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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54760 ***
+
+ THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS.
+
+ EUROPE.
+
+ BY
+ ÉLISÉE RECLUS.
+
+ EDITED BY
+ E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S., F.S.S., ETC.
+
+ VOL. I.
+
+ GREECE, TURKEY IN EUROPE, RUMANIA, SERVIA, MONTENEGRO,
+ ITALY, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ _ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS._
+
+ NEW YORK:
+ D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
+ 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
+ 1883.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS . . . 1
+
+
+ EUROPE.
+
+ I. GEOGRAPHICAL IMPORTANCE . . . 5
+
+ II. EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES . . . 6
+
+ III. NATURAL DIVISIONS AND MOUNTAINS . . . 9
+
+ IV. THE MARITIME REGIONS . . . 13
+
+ V. CLIMATE . . . 16
+
+ VI. INHABITANTS . . . 18
+
+
+ THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+ I. HYDROLOGY . . . 23
+
+ II. ANIMAL LIFE, FISHERIES, AND SALT-PANS . . . 28
+
+ III. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION . . . 31
+
+
+ GREECE.
+
+ I. GENERAL ASPECTS . . . 36
+
+ II. CONTINENTAL GREECE . . . 45
+
+ III. THE MOREA, OR PELOPONNESUS . . . 56
+
+ IV. THE ISLANDS OF THE ÆGEAN SEA . . . 69
+
+ V. THE IONIAN ISLES . . . 75
+
+ VI. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF GREECE . . . 80
+
+ VII. GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS . . . 85
+
+
+ TURKEY IN EUROPE.
+
+ I. GENERAL ASPECTS . . . 87
+
+ II. CRETE AND THE ISLANDS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO . . . 90
+
+ III. TURKEY OF THE GREEKS (THRACIA, MACEDONIA, AND THESSALY) . . . 98
+
+ IV. ALBANIA AND EPIRUS . . . 115
+
+ V. THE ILLYRIAN ALPS, BOSNIA, AND HERZEGOVINA . . . 126
+
+ VI. BULGARIA . . . 131
+
+ VII. PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF TURKEY . . . 145
+
+ VIII. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION . . . 150
+
+ TREATIES OF SAN STEFANO AND BERLIN . . . 153
+
+
+ RUMANIA . . . 155
+
+
+ SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+ I. SERVIA . . . 172
+
+ II. MONTENEGRO . . . 179
+
+
+ ITALY.
+
+ I. GENERAL ASPECTS . . . 183
+
+ II. THE BASIN OF THE PO: PIEMONT, LOMBARDY, VENETIA, AND EMILIA
+ . . . 189
+
+ III. LIGURIA AND THE RIVIERA OF GENOA . . . 230
+
+ IV. TUSCANY . . . 239
+
+ V. THE ROMAN APENNINES, THE VALLEY OF THE TIBER, THE MARCHES, AND THE
+ ABRUZZOS . . . 257
+
+ VI. SOUTHERN ITALY: NAPLES . . . 286
+
+ VII. SICILY . . . 309
+
+ The Æolian or Liparic Islands . . . 331
+
+ The Ægadian Islands . . . 334
+
+ Malta and Gozzo . . . 335
+
+ VIII. SARDINIA . . . 338
+
+ IX. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ITALY . . . 352
+
+ X. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION . . . 358
+
+
+ CORSICA . . . 363
+
+
+ SPAIN.
+
+ I. GENERAL ASPECTS . . . 370
+
+ II. THE CASTILES, LEON, AND ESTREMADURA . . . 377
+
+ III. ANDALUSIA . . . 394
+
+ IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN SLOPE: MURCIA AND VALENCIA . . . 414
+
+ V. THE BALEARIC ISLANDS . . . 423
+
+ VI. THE VALLEY OF THE EBRO: ARAGON AND CATALONIA . . . 427
+
+ VII. BASQUE PROVINCES, NAVARRA, AND LOGROÑO . . . 439
+
+ VIII. SANTANDER, THE ASTURIAS, AND GALICIA . . . 448
+
+ IX. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF SPAIN . . . 460
+
+ X. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION . . . 465
+
+
+ PORTUGAL.
+
+ I. GENERAL ASPECTS . . . 469
+
+ II. NORTHERN PORTUGAL: THE VALLEYS OF THE MINHO, DOURO, AND MONDEGO
+ . . . 473
+
+ III. THE VALLEY OF THE TAGUS . . . 482
+
+ IV. SOUTHERN PORTUGAL: ALENTEJO AND ALGARVE . . . 490
+
+ V. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PORTUGAL . . . 496
+
+ VI. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION . . . 498
+
+
+ INDEX . . . 501
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+MAPS PRINTED IN COLOURS.
+
+ 1. Ethnographical Map of Europe . . . 18
+
+ 2. Turkey-in-Europe and Greece . . . 85
+
+ 3. The Bosphorus and Constantinople . . . 98
+
+ 4. Ethnographical Map of Turkey . . . 148
+
+ 5. Italy . . . 183
+
+ 6. The Delta of the Po . . . 210
+
+ 7. The Bay of Naples . . . 288
+
+ 8. Spain and Portugal . . . 365
+
+
+PLATES.
