Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/457

GEOGRAPHY.] ITALY 439 the Arno, and flows nearly south by Borgo S. Sepolcro and Citta di Castello, then between Perugia and Todi to Orte, just below which it receives the waters of the Nera. Its tributaries in the upper part of its course are of little importance, but the Nera, which rises in the lofty group of the Monte della Sibilla, is a very considerable stream, and brings with it the waters of the Velino (with its tributaries the Turano and the Salto), which joins it a few miles below its celebrated waterfall at Terni. The Teverone or Anio, which enters the Tiber a few miles above Rome, is a very inferior stream to the Nera, but brings down a considerable body of water from the mountains above Subiaco. It is a singular fact in the geography of Central Italy that the valley of the Tiber and that of the Arno are in some measure connected by that of the Chiana, a level and marshy tract, the waters from which flow partly into the Arno and partly into the Tiber. The eastern declivity of the central Apennines towards the Adriatic is far less interesting and varied than the western. The central range here approaches (as has been already pointed out) much nearer to the sea, and hence, with few exceptions, the rivers that flow from it ha^e but short courses and are of comparatively little importance. They may be briefly enumerated, proceeding from Rimini southwards : (1) the Foglia ; (2) the Metauro, of historical celebrity, and affording access to one of the most frequented passes of the Apennines ; (3) the Esino ; (4) the Potenza; (5) the Chienti; (6) the Aso ; (7) the Tronto; (8) the Vomano ; (9) the Aterno ; (10) the Sangro ; (11) the Trigno, which forms the boundary of the southernmost province of the Abruzzi, and may therefore be taken as the limit of Central Italy. Much the most considerable of these rivers is the Aterno (called also the Pescara, from the city of that name at its mouth); this has its sources in the Apennines above Aquila, and flows through a broad upland valley in a south-east direction for above 40 miles till it approaches Popoli, when it turns abruptly to the north-east, and cuts directly through the main chain of the Apennines between the range of the Gran Sasso and that of the Majella, descending with a very rapid course till it enters the sea at Pescara. The whole of this portion erf Central Italy, between the Apennines and the sea, is a hilly country, much broken and cut up by the torrents from the mountains, but fertile, especially in fruit-trees, olives, and vines ; and hence it has been, both in ancient and modern times, a populous district, containing many small towns though no great cities. Its chief disadvantage is the absence of ports, the coast preserving an almost unbroken straight line, with the single exception of Ancona, which has in all ages been the only port worthy of the name on the eastern coast of Central Italy. 3. Southei-n Italy. The great central mass of the Apennines, which has held its course throughout Central Italy, with a general direction from north-west to south east, may be considered as continued in the same direction for about 100 miles farther, from the basin-shaped group of the Monti del Matese (which rises to the height of 6660 feet) to the neighbourhood of Potenza, in the heart of the province of Basilicata, corresponding nearly to the ancient Lucania. The whole of the district known in ancient times as Samnium (a part of which still retains the name of Sannio, though now officially designated as the province of Moli.se) is occupied by an irregular mass of mountains, of much inferior height to those of Central Italy, and having still less of the character of a regular range, being broken up into a number of groups or masses, intersected by rivers, which have for the most part a very tortuous course. This mountainous tract, which has an average breadth of from 50 to 60 miles, is bounded on the west by the plain of Campania, now called the Terra di Lavoro, and on the east by the much broader and more extensive tract of Apulia or Puglia, composed partly of level plains, but for the most part of undulating downs of very slight elevation, and contrasting strongly with the mountain ranges of the Apennines, which rise abruptly above them. The central mass of the mountains, however, throws out two outlying ranges, the one to the west, which separates the Bay of Naples from that of Salerno, and culminates in the Monte St Angelo above Castellamare (4720 feet), while the detached volcanic cone of Vesuvius, which rises to near 4000 feet, is isolated from the neighbouring mountains by an intervening strip of plain. On the east side in like manner the Monte Gargano, a detached lime stone mass which rises to the height of 5120 feet, and projects in a bold spur-like promontory into the Adriatic, forming the only break in the otherwise uniform coast-line of Italy on that sea, though separated from the great body of the Apennines by a considerable interval of low country, may be considered as merely an outlier from the central mass. From the neighbourhood of Potenza, the main ridge of the Apennines is continued by the Monti della Maddaleria in a direction nearly due south, so that it approaches within a short distance of the Gulf of Policastro, from whence it is carried on as far as the Monte Pollino, the last of the lofty summits of the Apennine chain, which exceeds 7000 feet in height, The range is, however, continued through the whole of the province now called Calabria, to the southern extremity or " toe " of Italy, but presents in this part a very much altered character, the broken limestone range which is the true continuation of the chain as far as the neighbourhood of Nicastro and Catanzaro, and keeps close to the west coast, bjing flanked on the east by a great mass of granitic mountains, rising to a height of about 6000 feet, and covered with vast forests, from which it derives the name of La Sila. A similar mass, but separated from the preceding by a low neck of Tertiary hills, fills up the whole of the peninsular extremity of Italy from Squillace to Reggio. Its highest point, called Aspromonte, attains to a height of 4300 feet. While the rugged and mountainous district of Calabria, extending nearly due south for a distance of more than 150 miles, thus derives its character and configuration almost wholly from the range of the Apennines, by which it is traversed from end to end, the case is wholly different with the long spur-like promontory which projects towards the east to Brindisi and Otranto. The older maps of Italy, indeed, with one accord represent the Apennines as bifurcating somewhere in the neighbourhood of Venosa, and sending off an arm of the main range through this eastern district, similar to that which traverses Calabria. But this is entirely erroneous ; the whole of the district in question is merely a continuation of the low tract of Apulia, consisting of undulating downs and low bare hills of very moderate elevation, with a dry calcareous soil of Tertiary origin. The Monte Voltore, which rises in the neighbour hood of Melfi and Venosa to a height of 4357 feet,. is of volcanic origin, and in great measure detached from the adjoining mass of the Apennines. But eastward from this nothing like a mountain is to be found, the ranges of low bare hills called the Murgie of Gravina and Altamura gradually sinking into the still more moderate level of those which constitute the peninsular tract that extends between Brindisi and Taranto as far as the Cape of Sta Maria di Leuca, the south-east extremity of Italy, It is this projecting tract, which may be termed the "heel" or "spur" of Southern Italy, that, in conjunction with the great pro montory of Calabria, forms the deep bay called the Gulf of Taranto, about 70 miles in width, and somewhat greater