Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/251

 ITALY

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ITALY

seizure of Rome in 1S70 see the articles Temporal Power and Papal States.

Coast-line and Seas. — The coast-line of the Italian Peninsula measures 2100 miles. Its principal har- bours are the Gulf of Genoa, the first commercial port in Italy; the Gulf of Spezia, an important naval station; Civitavecchia, an artificial harbour; the har- bours of Gaeta, Naples, and the Gulf of Taranto; Brindisi, a natural port; the Gulf of Manfredonia, and the lagoons of Venice. The principal seas are: (1) the Sea of Italy, or Tyrrhenian Sea, which lies between the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica and the main- land. It slopes from its shores to its centre, where it attains a depth of more than two and one-quarter miles, and scatteretl over it are the Tuscan Archipelago, , the Ponza and Parthenopian Island groups, the iEgad- ian Islands, the voleanic I.slaml Ustica, and the Lipari or^olian Islands, tlic latter bi'ing all extinct volcanoes with the exception uf Stri)nil»ili. The tides of this sea vary by only eight or twelve inches; it abounds in coral banks, and anchovy, sardine, and tunny fishing is remiuiera- tive along the coasts of Sicily and Sar- dinia.

(2) Ligurian Sea. —The Gulf of Genoa is the most inland and also the most northerly part of this open sea, which extends to the south as far as the Channels of Corsica and of Piombino, throii'.?li which it communi- cates with till' Tyr- rhenian Sea. It is open towards the Mediterranean,while its south-w e s t e r n limit is a line drawn from Cape Lardier, in Provence, to Cape Revellata in Corsica. The tides of this sea vary from six to eight inches. On account of its depth and of the absence of tributary rivers, it contains few fish.

(3) Sea of Sicily; Sea of Malta. — That branch of the Mediterranean that lies between Tunis and Sicily is called the Channel of Tunis or of Sicily, and has a mini- mum breadth of 90 miles. The branch that separates the Maltese Islands from Sicily is called the Malta Channel and has a minimum breadth of 51 miles. In the former, at an average depth of 100 fathoms, there is a submarine bank that unites .\frica and Sicily; it has extensive shoals, known for their volcanic phe- nomena. Sponge and coral fisheries in tliis sea are lu- crative. The ticlesarehigherthanthoseof other Italian waters, and a singular phenomenon, called marrobbio, is observed here, being a violent and dangerous boiling of the sea, having, possibly, a volcanic origin.

(4) Ionian Sea. — This is an open sea between Sicily and the Calabrian and the Salentine peninsulas, and the western coasts of the Balkan Peninsula ; it communi- cates with the Tyrrhenian Sea by the Strait of Mes- sina, which was formed by the catastrophe that vio- lently detached Sicily from the Continent. This strait, which is one of the most frequented waterways of Eu- rope, is fimnel-shaped, having a breadth of 20 miles at its southern, and of 2 miles at its northern, opening. On the line between the islands of Sicily and Crete, the Ionian Sea reaches a depth of 2J miles, the greatest that has been found so far in the Mediterranean Sea. While the tides on the African coast rise over six feet, those on the coast of Italy are very slight; they are all

VIII.— 14

The Forum Romanum viewed fro.m the Campidoglio

the stronger, however, in the Strait of Messina, where the currents that pass between the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian Seas, especially when the wind blows, form vortices and surges that beat violently against the coast of Calabria. The fantasy of the ancients person- ified these two phenomena, in the monster Scylla, for the Calabrian coast, and Charybdis on the Sicilian side (Homer, "Odyss.", I, xii; Virgil, "^neid", III, 420-425).

(5) Adriatic Sea. — This sea lies between the Italian and the Balkan Peninsulas, with an area of 51,000 sq. miles. It abounds in fish of exceptionally good qual- ity.

Oroloqy. — Italy is a country of mountains and hills, with few high table-lands; while, of the latter, the two most important, those of Tuscany and of the Murgie, are broken and surmounted by hills and mountainous groups. Lowland plains are, on the contrary, the dominant characteristic of Northern Italy; plains, in fact, occupy about one-third of the sur- face of the country. The principal moun- tains of Italyare: (1) The Alps, a system of parallel ranges, at the north of Italy, forming an arc that presents its convex side to the west ; they extend from the pass of Cadibona to the masses of Mt. Blanc, which is the highest point of the Alpine range (15,780 feet), and from that point, following a north- easterly direction, they extend to Vi- enna on the Danube. One of the greater eastern branches of this system, the Car- nic and the Julian Alps, diverges in a south-easterly direction and terminates in the Fianona Point on the Gulf of Quarnero. Their length, from the pass of Cadi- bona to Cape Fianona, is nearly 735 miles. Their mean height is 6500 feet. The Italian watershed of the .\lps is steep, with short spurs and deep valleys, while the op- posite side is a gentle slope. Hence the facility of cross- ing over the Alps from without (France, Germany), and the corresponding difficulty of the passage from the Italian side, as history has shown by foreign invasions. The Alps are of climatic benefit to Italy, for they are a screen against the cold winds from the north, while the vapours of warm winds from the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Seas are condensed on the Alpine heights, producing the copious rains and snows that result in those numerous glaciers which are reservoirs for the rivers. The inhabitants of the Alps are a strong and robust people, sober, and attached to their native valleys. Temporary emigration, due to the nature of the land, is very great, but permanent emi- gration is rare. With the Alps is connected the typ- ical Italian figure of the chimney-sweep evoked by the fancy of artists and of poets.

(2) The Apennines form parallel trunk chains, ar- ranged in echelon, like the tiers of a theatre; they ex- tend from the Pass of Cadibona to the Strait of Mes- sina and are continued in the northern mountains of Sicily as far as Cape Boeo. The range is of much less elevation than the .\lps, its mean height being 3900 feet, nor has it the imposing, wild, and varied aspect of the Alps. Its summits are bare and rounded, the valleys deep, and cultivation goes on well up the heights. The sides were once covered with forests,