+
+ Peasants from the Environs of Athens . . . _To face page_ . . . 53
+
+ Constantinople and the Golden Horn, from the Heights of Eyub . . . 99
+
+ Albanians . . . 118
+
+ Wealthy Arnauts . . . 124
+
+ Turkish Muleteers in the Herzegovina . . . 127
+
+ Tirnova . . . 133
+
+ Bulgarians . . . 138
+
+ Mussulman of Adrianople, and Mussulman Lady of Prisrend . . . 147
+
+ Wallachians (Valakhs) . . . 162
+
+ Belgrade . . . 174
+
+ The Pennine Alps, as seen from the Becca di Nona (Pic Carrel), 10,380
+ feet . . . 195
+
+ Venice . . . 207
+
+ The Palace at Ferrara . . . 228
+
+ Verona . . . 229
+
+ Peasants of the Abruzzos . . . 258
+
+ Naples . . . 300
+
+ Capri, seen from Massa Lubrense . . . 302
+
+ Amalfi . . . 304
+
+ La Valetta, Malta . . . 337
+
+ Peasants of Toledo, Castile . . . 390
+
+ Roman Bridge at Alcántara . . . 391
+
+ Gorge de los Gaitanes, Defile of Guadalhorce . . . 399
+
+ Peasants of Córdova, Andalusia . . . 406
+
+ Gibraltar, as seen from the “Lines” . . . 414
+
+ Peasants of La Huerta, and Cigarrera of Valencia . . . 419
+
+ Women of Ibiza, Balearic Isles . . . 425
+
+ Monserrat, Catalonia . . . 431
+
+ Barcelona, seen from the Castle of Monjuich . . . 437
+
+ Gorges of Pancorbo . . . 440
+
+ Los Pasages . . . 447
+
+ Oporto . . . 478
+
+ Lisbon . . . 484
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.
+
+
+ EUROPE.
+
+ 1. The Natural Boundary of Europe . . . 7
+
+ 2. The Relief of Europe . . . 8
+
+ 3. Development of Coast-lines relatively to Area . . . 14
+
+ 4. The Isothermal Zone of Europe . . . 17
+
+
+ THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+ 5. The Depth of the Mediterranean . . . 24
+
+ 6. The Strait of Gibraltar . . . 26
+
+ 7. Principal Fisheries of the Mediterranean . . . 30
+
+ 8. Steamer Routes and Telegraphs . . . 34
+
+
+ GREECE.
+
+ 9. MAINOTE AND SPARTAN . . . 42
+
+ 10. Foreign Elements in the Population of Greece . . . 44
+
+ 11. MOUNT PARNASSUS AND DELPHI . . . 46
+
+ 12. Lower Acarnania . . . 49
+
+ 13. Thermopylæ . . . 50
+
+ 14. Lake Copais . . . 52
+
+ 15. THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS . . . 54
+
+ 16. Athens and its Long Walls . . . 55
+
+ 17. Ancient Athens . . . 56
+
+ 18. MOUNT TAYGETUS . . . 58
+
+ 19. Lakes Phenea and Stymphalus . . . 60
+
+ 20. The Plateau of Mantinea . . . 62
+
+ 21. Bifurcation of the Gastuni . . . 63
+
+ 22. The Valley of the Eurotas . . . 67
+
+ 23. Euripus and Chalcis . . . 70
+
+ 24. Nea Kaimeni . . . 72
+
+ 25. CORFU . . . 76
+
+ 26. The Channel of Santa Maura . . . 77
+
+ 27. Argostoli . . . 79
+
+
+ TURKEY IN EUROPE.
+
+ 28. THE GORGE OF HAGIO RUMELI . . . 91
+
+ 29. Crete, or Candia . . . 93
+
+ 30. The Ægean Sea . . . 95
+
+ 31. Geological Map of the Peninsula of Constantinople . . . 99
+
+ 32. The Hellespont, or Dardanelles . . . 105
+
+ 33. Mount Athos . . . 108
+
+ 34. MOUNT OLYMPUS . . . 110
+
+ 35. Mount Olympus and the Valley of Tempe . . . 111
+
+ 36. Southern Epirus . . . 117
+
+ 37. Subterranean Beds of the Affluents of the Narenta . . . 128
+
+ 38. Mount Vitosh . . . 132
+
+ 39. Delta of the Danube . . . 137
+
+ 40. Comparative Discharge of the Mouths of the Danube . . . 138
+
+ 41. Commercial Highways converging upon Constantinople . . . 150
+
+ 42. The Turkish Empire . . . 151
+
+
+ RUMANIA.
+
+ 43. The Rumanians . . . 156
+
+ 44. The Rivers Shil and Olto . . . 158
+
+ 45. The Danube and Yalomitza . . . 161
+
+ 46. Ethnological Map of Moldavian Bessarabia . . . 164
+
+ 47. BUCHAREST . . . 169
+
+
+ SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO.
+
+ 48. Confluence of the Danube and Save . . . 174
+
+ 49. Montenegro and the Lake of Skodra . . . 180
+
+
+ ITALY.
