This being Good Friday all the mosaic pictures —
and all the pictures in Saint Peter's are mosaics —
are covered and concealed from the eye. To-morrow
they will be exposed ; but Sunday is the high day.
March 22, Saturday night. — This morning was
again devoted to Saint Peter's, that great, inexhaus-
tible, and never-failing source of instruction ; that sub-
lime and attractive object of wonder, admiration, and
surprise. One may visit this vast basilica, every day,
for an indefinite period of time, and find something new
and interesting at each successive visit. Having de-
voted yesterday to the interior, we gave this morning,
from nine till twelve o'clock, principally, to the out-



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NOTES OP EUROPEAN TRAVEL. Ill

side. We made the ascent of the dome, and took a
view from that lofty point of observation of one of the
most wonderful and impressive landscapes in the world.
From the first floor to the roof the ascent is very
easy. One might ride up on horseback over the brick-
paved and gently-inclined road, which is at least six
or eight feet wide, and not as steep as many of the
public highways in the mountainous sections of our
country. If I am correctly informed, mules are fre-
quently used in carrying heavy articles from the
ground floor to the roof, which is more than two hun-
dred and fifty feet above the pavement.
On emerging from the path of ascent into the clear
open air, and wida space upon the roof, it is hard to
believe that one is actually on the roof of a house.
