e by a low and unimportant gate into an obscure alley which
communicated with the nearest street.

Though the age is one of so great activity and intelligence, and the
Atlantic is no longer a barrier even to the ordinary amusements of life,
a great majority of Americans have never had an opportunity of
personally examining the remarkable features of a region, of which the
town that Gino now threaded with so much diligence is not the least
worthy of observation. Those who have been so fortunate as to have
visited Italy, therefore, will excuse us if we make a brief, but what we
believe useful digression, for the benefit of those who have not had
that advantage.

The city of Venice stands on a cluster of low sandy islands. It is
probable that the country which lies nearest to the gulf, if not the
whole of the immense plain of Lombardy itself, is of alluvial formation.
Whatever may have been the origin of that wide and fertile kingdom, the
causes which have given to the Lagunes their existence, and to Venice
its unique and picturesque foundation, are too apparent to be mistaken.
Several torrents which flow from the valleys of the Alps pour their
tribute into the Adriatic at this point. Their waters come charged with
the debris of the mountains, pulverized nearly to their original
elements. Released from the violence of the stream, these particles have
necessarily been deposited in the gulf, at the spot where they have
first become subjected to the power of the sea. Under the influence of
counteracting currents, eddies, and waves, the sands have been thrown
into submarine piles, until some of the banks have arisen above the
surface, forming islands, whose elevation has been gradually augmented
by the decay of vegetation. A glance at the map will show that, while
the Gulf of Venice is not literally, it is practically, considered with
reference to the effect produced by the south-east wind called the
Sirocco, at the head of the Adriatic. This accidental circumstance is
probably the reason why the Lagunes have a more determined character at
the mouths of the minor streams that empty themselves here than at the
mouths of most of the other rivers, which equally flow from the Alps or
the Apennines into the same shallow sea.

The natural consequence of a current of a river meeting the waters of
any broad basin, and where there is no base of rock, is the formation,
at or near the spot where the opposing actions are neutralized, of