+
+ 50. Rome and the Roman Empire . . . 186
+
+ 51. MONTE VISO . . . 189
+
+ 52. Grand Paradis . . . 191
+
+ 53. Plain of Débris between the Alps and Apennines . . . 192
+
+ 54. Slope of the Valley of the Po . . . 193
+
+ 55. Mud Volcanoes of the Northern Apennines . . . 194
+
+ 56. Ancient Glaciers of the Alps . . . 195
+
+ 57. Serra of Ivrea and Ancient Glacier Lakes of the Dora . . . 196
+
+ 58. Ancient Lakes of Verbano . . . 197
+
+ 59. Lake Como . . . 198
+
+ 60–62. Sections of Lake Como . . . 199
+
+ 63. VILLA SERBELLONI . . . 201
+
+ 64. Beech and Pine Woods of Ravenna . . . 203
+
+ 65. Shingle Beds of the Tagliamento, &c. . . . 205
+
+ 66. Old Bed of the Piave . . . 206
+
+ 67. Lagoons of Venice . . . 207
+
+ 68. Colonies of the Roman Veterans . . . 209
+
+ 69. The Po between Piacenza and Cremona . . . 211
+
+ 70. German Communes of Northern Italy . . . 216
+
+ 71. MONTE ROSA . . . 217
+
+ 72. The Lagoons of Comacchio . . . 220
+
+ 73. The Fisheries of Comacchio . . . 221
+
+ 74. Mouth of the Adige Valley . . . 223
+
+ 75. The Passages over the Alps . . . 224
+
+ 76. The Lakes and Canals of Mantua . . . 227
+
+ 77. Palmanova . . . 229
+
+ 78. Junction of the Alps and Apennines . . . 231
+
+ 79. Genoa and its Suburbs . . . 234
+
+ 80. GENOA . . . 235
+
+ 81. The Gulf of Spezia . . . 237
+
+ 82. THE GOLFOLINO OF THE ARNO . . . 240
+
+ 83. Defiles of the Arno . . . 241
+
+ 84. Monte Argentaro . . . 243
+
+ 85. Val di Chiana . . . 244
+
+ 86. The Lake of Bientina . . . 245
+
+ 87. The Malarial Regions . . . 247
+
+ 88. FLORENCE . . . 252
+
+ 89. The Harbour of Leghorn . . . 255
+
+ 90. The Lake of Bolsena . . . 260
+
+ 91. La Montagna d’Albano . . . 261
+
+ 92. Ancient Lake of Fucino . . . 263
+
+ 93. Lake of Trasimeno . . . 264
+
+ 94. CAMPAGNA OF ROME . . . 265
+
+ 95. Pontine Marshes . . . 267
+
+ 96. Ancient Lakes of the Tiber and Topino . . . 269
+
+ 97. CASCADES OF TERNI . . . 270
+
+ 98. The Delta of the Tiber . . . 271
+
+ 99. PEASANTS OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA . . . 272
+
+ 100. ROME . . . 276
+
+ 101. The Hills of Rome . . . 278
+
+ 102. Civita Vecchia . . . 281
+
+ 103. Valleys of Erosion on the Western Slope of the Apennines . . . 283
+
+ 104. Rimini and San Marino . . . 285
+
+ 105. Monte Gargano . . . 287
+
+ 106. Ashes of the Campania . . . 289
+
+ 107. ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS . . . 292
+
+ 108. Educational Map of Italy . . . 297
+
+ 109. Pompeii . . . 301
+
+ 110. The Marshes of Salpi . . . 305
+
+ 111. Harbour of Brindisi in 1871 . . . 307
+
+ 112. Harbour of Taranto . . . 308
+
+ 113. Strait of Messina . . . 310
+
+ 114. Profile of Mount Etna . . . 311
+
+ 115. Lava Stream of Catania . . . 313
+
+ 116. Subsidiary Cones of Mount Etna . . . 314
+
+ 117. The Maccalubas and Girgenti . . . 317
+
+ 118. PALERMO AND MONTE PELLEGRINO . . . 324
+
+ 119. Trapani and Marsala . . . 326
+
+ 120. Syracuse . . . 328
+
+ 121. TEMPLE OF CONCORD AT GIRGENTI . . . 329
+
+ 122. The Central Portion of the Æolian Islands . . . 332
+
+ 123. The Mediterranean to the South of Sicily . . . 334
+
+ 124. The Port of Malta . . . 336
+
+ 125. The Sea to the South of Sardinia . . . 339
+
+ 126. Strait of Bonifacio . . . 340
+
+ 127. La Giara . . . 345
+
+ 128. District of Iglesias . . . 348
+
+ 129. CAGLIARI . . . 350
+
+ 130. Port of Terranova . . . 351
+
+ 131. Navigation of Italy . . . 355
+
+ 132. Commercial Routes of Italy . . . 356
+
+ 133. Submarine Plateau between Corsica and Tuscany . . . 364
+
+ 134. Profile of the Road from Ajaccio to Bastia . . . 365
+
+ 135. BASTIA . . . 368
+
+
+ SPAIN.
