P. ONOFRIO I. F. ONOSIPHORO PARTHENOPEO EGREGIO N. I. ARCHTITECTO MUNICIPES. The story of this aqueduct is rather curious. In previous times the city was supplied with water from cisterns, but in 1437 the Government decided to seek for springs in the Gionchetto hills, and invited Onofrio, who was as excellent a hydraulic engineer as he was an architect, to construct it. The sum of 8000 ducats was devoted to the purpose, but before its completion 12,000 were spent. The people began to say that the enterprise such as Onofrio had designed it was impossible, and he was summoned before the magistrates as an impostor. But the evidence of the experts proved favourable to him, and he succeeded in completing the work in the prescribed time. Nothing remained now to be done but to erect a fountain, and the funds were provided by public subscription. Of this monument only the polygonal basin and a few columns and heads remain. The twelve bas-reliefs of the constellations were destroyed by the earthquake, and so with one exception were the figures of animals round the cornice. Another fountain, also by Onofrio, is the very handsome one in the Piazza, decorated with putti and shells. There are a few private houses at Ragusa of architectural pretensions. Those of the Stradone were, as I have said, destroyed by the earthquake; but in the Prijeki, a street parallel to the Stradone, on the slope of the Monte Sergio, there are several picturesque old palaces. This thoroughfare is very narrow, and the houses are of great height; many of them are adorned with charming Venetian balconies and fragments of sculpture. The general prospect of this dark, narrow street, lit up here and there by patches of brilliant sunlight, showing some vine pergola clinging on to a broad balcony, or a many-light window in the purest Venetian style, is most striking. One might imagine oneself in Venice, until a side street leading up a steep hillside tells us that we are not in the city of the lagoons. The most remarkable of these houses is the one numbered 170, which has a fine doorway, with a rectangular entablature enclosing a pointed arch. In the corners thus formed are two centaurs, very spirited and full of movement, though not quite perfect in drawing. The balcony above, which is exceptionally wide in proportion to its length, is supported by three carved brackets. The beautiful little balcony with marble colonnade on the palace numbered 316 is a veritable gem of Venetian work. On several other houses there are similar fragments, and others are to be found elsewhere in the town, especially in the streets near the Duomo. The Stradone itself is an attractive thoroughfare, broad, airy, and full of sun. The houses are plain and unadorned, but the rich yellow hue of the Curzola stone of which they are built give them a harmonious appearance. The shops to this day are mostly of a very Eastern appearance, the door and window being formed of a single round