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on the Gulf of Manfredonia and the Roman Campagna.

HYDROGRAPHY. Italy has many streams, although 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 nearly 11,000 are level, and, indeed, almost flat. Its course marks the line at which the sediment and débris from the Alps meet the sediment and débris from the Apennines. The Po is navigable to Turin, and with its tributaries affords about 600 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 important among them are the Arno, which rises in the Apennines and flows west past Florence and Pisa through a lovely and well-cultivated valley. It has a short course of only 150 miles. The Tiber rises not far from the sources of the Arno, 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.

soils of Italy are excellent, particularly in the Lombard Plain, which is among the richest agricultural lands in the world. Many once fertile parts of the Apennines, however, have been denuded of their soil.

The greatest climatic drawback of Italy is found in the swampy lands of the lower Po, the Maremma, the Campagna, the Pontine marshes, and some other regions where intermittent malarial fevers prevail during the summer months. Only six 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 pumping-machines, and recently by draining the breeding-places of the mosquito. The extensive planting of the eucalyptus is believed also to have had a favorable effect upon the salubrity of these malarial regions.

FLORA. The flora of the central and southern lowlands is typical of the Mediterranean countries, 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 excluded from the plain by the colder winter weather. In the northern plain are maize, wheat, vines, and mulberries. Rice is grown on the irrigated fields near the Po. The flora of the Apennines is very much like that of Central Europe. The shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea present almost a continuous growth of orange, olive, and lemon trees. In the extreme south the vegetation is subtropical; the sugar-cane, the Indian fig, and the date-palm are found. Forests have almost everywhere been destroyed, but the chestnut-tree clothes the sides both of the Alps and the Apennines, the nut in some districts supplying the chief food of the inhabitants.

FAUNA. Italy is very low in the scale of European countries with regard to its fauna. The hear, genet, weasel, and some rodents are almost the only conspicuous examples in the way of mammals. The Alps and Apennines, and the swampy maremme of Rome and Tuscany, afford some refuge for wild life; but otherwise almost everything above an insect is killed for food or wantonly 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 Africa for the birds, 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.

CLIMATE. Italy may be divided into four climatic 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 temperature does not descend below 35° F. Peninsular Italy is divided climatically into the eastern and western regions. The extremes of temperature diminish toward the south; on the eastern slope of the Apennines the mean annual tempera- GEOLOGY. In its geological structure Italy ture is about 57°, while the western slope is represents a portion of the great system of mouna trifle warmer. South Italy, Sicily, and Sar- tain folds which extend across the Eurasian dinia form the last climatic division, with a mean continent, and which are here diverted from the annual temperature varying from 61° to 64° F., normal east and west direction to north and the difference between summer and winter being south. There is reason for believing that the only 25°. The mean summer temperature at Peninsula once formed a continuous land bridge any station in the whole Kingdom does not ex- across the Mediterranean, thus uniting the ranges ceed 80° F., and, except in the elevated valleys of the Alps with the Atlas. The uplifting of the of Piedmont, it is nowhere lower than 70°. As Apennines took place at a comparatively recent in all the Mediterranean countries, the largest geological period; Mesozoic and Tertiary strata rainfall occurs in the fall and winter months, including limestones, marls, and sandstones are after the growing season, so that irrigation is re- the predominant formations. The islands off the quired in nearly all parts of the Kingdom. The coast of Tuscany, together with Corsica, Sardinia,

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