+
+ 136. Table-lands of Iberian Peninsula . . . 371
+
+ 137. Dehesas near Madrid . . . 375
+
+ 138. Density of Population . . . 376
+
+ 139. Profile of Railway from Bayonne to Cádiz . . . 379
+
+ 140. Sierras de Grédos and de Gata . . . 380
+
+ 141. DEFILE OF THE TAJO . . . 382
+
+ 142. Steppes of New Castile . . . 384
+
+ 143. Salamanca . . . 388
+
+ 144. THE ALCAZAR OF SEGOVIA . . . 389
+
+ 145. TOLEDO . . . 390
+
+ 146. Madrid and its Environs . . . 392
+
+ 147. Aranjuez . . . 394
+
+ 148. Basins of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir . . . 395
+
+ 149. THE PASS OF DESPEÑAPERROS . . . 396
+
+ 150. THE SIERRA NEVADA . . . 397
+
+ 151. The Mouth of the Guadalquivir . . . 399
+
+ 152. The Steppes of Ecija . . . 402
+
+ 153. Zones of Vegetation on the Coast of Andalusia . . . 403
+
+ 154. The Mines of Huelva . . . 406
+
+ 155. THE ALHAMBRA . . . 408
+
+ 156. Cádiz and its Roadstead . . . 411
+
+ 157. Gibraltar . . . 413
+
+ 158. Steppes of Múrcia . . . 416
+
+ 159. THE PALM GROVE OF ELCHE . . . 418
+
+ 160. The Palm Grove of Elche and the Huertas of Orihuela . . . 419
+
+ 161. RUINS OF THE DYKE ABOVE LORCA . . . 420
+
+ 162. PEASANTS OF MURCIA . . . 421
+
+ 163. The Harbour of Cartagena . . . 423
+
+ 164. The Gráo de Valencia . . . 424
+
+ 165. The Balearic Islands . . . 426
+
+ 166. VIEW OF IBIZA . . . 427
+
+ 167. The Pytiuses . . . 428
+
+ 168. Port Mahon . . . 430
+
+ 169. The Delta of the Ebro . . . 435
+
+ 170. The Steppes of Aragon . . . 436
+
+ 171. The Environs of Barcelona . . . 440
+
+ 172. The Sand-banks of Mataró . . . 441
+
+ 173. Andorra . . . 443
+
+ 174. Jaizquibel . . . 445
+
+ 175. Azcoitia and Azpeitia . . . 447
+
+ 176. The Environs of Bilbao . . . 449
+
+ 177. St. Sebastian . . . 450
+
+ 178. ST. SEBASTIAN . . . 451
+
+ 179. Guetaria . . . 452
+
+ 180. Guernica . . . 453
+
+ 181. Pass of Reinosa . . . 454
+
+ 182. Peñas de Europa . . . 456
+
+ 183. Rias of La Coruña and Ferrol . . . 458
+
+ 184. Santoña and Santander . . . 460
+
+ 185. Oviedo and Gijon . . . 462
+
+ 186. TOWER OF HERCULES . . . 463
+
+ 187. Ria de Vigo . . . 464
+
+ 188. Railroads of the Iberian Peninsula . . . 465
+
+ 189. Foreign Commerce of the Iberian Peninsula . . . 466
+
+ 190. Diagram exhibiting the Extent of the Castilian Language . . . 467
+
+
+ PORTUGAL.
+
+ 191. Rainfall of the Iberian Peninsula . . . 470
+
+ 192. PORTUGUESE TYPES (Peasants) . . . 472
+
+ 193. The Valley of the Limia, or Lima . . . 475
+
+ 194. Dunes of Avéiro . . . 476
+
+ 195. Oporto and the Paiz do Vinho . . . 478
+
+ 196. São João da Foz and the Mouth of the Dóuro . . . 480
+
+ 197. COIMBRA . . . 482
+
+ 198. The Estuary of the Tejo (Tagus) . . . 483
+
+ 199. Peniche and the Berlingas . . . 485
+
+ 200. Mouth of the Tejo . . . 486
+
+ 201. Zones of Vegetation in Portugal . . . 488
+
+ 202. CASTLE OF PENHA DE CINTRA . . . 489
+
+ 203. MONASTERY OF THE KNIGHTS OF CHRIST AT THOMAR . . . 491
+
+ 204. Estuary of the Sado . . . 492
+
+ 205. Serra de Monchique and Promontory of Sagres . . . 493
+
+ 206. Geology of Algarve . . . 494
+
+ 207. Faro and Tavira . . . 496
+
+ 208. Geographical Extent of the Portuguese Language . . . 497
+
+ 209. Telegraph from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro . . . 498
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{1}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS.
+
+INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.[1]
+
+
+Our earth is but as an atom in space, a star amongst stars. Yet, to us
+who inhabit it, it is still without bounds, as it was in the time of
+our barbarian ancestors. Nor can we foresee the period when the whole
+of its surface will be known to us. We have been taught by astronomers
+and geodesists that our planet is a sphere flattened at the poles, and
+physical geographers and meteorologists have applied their powers of
+inductive reasoning to establish theories on the direction of the winds
+and ocean currents within the polar regions. But hitherto no explorer
+has succeeded in reaching the extremities of our earth, and no one can
+tell whether land or sea extends beyond those icy barriers which have
+frustrated our most determined efforts. Thanks to the struggles of
+indomitable seamen, the pride of our race, the area of the mysterious
+regions around the north pole has been reduced to something like the
+hundredth part of the earth’s surface, but in the south there still
+remains an unknown region of such vast extent, that the moon, were she
+to drop upon our planet, might disappear within it without coming into
+contact with any part of the earth’s surface already known to us.
