many country houses and villas were scattered round. All along under these walls grew wild fig-trees and immense clumps of prickly pear, and thousands of lizards were darting up and down with the liveliest movements. Peasants were passing along the road driving donkeys loaded with bundles of grass, and now and then I met a chaise drawn by a mule, thumping over the stony road. I was surprised that any person could be found willing to risk his bones by such a jolting. One would suppose, by the looks of the country here, that the inhabitants had covered it with stone walls to keep the grass from blowing away. Indeed, the soil is so thin, and the surface so irregular, that but for these walls, half the island would be washed bare by the rains. It is a solid rock, with only a foot or two of soil. Having gone several miles, I reached Citta Vecchia, or the old city, the ancient capital of Malta. It stands in the centre of the island, and looks very antique, being a confused assemblage of fantastical structures, gray with age. It is probably three thousand years old or more. I went into a little shop kept by an old woman, and amused myself with staring at the odd appearance of everything. A man sat at work cutting a pair of sandals out of a raw hide; a little boy, with a desperately dirty face, was munching a handful of green stuff in a corner; and a queer-looking blue cat, with half a tail, rolled her green eyes up at me: she had doubtless never seen a Yankee before. The old woman sold bread, greens, oranges, wine, &c. I drank a tumbler of wine, for which I paid a half-penny; it was a dark red wine like claret, and about the strength of common cider. Some wine is made in the island, but most of what is used comes from Sicily. I went to the top of the great church, which has a very lofty dome, where I had a prospect of the whole island. The view is picturesque and striking in the highest degree. The island looks like an immense chess-board, the surface being chequered out into squares of green verdure and stone wall. Villages without number were scattered about in every direction, each with the tall dome of a church rising above its cluster of houses. Many of these churches I visited in my walk, and was astonished to find every one of them richly adorned in the interior with gold, silver, and precious stones. The private houses in these villages are very far from exhibiting the same wealth.