[M.120L]                                                              [M.120]	Landward view from Venice	120
                                                                      
                                                                      		reflected it in a metallic aqua marine - only its strong tide was
                                                                      		seen gliding and curdling in one flat mass of shallow water
                                                                      		that seemed to move altogether, without break or curve - and
                                                                      		the far away islands seemed gliding the opposite way:  The
                                                                      		water was not bright - only lustrous & of delicate metallic
                                                                      		colour - for the sun was too low to make it luminous - and
                                                                      		the lower sky was hazy - and all of deep tone - so deep that
                                                                      		Murano and St Cristoforo, which caught the sunset light
                                                                      		full - seemed coming out of the dark haze in one
                                                                      		long bar of crimson light, which the eye felt - even when
                                                                      		it was directed elsewhere - in its constant & intense presence
                                                                      		of pure fire.  Far away out of the mist the endless range
                                                                      		of the Alps lifted their jagged ridge of silver:  melting
                                                                      		into orange light towards the west - when the flat main land
                                                                      		showed its long dark line along across their ghostly distance: and
                                                                      		the single square mass of the Church of Mestre being the only
                                                                      		object that broke its monotony:  Close beside me, the green
                                                                      		clear sea water lay quietly among the muddy shingles of
                                                                      		the level shore, [?] so calm that it made a little islet
                                                                      		at the edge of it, of every stone: as clear as a mountain stream
                                                                      		and with here and there a large block of marble, marking
                                                                      		the outmost foundations of old Venice.
                                                                      		Note: just above the inlet between the Abbazia and Murano quay

[Version 0.05: May 2008]