+
+And the polar regions, which present so many natural obstacles to
+our explorers, are not the only portions of the earth not yet known
+to men of science. It may be humiliating to our pride as men, but we
+feel constrained to admit that among the countries not yet known to
+us there are some, accessible enough as far as natural obstacles are
+concerned, but closed against us by our fellow-men ! There are peoples
+in this world, dwelling in towns, obeying laws, and having customs
+comparatively polished, but who choose to live in seclusion, and are
+as little known to us as if they were the inhabitants of some other
+planet. Their frontiers are closed by war and its horrors, by the
+practice of slavery, by religious {2} fanaticism, and even commercial
+jealousy. We have heard of some of these peoples by vague report,
+but there are others concerning whom we absolutely know nothing. And
+thus it happens that in this age of steam, of the printing press, of
+incessant and feverish activity, we still know nothing, or very little,
+of the centre of Africa, of a portion of Australia, of the interior of
+that fine and no doubt most fertile island of New Guinea, and of vast
+table-lands in the centre of Asia. Nay, even the country which most men
+of learning love to look upon as the cradle of our Aryan ancestors is
+known to us but very imperfectly.
+
+As regards most countries which have been visited by travellers, and
+figure more or less correctly upon our maps, a great amount of further
+research is required before our knowledge of their geography can be
+called complete. Years will pass ere the erroneous and contradictory
+statements of our explorers concerning them have been set right. A
+prodigious amount of labour must be performed before their climate,
+their hydrography, their plants and animals, can be thoroughly known
+to us. Minute and systematic researches have to be conducted to
+elucidate the slow changes in the aspects and physical phenomena
+of many countries. The greatest caution will have to be exercised
+in distinguishing between changes due to the spontaneous action of
+natural causes and those brought about by the hand of man. And all this
+knowledge we must acquire before we can boast that we know the earth,
+and all about it !
+
+Nor is this all. By a natural bent of our mind, all our studies are
+carried on with reference to Man as the centre of all things. A
+knowledge of our planet is, therefore, imperfect as long as it is not
+joined to a knowledge of the various races of man which inhabit it. The
+earth which man treads is but imperfectly known, man himself even less
+so. The first origin of races is shrouded in absolute darkness, and the
+most learned disagree with reference to the descent, the amalgamation,
+the original seats, and migratory stages of most peoples and tribes.
+What do men owe to their surroundings? What to the original seats of
+their ancestors, to inborn instincts of race, to a blending with alien
+races, or to influences and traditions brought to bear upon them from
+beyond? We hardly know, and as yet only a few rays of light begin to
+penetrate this darkness. Unfortunately our erroneous views on many of
+these questions are not due solely to ignorance. Contending passions
+and instinctive national hatreds too frequently obscure our judgment,
+and we see man as he is not. The far-off savages assume the shape
+of dim phantoms, and our near neighbours and rivals in the arts of
+civilisation appear repulsive and deformed of feature. If we would see
+them as they really are, we must get rid of all our prejudices, and of
+those feelings of contempt, hatred, and passion which still set nation
+against nation. Our forefathers, in their wisdom, said that the most
+difficult thing of all was to know one’s self. Surely a comprehensive
+study of mankind is more difficult still.
+
+We are thus not in a position at present to furnish a complete account
+of the earth and its inhabitants. The accomplishment of this task
+we must leave to the future, when fellow-workers from all quarters
+of the globe will meet to write the grand book embodying the sum of
+human knowledge. For the present an {3} individual author must rest
+content with giving a succinct account of the Earth, in which the space
+occupied by each country shall be proportionate to its importance, and
+to the knowledge we possess with respect to it.
+
+It is natural, perhaps, that each nation should imagine that in such a
+description it ought to be accorded the foremost place. Every barbarous
+tribe, however small, imagines itself to occupy the very centre of the
+earth, and to be the most perfect representative of the human race.
+Its language never fails to bear witness to this naïve illusion, born
+of the very narrowness of its horizon. The river which irrigates its
+fields is called the “Father of Waters,” the mountain which shelters
+its camp the “Navel,” or “Centre of the Earth;” and the names by which
+primitive races designate their neighbours are terms of contempt,
+for they look down upon them as their inferiors. To them they are
+“mute,” “deaf,” “unclean,” “imbecile,” “monstrous,” or “demoniac.”
+The Chinese, one of the most remarkable peoples in some respects, and
+certainly the most important of all as far as mere numbers go, are not
+content with having bestowed upon their country the epithet of “Flower
+of the Centre,” but are so fully convinced of its superiority as to
+have fallen into the mistake (very excusable under the circumstances)
+of deeming themselves to be the “Sons of Heaven.” As to the nations
+thinly scattered around the borders of their “Celestial Empire,” they
+know them merely as “dogs,” “swine,” “demons,” and “savages.” Or, more
+disdainful still, they designate them by the four cardinal points of
+the compass, and speak of the “unclean” tribes of the west, the north,
+the east, and the south.
+
+If in our description of the Earth we accord the first place to
+civilised Europe, it is not because of a prejudice similar to that of
+the Chinese. No ! this place belongs to Europe as a matter of right.
