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 ITALY

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ITALY

turns towards the south-east, terminating against the embankment of the Reno, a river that rises near Pru- netta, passes to the east of Bologna, flows by Pieve di Cento, and, turning towartls the east, enters the old channel of the Po di Primaro and empties into the sea at Porto Primaro, after a course of 124 miles. The Idice, Santeriio, and the Senio are its affluents, (d) The rivers of Istria are very short, with little water, and flow in channels from which they disappear into the ground, to appear again in other channols or near the sea. The Recca-Timavo is the most important one of them; after a course of 28 miles in a narrow channel, it disappears into a cave, and it is probable that its waters go through the Carso and that they are the same that emerge from great springs, near Monfal-

the lake that occupied the valley of Chiana and was a tributary of the Tiber through the Paglia. Now the Arno, abreast of .\rezzo, arches round the Pratomagno and flows through a series of narrow passes between that chain and the mountains of Chianti. At Pontas- sieve it receives the Sieve which flows through the valley of Mugello, and then, turning directly to the west, it enters upon the second straight course; it flows through Florence, receives the Bisenzio and the Ombrone of Pistoia and flows through the plain of Prato which was once the l^ottom of a lake; it enters the Pass of Golfolina, 7+ miles in length, between Mt. Albano and the mountains of Chianti; thereafter it receives the Pesa, the Elsa, and the Era, on the left, and the Pescia on the right — and in all this second

cone, and empty into the Monfalcone Gulf under the name of Timavo. The other rivers, the Dragogna, the Quieto, the Leme. which rises under the name of Foiba, all develop fords at their mouths, and the Foi- ba disappears and reappears several times; the Arsa empties into the Gulf of (Juarnero.

On account of the bow shape of the Central Apen- nines the rivers that empty into the Adriatic Sea are very short and almost straight, while those that empty into the Tyrrhenian Sea are longer, and have a sinu- ous course in the longitudinal valleys through which they flow. They cut narrow channels through the mountain ranges or at times form cataracts like those of Marmore, near Terni (5:i0 feet), those of Tivoli, and those of the Filireno. Many of the long valleys be- tween the Ant i- A ponnino ami the Sub-.\pennine ranges were occupied b,\ lakc^ that were either filled in natu- rally by the allm ia! ilcpnsits of the rivers or were arti- ficially drained, as wi-re the valley of Chiana, the val- ley of the Tiller, the plain of Foligno, the lands of Reati,of Fucino, and others. The .\rno River, which has an average breadth of from 330 to 500 feet, rises on Mt. Falterona (5400 feet) and flows towards the south- east between the Apennines and the Pratomagno, through a beautiful spacious valley that is the con- tinuation of the ^'al di Chiana and is called Casen- tino. It appears that formerly the Arno flowed into

course it flows over a low plain, between powerful artificial embankments. It empties into the sea at 6 miles from Pisa through a delta that is carried for- ward 16 feet each year. The Tiber (Tiberis). — This is the most famous of all rivers, because there stands on its banks the city which of all has exercised the greatest influence upon the world, in ancient, as well as in modern, times. Geograpliically. the Tiber is the second river of Italy, in relation to its basin, and the third, in relation to its length, the first and the second being the Po and the Adige respectively. It flows from north to south, winding along the tenth meridian East of Greenwich, with an average breadth of about 500 feet, while the volume of its flood is 9500 cubic feet per second. It has a very sinuous course which is divided into four parts; the first of them is through a longitudinal valley, between the Apennines and the Sub-Apennines, called the Valley of the Tiber, the river passing by the town of Santo Sepolcro and the Citta di Castello. It leaves Perugia on the right and receives the Chiascio, a river that has for affluents the Topino, which comes from the plain of Gubbio, and the Maroggia which it.self receives the abundant waters of the Clitunno. At its juncture with the Chiascio, the Tiber begins its second tract: flowing in a south-easterly direction through a narrow valley of the Sub-Apennines of fimbria, it leaves Todi oii its