uccessor to Vallette,
who imported masons and artisans of all sorts in great numbers from
Sicily and Italy for this purpose. The original design was to cut down
the ridge of rocks which form Mount Sceberris, upon which the city now
stands, thus forming a plain only a few feet above the level of the
Mediterranean. But this idea was abandoned as involving too much time
and expense, and also on account of news received by the Grand Master
from his spies at Constantinople, to the effect that another expedition
was fitting out there to attack the island. So the new capital was
finally built upon the sloping ridge which makes the natural
conformation of the peninsula, rendering it necessary to build the
lateral streets into stairways in place of roadways. Nevertheless, it is
to-day the most attractive and interesting small city we have ever
visited.

Mount Sceberris is an Arabic name, signifying "the jutting out of the
cape." Like Asiatic names generally, it is very appropriate. Primitive
races have a happy inspiration in this direction. Minnehaha, "laughing
water," is an instance of apt and descriptive nomenclature born in the
brain of uncultured Dakota Indians. The highest point of the city
foundations is about two hundred feet above the level of the sea, into
which it projects considerably over three hundred yards, with a width of
twelve hundred, though it narrows at its seaward extremity and is lowest
where it joins the line of the mainland. The fort of St. Elmo--the
patron saint of mariners--crowns the narrowed point of the peninsula
seaward.

The streets, running at right angles, divide the buildings into large,
quadrangular groups. The houses, which are all flat-roofed, are guarded
by low parapets, and are universally built of stone picturesquely
carved, and ornamented by balconies of all sizes and patterns. The
native stone masons are natural artists in the carving of stone. There
is something in the very air of Italy, so close at hand, which engenders
artistic taste even among the common people.

Within the dwellings, the rooms are quite large and lofty, insuring good
ventilation. The floors, even to the upper stories, are composed of the
same material as the main structure. This cream-colored stone is the
outcrop of the latest geological period. The facility for obtaining this
material where the whole island might be worked as a stone quarry has
led to its general adaptation. It will be remembered that all wood,