+Europe as yet is the only continent the whole of whose surface has been
+scientifically explored. It possesses a map approximately correct, and
+its material resources are almost fully known to us. Its population
+is not as dense as that of India or of China, but it nevertheless
+contains about one-fourth of the total population of the globe; and
+its inhabitants, whatever their failings and vices, or their state of
+barbarism in some respects, still impel the rest of mankind as regards
+material and mental progress. Europe, for twenty-five centuries,
+has been the focus whence radiated Arts, Sciences, and Thought. Nor
+have those hardy colonists who carried their European languages and
+customs beyond the sea succeeded hitherto in giving to the New World
+an importance equal to that of “little” Europe, in spite of the virgin
+soil and vast area which gave them scope for unlimited expansion.
+
+Our American rivals may be more active and enterprising than we
+are—they certainly are not cumbered to the same extent by the
+traditions and inheritances of feudal times—but they are as yet not
+sufficiently numerous to compete with us as regards the totality of
+work done. They have scarcely been able hitherto to ascertain the
+material resources of the country in which they have made their home.
+“Old Europe,” where every clod of earth has its history, where every
+man is the heir of a hundred successive generations, therefore still
+maintains the first place, and a comparative study of nations justifies
+us in the belief that its moral {4} ascendancy and industrial
+preponderance will remain with it for many years to come. At the same
+time, we must not shut our eyes to the fact that equality will obtain
+in the end, not only between America and Europe, but also between
+these two and the other quarters of the world. The intermingling of
+nations, migrations which have assumed prodigious proportions, and
+the increasing facilities of intercourse must in the end lead to an
+equilibrium of population being established throughout the world.
+Then will each country add its proper share to the wealth of mankind,
+and what we call civilisation will have “its centre everywhere, its
+periphery nowhere.”
+
+The central geographical position of Europe has undoubtedly exercised
+a most favourable influence upon the progress of the nations
+inhabiting it. The superiority of the Europeans is certainly not
+due to the inherent virtues of the races from which they sprang, as
+is vainly imagined by some, for in other parts of the ancient world
+these same races have exhibited far less creative genius. To the
+happy conditions of soil, climate, configuration, and geographical
+position the inhabitants of Europe owe the honour of having been the
+first to obtain a knowledge of the earth in its entirety, and to have
+remained for so long a period at the head of mankind. Historical
+geographers are, therefore, right when they insist upon the influence
+which the configuration of a country exercises upon the nations
+who inhabit it. The extent of table-lands, the heights of mountain
+ranges, the direction and volume of rivers, the vicinity of the ocean,
+the indentation of the coast-line, the temperature of the air, the
+abundance or rarity of rain, and the correlations between soil, air,
+and water—all these are pregnant with effects, and explain much of
+the character and mode of life of primitive nations. They account for
+most of the contrasts existing between nations subject to different
+conditions, and point out the natural highways of the globe which
+nations are constrained to follow in their migrations or warlike
+expeditions.
+
+At the same time, we must bear in mind that the influence exercised
+upon the history of mankind by the general configuration of land and
+sea, or any special features of the former, is subject to change, and
+depends essentially upon the stage of culture at which nations have
+arrived. Geography, strictly speaking, confines itself to a description
+of the earth’s surface, and exhibits the various nations in a passive
+attitude as it were, whilst Historical Geography and statistics show
+man engaged in the struggle for existence, and striving to obtain the
+mastery over his surroundings. A river, which to an uncultured tribe
+would constitute an insurmountable barrier, becomes a commercial
+high-road to a tribe further advanced in culture, and in process of
+time it may be converted into a mere canal of irrigation, the course
+of which is regulated by man. A mountain range frequented by shepherds
+and huntsmen, and forming a barrier between nations, may attract, in a
+more civilised epoch, the miner and the manufacturer, and in course of
+time will even cease to be an obstacle, as roads will traverse it in
+all directions. Many a creek of the sea, which afforded shelter of yore
+to the small vessels of our ancestors, is deserted now, whilst the open
+bays, which vessels dreaded formerly, have been protected by enormous
+breakwaters, and have become the resort of our largest ships. {5}
+
+Innumerable changes such as these have been effected by man in all
+parts of the world, and they have revolutionised the correlations
+existing between man and the land he lives in. The configuration and
+height of mountains and table-lands, the indentation of the coasts,
+the disposition of islands and archipelagos, and the extent of the
+ocean—these all lose their relative influence upon the history of
+nations in proportion as the latter emancipate themselves and become
+free agents. Though subject to the condition of his dwelling-place, man
+may modify it to suit his own purpose; he may overcome nature as it
+were, and convert the energies of the earth into domesticated forces.
+As an instance we may point to the elevated table-lands of Central
+Asia, which now separate the countries and peninsulas surrounding them,
+but which, when they shall have become the seats of human industry,
+will convert Asia into a real geographical unit, which at present
+it is only in appearance. Massy and ponderous Africa, monotonous
+Australia, and Southern America with its forests and waterfalls, will
+be put on something like an equality with Europe, whenever roads of
+commerce shall cross them in all directions, bridging their rivers,
+and traversing their deserts and mountain ranges. The advantages, on
+the other hand, which Europe derives from its backbone of mountains,
+its radiating rivers, the contours of its coasts, and its generally
+well-balanced outline are not as great now as they were when man was
+dependent exclusively upon the resources furnished by nature.
