ITALY
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ITALY
mus of Calabria, and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The range
is divided into two parts by the plain of San Loja,
which is crossed by a highway and by the Napoli-
Potenza railroad. The northern part is grouped
around Mt. Santa Croce (4670 feet) that gives out sev-
eral ramifications, one of which extends to the group
of Mt. Volture, an extinct volcano on the right of the
Ofanto River. The second, southern division con-
tains the Maddalena Mountains (Mt. Papa, 6560 feet),
a short and rugged chain that runs from north to east,
and the nearly isolated grovip of the Pollino which
bars the entrance of the peninsula of Calabria and con-
tains the highest summits of the Southern Apennines,
Mt. Pollino and Serra Dolcedormi. The group of the
Cilento which projects into the sea at Capes Licosa and
Palinuro may be considered as the Lucan Sub-.4pen-
nines. It is separated from the Apennines by the lon-
gitudinal valley of Diano and constitutes one of the
wildest and most broken borders of Italy. Its princi-
pal summits are Mt. Cervati (6000 feet), Mt. Sacro
(5600 feet), and Mt. Alburno. (3) Murgie. — The Apul-
ian group of the Murgie constitutes a system of its
own, different from the Apennines in shape, origin, and
nature. Its boundaries are the Ofanto River and its
affluent the Locone, the Sella di Spinazzola, the Ba-
sentiello River, the Bradano, and the coasts of the
Ionian and the Adriatic Seas.' The Murgie are hills
that are surmounted here and there by rounded ele-
vations. Their height, which at the north is nearly
2000 feet, decreases more and more towards the south-
east. There are no rivers or streams among these hills,
for they absorb the rain-waters into deep clefts that
are called lame or gravine. When the sea occupied the
plain of Apulia and extended towards the south as far
as the Ionian Sea, the Murgie were separated from
Italy and were divided into islands and submarine
banks. (4) The Calabrian Apennines. — The moun-
tains of Calabria, by their crystalline and granite
nature, by their alpine appearance and by difference
of direction, form a system that is independent of the
Apennines. Their boundaries are a line drawn from
the mouth of the Crati River to the Scalone Pass and
the coasts of the Tyrrhenian and of the Ionian Seas.
They constitute a straitened territory of mountain
groups that are separated by deep depressions, or
united by sharp crests, in which communication be-
comes very difficult. The highlands are covered with
forests, and the lowlands with orange groves, vine-
yards, olive trees, and kindred plantations. These
mountains are divided into four groups: first, the Ca-
tena Costiera, between the sea and the Crati River, ex-
tending from the Pass of Scalone to the River .\mat o ; it
contains Mt. Cocuzzo (5000 feet) . As its name implies,
this chain is always very near the sea, rising steeply
to a mean height of 3700 feet, while at its southern
extremity it is united with the highland plain of Sila.
The second group is a vast highland plain of a mean
height of 3900 feet, with gaps, here and there, through
which flow the streams that rise on the plain. The
highest summit is Botte Donate (6300 feet). The
name of Sila is connected with the Latin silva and
with the Greek i'Kn (forest) and refers to the rich
growth of tall trees that covered the plain in ancient
times, and even then were utilized in naval con-
struction. To the south of Sila, between the Gulfs
of Squillace and Santa Eufemia, there is the Pass
of Marcellinara (800 feet), which was possibly a sea
canal l)efore the Strait of Messina existed. This pass
separates the Sila from the third group, called the
Sierre, which contains Mt. Pecoraro and which extends
to Mercante Pass, terminating in the sea, at Cape Vati-
cano on the promontory of Monteleone (1600 feet).
The fourth group rises between Mercante Pass and the
Strait of Mcs.sina; it is Aspromonte, a vast conical
mass of granite that rises by wooded grades and ter-
races. It contains Mt. Alto (6500 feet).
Plains. — (1) Plain of the Po. — The spurs of the Alps
and of the Apennines that are directed towards the
valley of the Po never reach the shores of that river;
on the contrary, there stretches between the liase lines
of those two mountain systems the vast plain of the
Po (17,500 sq. miles), which may be compared to a
great amphitheatre, open towards the east, the Alpine
and the Apennine watersheds forming its tiers, and
the plain its arena. Its uniformity is broken by the
hills of Monferrato and by those of the Langhe, by the
Euganean hills, and by the Berici Mountains. If
the sea should rise 300 feet, it would reach the base of
the Monferrato hills and would enter the Apennine val-
leys; and if it should rise 1300 feet more it would enter
the valleys of Piedmont. This plain of the Po, which
is divided into plains of Piedmont, Lombardy, and
Venice, on the left of the river, and into plains of
Marengo and of Emilia on its right, was formerly a
gulf of the Adriatic Sea that was filled in by the allu-
vial deposits of the rivers and was levelled by inunda-
tions. This process of filling in the Adriatic Sea is
continuous, as is shown by the fact that the delta of
the Po is carried forward by nearly twenty-six feet
each year, while Ravenna, which in the time of the
Romans was a naval station, is now five miles from
the sea. The Alps contributed a greater portion of
alluvial materials than did the Apennines, and there-
fore the course of the Po was thrown towards the
lower range, so that the plain on the left of the river
is greater than that on the right. The low plain of the
Po has two light slopes that meet in the thalwegg of
that river; one of them descends gradually from west
to east (Cunso, 1700 feet). While this plain covers
only a third of the surface of the valley of the Po, it is
nevertheless the historical and political centre of that
valley. (2) Plains of Central Italy. — Between the
mouth of the Magra River and Terracina there is a
lengthy extent of low plains that vary considerably in
breadth. These plains are monotonous and sad, in
contrast with those of the river valleys, as that of the
Ombrone, those of the Arno and of other rivers, which
are fertile and beautiful. First there is the plain of
Tuscany, divided into the low plains of the basin of the
Arno and theMarcmma, of which the former were once
marshy and mihealthy, especially that of the valley of
Chiana; but. through the great hydraulic works of the
Medicis of the sixteenth century, they are now most
fertile and are model expositions of agriculture. (3)
The Tuscan Maremma is a low expanse of level land
where the rain-waters become stagnant and where the
streams are sluggish on account of the too gentle slope
of the land, and therefore they accumulate their ref-
use; this disadvantage, however, is now turned to profit
in the fertilization of the ground by what is known as
the filling-in system. (4) The Roman Campagna. — The
lightly undulating Roman Campagna lies on either
side of the lower Tiber, and, although it has the mo-
notony and sadness of all plains, it has a grandeur in
itself, in its beautiful sunsets and in the gigantic and
glorious ruins that witness how great a life there was in
these now deserted places, abandoned to herds of cattle
and to wild boars. The remains of the consular roads
that traverse this plain in every direction, reminding
one of the victorious armies that marched over them,
are now scarcely to be discerned under the brush; the
waters, no longer checked, have left their channels
and formed extensive marshes, where malaria reigns;
and houses and tillage are not to be found on the Cam-
pagna at many miles from Rome. (5) The Pontine
Marshes. — From Cisterna to Terracina and from Porto
d'Anzio to Mt. Circeo there lies a swampy expanse, 25
miles in length and from 10 to 11 miles in breadth,
called in ancient times Agro Pomenzio, and now Pon-
tine Marshes. Formerly this tract was cultivated and
healthy, only a little swamp existing near Terracina ;
and in the fifth century of the Roman Era the Censor
Appius constructed over it the magnificent way that
bears his name. But the provinces having been de-
