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mosaics, silver and gilt work and precious stones in the most lavish detail. Over the porch at the center are set the bronze lions of St. Mark, once for a time the prey of Napoleon, but now once more to be seen in the city which they have beautified for centuries. The church and its chapels contain many fine paintings and rich treasures of art in statuary, plate and books. The great picture of St. Mark above the central doorway has been made from the drawings of Titian.
St. Ma′ry’s Strait or River connects Lakes Superior and Huron, and forms the boundary between Ontario and the upper peninsula of Michigan. The strait is sixty-three miles long. One mile below Lake Superior are the rapids called the Sault Ste. Marie, below which the river spreads out into a broad lake. These rapids have a fall of 20½ feet, around which a canal was built in 1855, most of it cut through solid rock. In 1895 a canal was opened on the Canadian side.
St. Mau′rice′ River, in Quebec, which runs from northwest to southeast, falling into the St. Lawrence. It rises at the height of land, is quickly swelled by the rivers along its course, and, when barely a few leagues from its source, is a majestic river, navigable in stretches of considerable length. Its total length in 369 miles and its average width 800 feet. Its chief tributaries are the Matawin, which carries down a great body of water, the Mekinac, the Bostonnais, the Croche near La Tuque and the Vermil-lion. The territory drained by the St. Maurice and its tributaries comprises about 16,000 square miles.
St. Mi′chael’s College, Can., was established in 1852 at Toronto by the Basilian fathers from Annonay, France, at the request of the Rev. Dr. de Charbonnel, then Bishop of Toronto. It numbers amongst its earlier students Archbishop O’Connor of Toronto, Bishop O’Connor of Peterboro and Bishop Dowling of Hamilton. In 1881 the college was affiliated to the University of Toronto in order to have a relationship similar to that existing between similar institutions in England and Ireland and the London University. St. Michael’s is a federated college and part of the University of Toronto. It is not, however, merely a theological college. It has commercial, classical and philosophical courses.
St. Paul, Minn., the capital of Minnesota, is on both banks of the Mississippi, of which it is the head of navigation. The city is built on two high plains; the business portion is on the lower plain of limestone rock and the most of the best residences are on the upper plain of glacial drift overlooking the Mississippi, one of the finest streets of which is Summit Avenue. Its buildings compare well with those of any city in the country, and include the state capitol, city-hall, postoffice, library, armory, Convent of the Good Shepherd, Auditorium, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., the Catholic cathedral and the Pioneer Press, Manhattan, Germania and New York Life-insurance buildings The manufacturing output amounts to $75,000,000 a year, and, the stockyards do a business of $50,000,000. St. Paul is served by ten railroads, and electric cars carry passengers to all parts of the city. Twenty-nine thousand pupils attend the public schools, which are maintained at an annual cost of $850,000. There are three colleges: Macalester College (Presbyterian), Hamline University (Methodist) and St. Thomas College (Roman Catholic). The city library has 460,000 volumes; and the library of the Minnesota Historical Society, in the capitol, 115,000 volumes.
The first log-huts were built in 1838 and 1839 on the site. In 1849, when St. Paul was made the capital of newly organized Minnesota Territory, . the town had 840 inhabitants. Its population is 214,744, nearly four fifths of which is the growth of the last twenty-five years. St. Paul and Minneapolis are known as Thd Twin Cities, and have been growing steadily toward each other, so that they are practically one city, with a combined population of 516,152.
St. Pe′tersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, stands at the head of the Gulf of Finland and at the mouth of the Neva. It is built on flat and low marshy ground, from which the sea is slowly receding, the Neva dividing into many branches, thus producing 100 islands, which all the time are getting larger. In this way nearly 600 acres have been added to St. Petersburg in the last 150 years. High winds sometimes raise the sea and flood the poorer parts of the city. In 1777, 1824 and 1891 rises of ten or more feet covered nearly the whole city with water. St. Petersburg is surrounded by wildernesses, the nearest city being Novgorod, and is almost wholly cut off from the rest of Russia. The chief connection is by railway and by the Neva, which is joined by canals with the Volga and so is the real mouth of Russia’s greatest river. Founded by Peter the Great in 1702, the city has spread over the banks and islands of the Neva and now covers 42 square miles. A bar at the mouth of the river made Kronstadt, on an island 16 miles west, the real port, but the building of a ship-canal, 22 feet deep, now allows ships to unload within the city itself. Most of the city, the finest part, is on the mainland, bordered by a granite quay, with palaces and mansions stretching along the Neva for 2½ miles. The old Admiralty with its gilded spire is the center of the main part of St. Petersburg. From it starts the Nevski Prospekt, one of the finest streets in the world, not so much for its houses as for its great width and length, its crowds and carriages. East of the old