+
+This gradual change in the historical importance of the configuration
+of the land is a fact of capital importance which must be borne in mind
+if we would understand the general geography of Europe. In studying
+SPACE we must take account of another element of equal value—TIME.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{5}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+EUROPE.
+
+
+I.—GEOGRAPHICAL IMPORTANCE.
+
+In the geography of the world the first place is claimed for Europe,
+not because of a prejudice like that of the Chinese, but as a matter of
+right. Europe as yet is the only continent the whole of whose surface
+has been scientifically explored. It possesses a map approximately
+correct, and its material resources are almost fully known to us.
+Its population is not as dense as that of India or of China, but it
+nevertheless contains about one-fourth of the total population of the
+globe; and its inhabitants, whatever their failings and vices, or their
+state of barbarism in some respects, still impel the rest of mankind
+as regards material and mental progress. Europe, for twenty-five
+centuries, has been the focus whence radiated Arts, Sciences, and
+Thought. Nor have those hardy colonists who carried their European
+languages and customs beyond the sea succeeded hitherto in giving to
+the New World an importance equal to that of “little” Europe, in spite
+of the virgin soil and vast area which gave them scope for unlimited
+expansion.
+
+“Old Europe,” where every clod of earth has its history, where every
+man is the heir of a hundred successive generations, therefore still
+maintains the first place, and a comparative study of nations justifies
+us in the belief that its moral ascendancy and industrial preponderance
+will remain with it for many years to come. At the same time, we must
+not shut our eyes to the fact that equality will obtain in the end, not
+only between America and Europe, but also between these two and the
+other quarters of the world. The intermingling of nations, migrations
+which have assumed prodigious proportions, and the increasing
+facilities of intercourse, must in the end lead to an equilibrium of
+population throughout the world. Then will each country add its proper
+share to the wealth of mankind, and what we call civilisation will have
+“its centre everywhere, its periphery nowhere.”
+
+The central geographical position of Europe has undoubtedly exercised a
+most favourable influence upon the progress of the nations inhabiting
+it. The superiority of the Europeans is certainly not due to the
+inherent virtues of the races from which they sprang, as is vainly
+imagined by some, for in other parts of {6} the ancient world
+these same races have exhibited far less creative genius. To the
+happy conditions of soil, climate, configuration, and geographical
+position, the inhabitants of Europe owe the honour of having been
+the first to obtain a knowledge of the earth in its entirety, and to
+have remained for so long a period at the head of mankind. Historical
+geographers are, therefore, right when they insist upon the influence
+which the configuration of a country exercises upon the nations
+who inhabit it. The extent of table-lands, the heights of mountain
+ranges, the direction and volume of rivers, the vicinity of the ocean,
+the indentation of the coast-line, the temperature of the air, the
+abundance or rarity of rain, and the correlations between soil, air,
+and water—all these are pregnant with effects, and explain much of
+the character and mode of life of primitive nations. They account for
+most of the contrasts existing between nations subject to different
+conditions, and point out the natural highways of the globe which
+nations are constrained to follow in their migrations or warlike
+expeditions.
+
+
+II.—EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES.
+
+The dwellers on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea must
+have learnt, in the course of their first warlike and commercial
+expeditions, to distinguish between the great continents; for within
+the nucleus of the ancient world Africa is attached to Asia by a narrow
+band of arid sand, and Europe separated from Asia Minor by seas and
+channels difficult to navigate on account of dangerous currents. The
+division of the known world into three distinct parts could not fail
+to impress itself upon the minds of those infant nations; and when
+the Greeks had attained a state of maturity, and historical records
+took the place of myths and oral traditions, the name of Europe had
+probably been transmitted through a long series of generations.
+Herodotus naïvely admits that no mortal could ever hope to find out
+the true meaning of this name, bequeathed to us by our forefathers;
+but this has not deterred our modern men of learning from attempting
+to explain it. Some amongst them consider that it was applied at first
+to Thrace with its “large plains,” and subsequently extended to the
+whole of Europe; others derive it from one of the surnames of Zeus
+with the “large eyes,” the ancient god of the Sun, specially charged
+with the protection of the continent. Some etymologists believe that
+Europe was designated thus by the Phœnicians, as being the country of
+“white men.” We consider it, however, to be far more probable that its
+name originally meant simply “the West,” as contrasted with Asia, “the
+East,” or “country of the rising sun.” It is thus that Italy first, and
+then Spain, bore the name of Hesperia; that Western Africa received
+the name of El Maghreb from the Mohammedans, and the plains beyond the
+Mississippi became known in our own times as the “Far West.”
+
+But, whatever may be the original meaning of its name, Europe, in all
+the myths of the ancients, is described as a Daughter of Asia. The
+Phœnicians were the first to explore the shores of Europe, and to bring
+its inhabitants into contact with those of the East. When the Daughter
+had become the superior of her {7} Mother in civilisation, and Greek
+voyagers were following up the explorations begun by the mariners
+of Tyre, all the known countries to the north of the Mediterranean
+were looked upon as dependencies of Europe, and that name, which was
+originally confined to the Thraco-Hellenic peninsula, was made to
+include, in course of time, Italy, Spain, the countries of the Gauls,
+and the hyperborean regions beyond the Alps and the Danube. Strabo,
+to whom were known already the most varied and fruitful portions
+of Europe, extends it eastward as far as the Palus Mæotis and the
+Tanais.[2]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.—THE NATURAL BOUNDARY OF EUROPE.
