high houses all provided with balconies. This was a serious drawback for the troops in a street fight. The Neapolitans did their best to repair the disadvantage. There are two streets, evidently of Spanish origin, which form the main arteries of the town. The first, called Via di Toledo, starting from the Marina at Porta Felice, traverses the town in a straight line from northeast to southwest, passing close to the Cathedral of Santa Rosalia, and ending at the Piazza Reale, the largest square of Palermo, on the opposite side of the town from which the roads start to Monreale and Parco. Besides the royal palace, supposed to be on the site of the old palace of the Emirs of Sicily, there are several large public buildings which line the square, the Archivescovado forming one corner, and the large convent of St. Elizabetha the other. The ground rises gently toward this part, which commands the whole town. At right angles to the Via di Toledo runs another street equally straight, the Strada Moquerada, which, starting from the Porto San Antonino, and traversing the whole town, leads out the road to La Favorita and to the Mole. The two intersect each other right in the centre of the town, where the octagonal place is called the Piazzi Bologni. The lower half of the town, from the sea to this place, had been almost abandoned, or rather committed to the tender care of the shipping and the Castello, which occupies a projecting height on the seashore, near the northeasterly corner of the town. A few posts at the gates of the town on this side, rather points of observation than of action, and a company or so in the building of the Finanze, situated in this part of the town, were all that remained of troops on that side. "In order to establish and keep up the communication between the upper half of the town, the real point of defence, and the sea-shore, two large _stradoni_ have been opened outside of the town, both of them starting from the neighborhood of the royal palace, and running down to the sea, near to the Villa Giulia, a large public garden adjoining the Marina, and the other passing through the Quartiere dei Quatri Venti, to the Mole. This latter _stradone_ has always been considered as the line of retreat to the place of embarkation, and is flanked by large buildings, the political prison, some barracks, the criminal prison, and finally the works on the Mole itself.