VENICE. This far-famed city has fallen greatly from its once high importance ; but it will ever remain a most remarkable place. The islands on which the city stands are about 80 in number, divided from each other by narrow canals, which form the highways of communication, as streets in other towns, and are spanned by 450 bridges. Carriages and horses are useless, and therefore not seen in Venice, and their place is supplied by boats called gondole,' which are continually plying in all parts of the town. The city is two miles distant at the nearest point from the main land, and has a circumference of about 8 miles. There is a tide from the Adriatic, which rises a few feet over the lagunes, part of which are left nearly dry at ebb, excepting the 7 large canals, which intersect the lagunes, and keep up the communication between the city and the ports of bIalamocco and Chioggia on the Adriatic, and the landing-places of Mestre, Fusina, and others on the main land. The arsenal or dock-yard is surrounded by a high wall, and occupies an area of about three miles in circumference. When the Abbe
Richard saw it (1761-2), there were about forty ships of war, of which twelve were three deckers, in the docks ready for sea ; arms for 150,000 men, 2500 pieces of brass ordnance, besides 1500 iron cannon, and vast stores of provisions ; oables, sails, timber for ship-build ing, brought from the forests of Istria and Dalmatia, and all other appurtenances of such an establishment. The arsenal is now the dockyard for the insignificant Austrian navy. A railroad has been formed between Venice and Verona. The mercantile shipping of the port has assumed a new activity, and trades all over the Mediterranean. The number of vessels which enter the port of Venice yearly is between 1200 and 1300, including small craft; and Venice has seemed within the last ten or twelve years to show symptoms of com mercial revival ; but the disasters of 1849 gave it a severe check.