta nearly all the year round.

At the upper end of the Strada Reale we observe a large and imposing
stone opera-house, presenting a fine architectural aspect, being
ornamented with lofty Corinthian columns, a side portico and broad stone
steps leading up to the vestibule. A visit to the Church of St. John
will afford much enjoyment. It was built a little over three hundred
years since by the Knights of the Order of St. John, who lavished
fabulous sums of money upon its erection and its elaborate
ornamentation. Statuary and paintings of rare merit abound within its
walls, and gold and silver ornaments render the work of great aggregate
value. The entire roof of the church, which is divided into zones, is
admirably painted in figures of such proportions as to look life-size
from the floor, representing prominent Scriptural scenes. In this church
the Knights seem to have vied with each other in adding to its ornaments
and its treasures, so that the rich marbles, bas-reliefs, and mosaics
are almost confusing in their abundance. The floor is formed of inlaid
marble slabs, which cover the last resting-places of the most
distinguished Knights of the famous Order of St. John.

Snow is not known in Malta, but ice sometimes forms during the coldest
nights of winter, though only in very thin layers, the climate being
much like that of Southern Italy. Fruit and ornamental trees abound, and
flowers attract the eye in nearly every domestic window. There must be a
prevailing refinement of taste in this island city, otherwise the
abundance of flowers offered for sale in the Strada Reale would not find
purchasers. There is a section near the harbor named Casal At