* * * * * We remained three nights at Spezia, and on Tuesday morning left for Pisa, the weather having again become raw and cold. The journey to Pisa occupied about four hours. We passed many interesting places, and among others the Carrara quarries. Immense quantities of the white marble, quarried from the hills adjoining the railway, lay at the stations ready for transport. The quarrying of this famous marble, the purer quality of which is of close grain (the fine statuary marble), is a source of employment to a vast number of workmen. When the traveller has time to spare, it is no doubt worth stopping a few hours between trains to visit the place. At last we arrived in sight of Pisa, and as we entered the town got a glimpse from the carriage windows of the buildings which have made it celebrated. PISA. The weather was cold, and lunch hardly helped to warm us, so we speedily set out to get a brisk walk and see the lions. We had hardly emerged from the door of the Hotel de Londres when we were waylaid by one of the loitering guides. We could not shake him off, and engaged him at 3 francs. He proved of little use beyond taking us the most direct route to the objects in view by a handsome bridge over the Arno, which is probably from 300 to 400 feet wide; but it was then in full flood, the snow melting on the mountains bringing down much water. Proceeding up a long street, we came at the end of it, on the outskirts of the town, to the Piazza del Duomo, where are congregated all that may be said to make Pisa famous in the world—its cathedral, its baptistery, its Campo Santo, and its leaning tower. Here we stood face to face with what had been familiar to me through pictures from boyhood as ‘the seventh wonder of the world.’ Whether it be the seventh or the seventieth wonder of the world, I don’t know, but it was with a strange feeling I thus for the first time saw the reality. The day was too cold to venture the ascent to the top, from which there is an extensive view. Controversy exists as to whether the fact of the inclination is due to design or to subsidence of the ground. I think the latter is the real or more likely cause, the more especially as to all appearance the baptistery also is off the vertical. The bell tower or Campanile (178 feet high) is one of those detached belfries not uncommon in Italy, and of which few specimens occur in England. A rather uneasy feeling is produced in hearing the bells ring, and thinking of the vibration to which doubtless the motion subjects a building which seems as if ready of itself to topple over. We were glad to take refuge from the cold in the cathedral, constructed of marble, and eight hundred years old. Unfortunately, the sun being under cloud, we could not see it to the same advantage as if it had been a clear day. In length it exceeds 300 feet. The transept is over 250 feet. The interior, divided into aisles