Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/461

 &amp;lt;GEOGEAPHY.] ITALY 443 extensively wrought in ancient times, are still worked to a considerable extent. The iron of Elba, BO celebrated in antiquity, still bears a high character for its excellent quality, but tho quantity produced is limited. Many marbles of superior quality are found in different parts of the Apennines, of which the white statuary marble of Carrara is the most celebrated. Alabaster also abounds in Tuscany. Coal is wanting in all parts of the peninsula, which must ever be a great drawback to the prosperity of Italy. The geology of Italy is mainly dependent upon that of the APENNINES (q.v.). On each side of that great chain, which, as has been already stated, with its ramifications and underfills, fills up the greater part of the peninsula, are found extensive Tertiary deposits, sometimes, as in Tuscany, the Monferrat, &c., forming a broken, hilly country, at others spreading into broad plains or undulat ing downs, such as the Tavoliere of Puglia, and the tract that forms the spur of Italy from Bari to Otranto. But besides these, and leaving out of account the islands, the Italian peuinsula presents four distinct volcanic, dis tricts. In three of them the volcanoes are entirely extinct, while the fourth is still in great activity. (1) The Euganean hills form a small group extending for about 10 miles from the neighbourhood of Padua to Este, and separated from the lower offshoots of the Alps by a portion of the wide plain of the Padovano. Monte Venda, their highest peak, is 1806 feet high. (2) The Roman district, the largest of the four, extends from the hills of Albano to the frontier of Tuscany, and from the lower slopes of the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It may be divided into three groups : the Monti Albani, the highest of which, Monte Cavo, 3160 feet, is the ancient Mons Albanus, on the summit of which stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the assemblies of the cities forming the Latin confederation were held ; the Monti Cimini, which extend from the valley of the Tiber to the neighbourhood of Civita Vecchia, and attain at their culminating point an elevation of more than 3000 feet; and the mountains of Radicofani and Monte Amiata, the latter of which is 5650 feet high. The lakes of Bolsena (Vulsiniensis), of Bracciano (Sabatinus), of Yico (Ciminus), of Albano (Albanus), of Nemi (Nemorensis), and other -smaller ones belong to this district ; while between its south-west extremity and Monte Circello the Pontine Marshes form a broad strip of alluvial soil infested by malaria. (3) Tha volcanic region of Terra di Lavoro is separated by the Yolscian mountains from the Roman district. It may be also divided into three groups. Of Roccamonfina, at the north-north-west end of the Campanian Plain, the highest cone, called Montagna di Santa Croce, is 3200 feet. The Phlegrsean Fields embrace all the country round Baiaa and Pozuoli and the adjoining islands. Monte Bar- baro (Gaurus), north-east of the site of Curme, Monte S. Nicola (Epomeus), 2610 feet, in Ischia, and Camaldoli, 1488 feet, west of Naples, are the highest cones. The lakes Averno (Avernus), Lucrino (Lucrinus), Fusaro (Palus Acherusia), and Agnano are within this group, which has shown activity in historical times. A stream of lava issued
 * in 1198 from the crater of the Solfatara, which still con

tinues to exhale steam and noxious gases ; the Lava dell Arso came out of the north-east flank of Monte Epomeo in 1302 ; and Monte Nuovo, north-west of Pozzuoli, 440 feet high, was thrown up in three days in September 1538. Since &quot;its first historical eruption in 79 A.D., Vesuvius or Somma, which forms the third group, has been in constant activity, and repeated eruptions have taken place within the last few years. The Punta del Nasone, the highest point of
 * Somma, is 3747 feet high, while the Punta del Palo, the

highest point of the brim of the crater of Vesuvius, varies materially with successive eruptions from 3856 to 4235 feet. (4) The Apulian volcanic formation consists of the great mass of Monte Voltore, which rises at the west end of the plains of Apulia, on the frontier of Basilicata, and is sur rounded by the Apennines on its south-west and north-west sides. Its highest peak, the Pizzuto di Melfi, attains an elevation of 4357 feet. Within the widest crater there are the two small lakes of Monticchio and S. Michele. In connexion with the volcanic districts we may mention Le Mofete, the Pools of Amsanctus (Amsancti Vallis), lying in a wooded valley south-east of Frigento, in the centre of Principato Ultra and described by Virgil (^Eneid, vii. 563 -71). The largest of the two is not more than 160 feet in circumference, and 7 feet deep. These pools emit noxious gases which, when wafted from the pools by the wind, en danger animal life in the open -air. FAhnoyrapliy and Ancient Geography. The ethnography of ancient Italy is a very complicated and difficult subject, and notwithstanding the researches of modern scholars is still involved in much obscurity. The great beauty and fertility of the country, as well as the charm of its climate, undoubtedly attracted from the earliest ages successive swarms of invaders from the north, who sometimes drove out the previous occu pants of the most favoured districts, at others reduced them to a state of serfdom, or settled down in the midst of them, until the two races gradually coalesced into one. Ancient writers all agreed in regard to the fact of the composite character of the population of Italy, and the diversity of races that were found within the limits of the peninsula. But unfortunately the tradi tions they have transmitted to us are very various and conflicting, and probably in many instances founded on inadequate information, while the only safe test of the affinities of nations, derived from the comparison of their languages, is to a great extent deficient, from the fact that, with the single exception of Latin, all the idioms that pre vailed in Italy in the earliest ages have disappeared, or are preserved only in a few scanty and fragmentary inscriptions. Imperfect as are the means thus afforded to the philological student, they have been of late years diligently turned to account, especially by German scholars, and, when combined with the notices derived from ancient writers, may be con sidered as having furnished some results that maybe relied on with reasonable certainty. Leaving aside for the present the populations of Northern Italy, which belong to a wholly different stock, the inhabi tants of the peninsula may be regarded as belonging to three principal divisions. Of these the Messapians or lapygians in the south may be considered as constituting one ; while the different nations of Central Italy, the Umbrians, Oscans, Sabines, and Latins, may also be classed as belonging to one great family ; and on the other hand the Etruscans in the west undoubtedly formed a nation apart, distinct from all others within the confines of Italy. 1. The lapygians and (Enotrians. It is certain that when the first Greek colonies in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C. established themselves in the extreme south of Italy, they found the country in the possession of a people to whom they gave the name of OZnotrians, a name which appears to have been somewhat vaguely applied by different writers so as to include a wider area or be restricted within narrower limits. But the peninsula which stretches east ward towards Greece was inhabited by a people termed by the Greeks Messapians or lapygians, whose relations to the OEnotrians are not very clearly intimated. It is unfor tunately in this part of the country almost exclusively that