Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/455

GEOGRAPHY.] I T A L Y 437 Primaro, or by artificial mouths into the Adriatic between Ravenna and Rimini. The river Marecchia, which entars tlie sea immediately north of Rimini, may be considered as the natural limit of Northern Italy. It was adopted by Augustus as the boundary of Gallia Cispadana ; the far- lamed Rubicon was a trifling stream a few miles farther north, now called Fiumicino. The narrow strip of coast-land between the Maritime Alps, the Apennines, and the sea called in ancient times Liguria, and now known as the Riviera of Genoa though belonging in respect of latitude to Northern Italy, is in other respects quite distinct from the region included under tint name. Throughout its whole extent, from Nice to Genoa on the one side, and again from Genoa to Spezia on the other, it is almost wholly mountainous, being occupied by the branches and offshoots of the mountain ranges at the back, which separate it throughout from the great plain to the north, while they send down their lateral ridges close to the water s edge, leaving only in places a few square miles of level plains at the mouths of the rivers and openings of the valleys. Rugged as it is, the district thus bounded is by no means devoid of fertility, the steep slopes facing the south enjoying so fine a climate as to render them very favourable for the growtli of fruit trees, especially the olive, which is cultivated iu terraces to a considerable height up the face of the mountains, while the openings of the valleys are generally occupied by towns or villages. From the proximity of the mountains to the sea none of the rivers in this part of Italy have any long course, and they are generally mere mountain torrents, rapid and swollen in winter and spring, and almost dry in summer. The lirgest and most important are those which descend from the Maritime Alps between Nice and Albenga, Beginning from the Var, which as already stated is now included in France, the most considerable of them are the Roja, which rises in the Col di Tenda, and descends to Ventimiglia ; the Taggia, between San Remo and Oneglia ; and the Centa, which enters the sea at Albenga. The other streams, which flow from the range of the Apennines to the sea between Savona and Genoa, are of very little importance, from the proximity of the watershed and its small eleva tion. The same remark applies to the Riviera east of Genoa, where the Lavagna, which enters the sea at Chiavari, is the only stream of any importance between Genoa and the Gulf of Spezia. But immediately east of that inlet (a remarkable instance of a deep land-locked gulf with no river flowing into it) the Magra, which descends from Pontremoli down the valley known as the Lunigiana, is a large stream, and brings with it the waters of another considerable stream, the Vara. Tha Magra (Macra) was in ancient times the boundary between Liguria and Etruria, and may be considered as constituting on this side the limit of Northern Italy. The Apennines, as lias been already mentioned, here traverse the whole breadth of Italy, cutting off the peninsula properly so termed from the broader mass of Northern Italy by a continuous barrier of considerable breadth, though of far inferior elevation to that of the Alps. The Ligurian Apennines, which may be considered as taking their rise in the neighbourhood of Savona, where a pass of very moderate elevation connects them with the Maritime Alps, of which they are in fact only a continua tion, are among the least lofty portions of that long range. From the neighbourhood of Savona to that of Genoa they do not rise to more than 3000 to 4000 feet, and are traversed by passes of less than 2000 feet. As they extend towards the east they increase in elevation : thus Monte Penna, at the sources of the Taro, rise; to 5704 feet ; Moute Molinadigo, at the head of the valley of Pontremoli, to 5100; and the Alpe di Succisa, near the pass which is crossed by the road from Sarzana to Reggio, to 6600; while the Monte Cimone, a little farther east, attains to the height of 7088 feet. This is the highest point in the northern Apennines, and belongs to a group of summits of nearly equal altitude ; the range which from thence is continued between Tuscany and what are now known as the Emilian provinces has a very uniform char acter both in elevation and direction, and presents a con tinuous ridge from the mountains at the head of the Yal di Mugello (due north of Florence) to the point where they are traversed by the celebrated Furlo Pass. The highest point in this part of the range is the Monte Falteronn, above the sources of the Arno, which attains to a height of 5408 feet. Throughout this tract the Apennines are generally covered with extensive forests of chestnut, oak, and beech ; while their upper slopes afford admirable pasturage. But few towns of any importance are found either on their northern or southern declivity, and the former region especially, though occupying a broad tract of from 30 to 40 miles in width, between the crest of the Apennines and the plain of the Po, is one of the least known and at the same time least interesting portions of Italy. 2. Central Italy. It has already been observed that, this term is merely one used by geographers as a matter of convenience, and does not correspond to any natural, division of the peninsula. Nor does it correspond with any received political division, for though the kingdom of Naples, which so long constituted a separate government, might be considered as representing Southern Italy, its three northern provinces, known as the Abruzzi, certainly belong rather to the central portion of the peninsula, with which they correspond in physical characters as well as in, latitude and position. Writers on ancient geography gene rally include Campania and Samnium also in Central Italy, a division rendered convenient by the close relations existing between those countries and Latium, the political centre of Italy in those days. But as a mere geographical division it seems more convenient to include all the pro vinces that formed part of the kingdom of Naples, with the exception of the three Abruzzi, in Southern Italy. The geography of Central Italy is almost wholly deter mined by the great range of the Apennines, which traverse its whole extent in a direction from about north-north-east to south-south-west, almost precisely parallel to that of the coast of the Adriatic from Rimini to Pescara. The line of the highest summits and of the watershed ranges at a distance of about 30 to 40 miles from the Adriatic, while it is separated by about double that distance from the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west. It is in this part of the range that almost all the highest points of the Apennines are found. Beginning from the group called the Alpi della Luna near the sources of the Tiber, which attain only to a height of 4435 feet, they are continued by the Monte Nerone (5014 feet), Monte Catria (5590), and Monte Maggio to the Monte Penino near Nocera (5169 feet), and thence to the Monte della Sibilla, at the source of the N#r or Nera, which attains an elevation of 7663 feet. Pro ceeding from thence southwards, we find in succession the Monte Vettore (8134 feet), the Pizzo di Sevo (7945 feet), and the two great mountain masses of the Monte Corno, commonly called the Gran Sasso d ltalia, the most lofty of all the Apennines, attaining to a height of 9522 feet, and the Monte della Majella, but little inferior, its highest summit measuring 9084 feet. Farther south than this the range decreases in altitude, and no very lofty summits are found till we come to the group of Monte Matese, in Samnium (6660 feet), which according to the division here adopted belongs to Southern Italy. But