motion, affording an agreeable variation from the stately swan-like
movement of the gondola. In one of these boats--called by him the
_Fisolo_ or Seamew--my friend Eustace had started with Antonio,
intending to row the whole way to Chioggia, or, if the breeze favoured,
to hoist a sail and help himself along. After breakfast, when the crew
for my gondola had been assembled, Francesco and I followed with the
Signora. It was one of those perfect mornings which occur as a respite
from broken weather, when the air is windless and the light falls soft
through haze on the horizon. As we broke into the lagoon behind the
Redentore, the islands in front of us, S. Spirito, Poveglia, Malamocco,
seemed as though they were just lifted from the sea-line. The Euganeans,
far away to westward, were bathed in mist, and almost blent with the
blue sky. Our four rowers put their backs into their work; and soon we
reached the port of Malamocco, where a breeze from the Adriatic caught
us sideways for a while. This is the largest of the breaches in the
Lidi, or raised sand-reefs, which protect Venice from the sea: it
affords an entrance to vessels of draught like the steamers of the
Peninsular and Oriental Company. We crossed the dancing wavelets of the
port; but when we passed under the lee of Pelestrina, the breeze failed,
and the lagoon was once again a sheet of undulating glass. At S. Pietro
on this island a halt was made to give the oarsmen wine, and here we saw
the women at their cottage doorways making lace. The old lace industry
of Venice has recently been revived. From Burano and Pelestrina cargoes
of hand-made imitations of the ancient fabrics are sent at intervals to
Jesurun's magazine at S. Marco. He is the chief _impresario_ of the
trade, employing hundreds of hands, and speculating for a handsome
profit in the foreign market on the price he gives his workwomen.

Now we are well lost in the lagoons--Venice no longer visible behind;
the Alps and Euganeans shrouded in a noonday haze; the lowlands at the
mouth of Brenta marked by clumps of trees ephemerally faint in silver
silhouette against the filmy, shimmering horizon. Form and colour have
disappeared in light-irradiated vapour of an opal hue. And yet
instinctively we know that we are not at sea; the different quality of
the water, the piles emerging here and there above the surface, the
suggestion of coast-lines scarcely felt in this infinity of lustre, all
remind us that our voy