Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/49

* ITALY. 33 ITALY. ■on the Gulf of Manfiedonia and the Roman Campagna. Hydhography. Italy has many streams, al- though it has only one great river, the Po. The most important streams, the Po and the Adige, flow into the Adriatic Sea. The Po is fed on one side by the snows of the Alps, on the other by the heavy rains of the Apennines, and drains an area of 27,000 square miles, of which nearlj- 11,000 are level, and, indeed, almost fiat. Its course marks the line at which the sediment and debris from the Alps meet the sediment and debris from the Apennines. The Po is navigable to Turin, and with its triDutaries affords about 000 miles of navigation. The Adige enters Italy from Tyrol, and flows eastward to the Adriatic. The beds of both these rivers are constantly being elevated by the boulders and alluvial deposits brought down from the mountains. The rivers of the Peninsula are of little importance for navigation or industry. The beds of most of them are dry in summer, so that they cannot be relied upon for water-power. The most impor- tant among them are the Anio, which rises in the .Apennines and flows west past Florence and Pisa through a lovely and well-eultivate<l valley. It has a short course of only 150 miles. The Tiber rises not far from the sources of the Amo, the two rivers being connected by a canal through the tributary called the Chiana. whose waters flow partly into the Arno and partly into the Tiber. The canal system is thoroughly developed in the basin of the Po, and is utilized not only for transportation, but also for the irrigation of hay and rice, so that the farmer in the great plain is almost independent of rain. There are many lakes where the mountains merge into the great plain; also a considerable number in the Peninsula, some of which are crater lakes. The chief lakes of Northern Italy are, in the order of their size, Garda, Maggiore. and Como. Each of them sends down a large tributary to the Po. Lago di Garda covers an area of 140 square miles, and is very deep. Lago Maggiore is longer than Como, but not so large as Garda ; a part 'of this lake is in Switzerland. Lago di Como is one of the loveliest lakes in the world. Other considerable lakes are Lugano and Iseo. C'UM.TE. Italy may be divided into four cli- matic regions — northern, eastern, western, and southern. The first, coinciding with the valley of the Po, has a warm summer and a large daily range of temperature. The greatest extremes of temperature are in the Po basin; but even here, except in Piedmont, the mean winter tem- perature does not descend below .3.5° F. Penin- sular Italy is divided climatically into the eastern and western regions. The extremes of tempera- ture diminish toward the south; on the eastern slope of the Apennines the mean annual tempera- ture is about 57°. while the western slope is a trifle warmer. South Italy, Sicily, and Sar- dinia form the last climatic division, with a mean annual temperature varying from Gl° to 04° F., the difference between summer and winter being only 25°. The mean summer temperatiire at any station in the whole Kingdom does not ex- ceed 80° F,, and. except in the elevated valleys of Piedmont, it is nowhere lower than 70°. As in all the Jtediterranean cwuntries. the largest rainfall occurs in the fall and winter months, after the growing season, so that irrigation is re- quired in nearly all parts of the Kingdom. The soils of Italy are excellent, particularly in the Lombard Plain, which is among the richest agri- cultural lands in the world. Jlany once fertile parts of the Apennines, however, have been de- nuded of their soil. The greatest climatic drawback of Italy is found in the swampy lands of the lower Po, the ifaremnia, the Campagna, the Pontine marshes, and some other regions where intermittent ma- larial fevers prevail during the summer months. Only si.x of the provinces, including Genoa and Florence, are wholly free from malaria. Large sums of money have been spent in attempts to overcome this evil by means of drainage canals and pimiping-machines, and recently by drain- ing the breeding-places of the mosquito. The ex- tensive planting of the eucalyptus is believed also to have had a favorable effect upon the salubrity of these malarial regions. Flor.. The flora of the central and southern lowlands is typical of the Mediterranean coun- tries, with the olive as the most characteristic tree. The great extent of the mountains and highlands, however, causes the myrtle, olive, and other evergreens to be confined to the coasts, especially in North Italy, where the olive is ex- cluded from the plain by the colder winter weather. In the northern plain are maize, wheat, vines, and nuilberries. Rice is grown on the ir- rigated fields near the Po. The flora of the Apennines is very much like that of Central Eu- rope. The shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea present almost a continuous growth of orange, olive, and lemon trees. In the extreme south the vegeta- tion is subtropical : the svigar-cane, the Indian fig, and the date-palm are found. Forests have almost everywhere been destroyed, but the chest- nut-tree clothes the sides both of the Alps and the Apennines, the nut in some districts supply- ing the chief food of the inhabitants. F.u>"A. Italy is very low in the scale of Eu- ropean countries with i-eg,ird to its fauna. The bear, genet, weasel, and some rodents are almost the only conspicuous examples in the way of mam- mals. The Alps and Apennines, and the swampy nuiremme of Rome and Tuscany, aft'ord some refuge for wild life ; but otherwise almost every- thing above an insect is killed for food or wan- tonly by the people. This has been the rule so long that the country is nearly bare even of small birds. Upon certain great estates a few animals, such as the native fallow deer, are preserved. Were not Italy, by its extension toward the south, a highway of migration to and from .Vfrica for the bii'ds, their absence would be still more complete. The autumn flight of quails from Tunis is a period of feasting. The sea life along the shores of the southern part is wonderfully varied and plentiful. Geologv. In its geological structure Italy represents a portion of the great system of moun- tain folds which extend across the Eurasian continent, and which are here diverted from the normal east and west direction to north and south. There is reason for believnig that the Peninsula once formed a continuous land bridge across the Mediterranean, thus uniting the ranges of the Alps with the Atlas. The uplifting of tho Apennines took place at a comparatively recent geological period ; Mesozoie and Tertiary strata including limestones, marls, and sandstones are the predominant formations. The islands ofT the coast of Tuscanv, together with Corsica, Sardinia,