The Italians are going to make the Tiber disgorge. For
ages vast, probably from the Etruscan period, it has been the habit of the people of Rome in times of danger, commotion, or siege to bury their valuables in the river, into which also were flung the statues of unpopular Emperors and of the heathen gods, while cargoes of valuables, the "plunder of a world," have been wrecked from time to time against the Ripa Grande. S. Alessandro Castel- lani now proposes to turn the bed of the river and search the sands thoroughly, and the project has becu taken up with enthusiasm throughout Europe. It is scarcely possible but that much of iutereet should be discovered, though we have not quite so much hope as a correspondent of the Tithes of finding the seven-branched golden candlestick which Titus took from the Temple of Jerusalem.
Previous page
