lemn-looking cypress, or
a straggling old olive-tree raising its isolated and twisted head above
the arid rocks. Some of these walls are redeemed from utter dreariness
by the pendulous cactus which hangs from their tops, fringed with yellow
bloom. It is a strange though common plant, consisting of a succession
of bulbous formations, quite flat and an inch or more thick, which serve
the double purpose of stalk and leaves. The incurious traveler is thus
impressed, by these screening walls, with an incorrect idea of the true
nature of the island.

A passenger once said, in our hearing, replying to a friendly query:
"No, I did not land at Malta, and had no desire to do so. It is nothing
but a bare rock, with a few dwelling-houses inside of big lines of
fortifications. I saw quite enough of its barrenness from the deck of
our ship to disenchant me."

How mistaken was this superficial estimate! One would think that the
most prosaic passenger would wish to know more of the builders, and the
monuments they have left behind them, in the stately city beneath whose
stupendous ramparts the ship lies anchored. Let us chaperon the reader,
so that he shall entertain no such unwarranted impression of this Queen
of the Mediterranean.

Malta is particularly beautiful when seen from the Valletta side. At
first, while distance intervenes, the city, softly limned against the
azure sky, seems like some phantom mirage; but soon the picture, rapidly
growing in distinctness, becomes clear in detail. The grim, defiant, and
almost endless fortifications, the many-domed and terraced city, the
grand and lofty stone warehouses, the great war-ships surrounded by
lesser commercial craft, all gayly decorated with national emblems,
combine to form a picture long to be remembered, while the island is
girt by a sapphire sea of purest blue, reaching far away to the
horizon,--such a blue as is sometimes reflected in the eyes of very
young children, or seen in wood-violets just opening their petals to the
light. One should approach the place with a kindly purpose, and not
harshly repel the happy suggestions of the moment. If we would find
picturesqueness and beauty anywhere, we must bring with us a reasonable
degree of appreciation. It is the softened soul which receives
delightful and enduring impressions. One pities the man who can travel
from Dan to Beersheba and say, "All is barren," while we sympathize and
rejoice exceedingly with him who finds "serm