On either side of the latter, the buildings are hid from view by a magnificent colonnade, forming two semi-circular porticos of two hundred and eighty-four columns. On the entablement of the columns are one hundred and ninety-two statues of saints, each eleven feet high. The dome, rising four hundred and fiftyeight feet above the ground, is supported by four immense piers, and may justly be regarded as the most astonishing and perfect work of architecture ever submitted to the gaze of an admiring world. Within the cathedral everything is gorgeous beyond description. The walls are six hundred and seven feet long, and four hundred and fifty-eight feet wide. The Baldacchino, a splendid bronze canopy, under the dome, and immediately over the high altar, is one hundred and twenty feet above the floor. The interior of the dome is adorned with magnificent mosaic paintings. This truly wonderful building was produced by the genius of Bramante, Raphael, and Michael Angelo, and cost, with all of its embellishments, from sixty to eighty millions of dollars. (See views of St. Peter's.)

Among other ecclesiastical structures of Rome, may be mentioned the Santa Crose, richer in relics of ancient days, than in architecture. It is supposed to possess a portion of the cross of our Savior, and has mixed with its foundation earth brought from Jerusalem. St. John Lateran, regarded as mother church of the "Eternal City," occupies an isolated spot near the south wall, and is the place where the popes were formerly crowned. Among the other churches may be numbered Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Agnese, St. Agostino, St. Antonio Abate, San Bonosa, and Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Among the many palaces of Rome the Vatican, occupying a hill of the same name, in point of architecture and matter of history, is the most deserving of attention. It is regarded by various writers, as having been founded in the reign of Constantine, and is at present the seat of the Romish Popes. They first took possession of it in 1377, and from that period continued to embellish it till the time of the Pontificate of Alexander VI. It was by him renovated on a grander scale, and finished in nearly its present style. It covers a large square, and consists of an

irregular pile of buildings, the entire mass being one thousand one hundred and fifty-one feet long, and seven hundred and sixtyseven feet wide. This great building has twenty courts, and four thousand four hundred and twenty-two apartments. (See views of the Vatican.)

The other palaces deserving notice are the Piazza del Campidoglio, on the summit of the capitol, in the piazza of which is a bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius Antonius; the Capitoline museum; and the Conservatori.

Among the educational establishments of Rome, the university is the most important. The school was founded by Leo X.; has forty-two professors, and is attended by one thousand students. There is also a Roman college, under the direction of the Jesuits, and twenty other colleges, three of which are English, Irish, and Scotch institutions.

Rome has numerous hospitals and charitable institutions, and is well supplied with theatres, museums, and enclosures for horse races and other public amusements. The manufactures are of little importance, consisting of woollen, silk fabrics, hats, gloves, etc. Population in 1863, two hundred and one thousand one hundred and sixty-one, including foreigners and strangers.

CHAPTER VI.

CHINA AND JAPAN.

China is a vast empire of Asia, stretching from 18° 20′ to 54° north latitude, and from 72° to 134° west longitude. Its greatest length from north to south is one thousand four hundred and seventy-four miles; from east to west, one thousand three hundred and fifty-five miles; area, four million seven hundred thousand square miles.

The outline of the country is very irregular. On the north of China is Asiatic Russia, from which it is nearly separated by the Altai mountain range and the Amoor river; on the south and south-west is Hindoostan,-separated by the Himalaya mountains-Birmah, and Tonquin; on the south-east and east are the China, Yellow, and Japan Seas; and on the west is Turkestan.

China is one of the most mountainous regions on the globe. All of the great mountain chains of Asia either intersect or bound the country. Owing to the rigid exclusion of foreigners, and the natural and artificial barriers which guard the frontier, the interior of China has been but imperfectly explored. The Himalaya mountains, the loftiest range in the world, lie in the south-western part of the empire, on the northern frontier of Hindoostan, and attain their greatest elevation with Mount Everest, the culminating point of the globe, at an altitude of twenty-nine thousand one hundred feet. The Himalaya mountains are continued to the sea by the Nanling range, which forms the water-shed between the Yang tse Kiang and Hong Kiang rivers. The Kuen Lun and Peling mountains constitute a grand chain extending through the central part of southern China. North of this chain branches off an irregular range called the Khin Gau mountains, which terminate in Siberia, at the northern extremity of the Channel of Tartary. The Altai mountains, after

forming a portion of the boundary line between Russia and China, branch off in a north-easterly direction through the former empire, and extend to the north-eastern extremity of Siberia.

The Great Wall of China, perhaps the greatest monument of human industry and skill in existence, forms a barrier between Mongolia and China for about fifteen hundred miles. It was begun in 214 B. C., and completed in 204 B. C., and employed in its construction several millions of men at one time. Its design was to protect the country from the incursions of the Tartars from the north. It is twenty feet high, and is carried in a single instance over a mountain having an altitude of one mile. It is about twenty feet thick, and throughout its whole extent supports towers at regular intervals from each other, which were occupied by the archers and soldiers. "It has been estimated that the materials employed in this immense fortification would be sufficient for constructing a wall six feet high and two feet thick, twice around the world."

South of the Altai are the Thian Shan mountains, between which and the Kuen Lun range is the Great Desert of Gobi. It covers an area of about five hundred thousand square miles, and is covered with shingly gravel and fields of drifting sand. In the central part it is two thousand four hundred feet high; and at the great wall it has a hight of five thousand eight hundred feet; average height four thousand feet. The table land of Thibet, having an average elevation of eleven thousand feet, lies between the Kuen Lun and Himalaya ranges, and is traversed in every direction by the ramifications of these mountains.

The chief rivers of China are the Yang tse Kiang and Hoang Ho. The former rises on the southern slope of the Kuen Lun mountains, and has a course of about two thousand seven hundred miles; the latter, rising among the Peling mountains, has a course of two thousand miles, and both enter the Yellow Sea. The Chinese belong to the Mongolian, or yellow race. They are generally low in stature, have black hair, thick lips, flat

nose, expanded at the nostrils, and are generally of a dark complexion. The smallness of the hands and feet of the males, reaches almost a deformity with the females. The good qualities of a portion of the population, who are not debased by foreign intercourse, are counterbalanced by the immorality and vice of the majority of the people, who practice lying, deceit, treachery, and nameless abominations. Population of the empire, four hundred and seventy-seven millions.

The chief cities are Pekin, Canton, Soo-chow, Hang-Chow, Fuh-Chow, Amoy, and Shanghai.

CANTON,

The great emporium city of China, is on the left bank of the Canton river, seventy miles from the sea. It is very irregularly built, the streets being narrow and crooked, and averaging about eight feet in width. Canton has upwards of one.

hundred and twenty temples, fourteen high schools, and thirty colleges. Manufacturing is also extensively carried on. The poorer portions of the people live in mud huts, which line the canal, and one apartment is often crowded with from fif teen to twenty persons. The wealthy class reside in elegant. and richly furnished houses. No wheeled carriages are used in the streets of Canton. The nobles and officers are borne by their attendants in sedan chairs, often taking up the whole of the walk, to the great annoyance of the foot passengers. The city is surrounded by a wall about seven miles in circuit, and is entered through twelve gates. Population, one million. (See views of Canton.)

MACAO

Is a city on the island of Macao, at the entrance of the Canton river, having a population of forty thousand. The harbor forms a semi-circle, around which is built the town, consisting chiefly of an intermingling of European and Chinese residences. The harbor is defended by six forts. The principal buildings are a number of Chinese temples, the church of St. Joseph and college of St. Joseph, a royal grammar school, and a female orphan asylum. (See views of Macao.)