+
+Scale 1 : 21,800,000.
+
+Erhard.
+
+The zone of depression extending from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Obi
+is shaded. The darker shading to the north of the Caspian shows the
+area depressed below the level of the Mediterranean.]
+
+{8}
+
+Since that epoch the limits between Europe and Asia have been shifted
+by geographers still further to the east. They are, however, more or
+less conventional, for Europe, though bounded on three sides by the
+ocean, is in reality but a peninsula of Asia. At the same time, the
+contrasts between these two parts of the world fully justify scientific
+men in dividing them into two continental masses. But where is the
+true line of separation between them? Map-makers generally adopt the
+political boundaries which it has pleased the Russian Government to
+draw between its vast European and Asiatic territories, and others
+adopt the summits of the Ural Mountains and of the Caucasus as the
+boundary between the two continents; and although, at the first glance,
+this delineation appears more reasonable than the former, it is in
+reality no less absurd. The two slopes of a mountain chain can never be
+assigned to different formations, and they are generally inhabited by
+men of the same race. The true line of separation between Europe and
+Asia does not consist of mountains at all, but, on the contrary, of a
+series of depressions, in former times covered by a channel of the sea
+which united the Mediterranean with the Arctic Ocean. The steppes of
+the Manych, between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and to the north of
+the Caucasus, are still covered in part with salt swamps. The Caspian
+itself, as well as Lake Aral and the other lakes which we meet with
+in the direction of the Gulf of Obi, are the remains of this ancient
+arm of the sea, and the intermediate regions still bear the traces of
+having been an ancient sea-bed.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.—THE RELIEF OF EUROPE.
+
+According to Houzeau, Berghaus, Kiepert, Olsen, and others. Scale
+1 : 60,000,000.]
+
+There can be no doubt that vast changes have taken place in the
+configuration {9} of Europe, not only during more ancient geological
+periods, but also within comparatively recent times. We have already
+seen that a vast arm of the sea formerly separated Europe from Asia; it
+is equally certain that there was a time when it was joined to Anatolia
+by an isthmus, which has since been converted into the Bosphorus of
+Constantinople; Spain was joined to Africa until the waters of the
+Atlantic invaded the Mediterranean; Sicily was probably connected
+with Mauritania; and the British Islands once formed a portion of the
+mainland. The erosion of the sea, as well as upheavals and subsidences
+of land, has effected, and still effect, changes in the contours of
+our coasts. Numerous soundings in the seas washing Western Europe have
+revealed the existence of a submarine plateau, which, from a geological
+point of view, must be looked upon as forming an integral portion of
+our continent. Bounded by abyssal depths of thousands of fathoms, and
+submerged one hundred fathoms at most below the waters of the ocean,
+this pedestal of France and the British Islands must be looked upon
+as the foundation of an ancient continent, destroyed by the incessant
+action of the waves. If the shallow portions of the ocean, as well as
+those of the Mediterranean Sea, were to be added to Europe, its area
+would be increased to the extent of one-fourth, but it would lose, at
+the same time, that wealth in peninsulas which has secured to Europe
+its historical superiority over the other continents.
+
+If we supposed Europe to subside to the extent of one hundred fathoms,
+its area would be reduced to the compass of one-half. The ocean would
+again cover her low plains, most of which are ancient sea-beds, and
+there would remain above the waters merely a skeleton of plateaux and
+mountain ranges, far more extensively indented by bays and fringed by
+peninsulas than are the coasts existing at the present time. The whole
+of Western and Southern Europe would be converted into a huge island,
+separated by a wide arm of the sea from the plains of interior Russia.
+From an historical as well as a geological point of view, this huge
+island is the true Europe. Russia is not only half Asiatic on account
+of its extremes of temperature, and the aspect of its monotonous
+plains and interminable steppes, but is likewise intimately linked
+with Asia as regards its inhabitants and its historical development.
+Russia can hardly be said to have belonged to Europe for more than a
+hundred years. It was in maritime and mountainous Europe, with its
+islands, peninsulas, and valleys, its varied features and unexpected
+contrasts, that modern civilisation arose, the result of innumerable
+local civilisations, happily united into a single current. And, as the
+rivers descending from the mountains cover the plains at their foot
+with fertile soil, so has the progress accomplished in this centre of
+enlightenment gradually spread over the other continents to the very
+extremities of the earth.
+
+
+III.—NATURAL DIVISIONS AND MOUNTAINS.
+
+The Europe alluded to includes France, Germany, England, and the three
+Mediterranean peninsulas, and constitutes several natural divisions.
+The British Islands form one of these. The Iberian peninsula is
+separated scarcely less {10} distinctly from the remainder of Europe,
+for between it and France rises a most formidable range of mountains,
+the most difficult to cross in all Europe; and immediately to the north
+of it a depression, nowhere exceeding a height of 650 feet, extends
+from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The geographical unity
+of Europe is represented to the full extent only in the system of the
+Alps, and in the mountains of France, Germany, Italy, and the Balkan
+peninsula which are connected with it. It is there we must seek the
+framework of continental Europe.
+
+The Alps, whose ancient Celtic name probably refers to the whiteness
+of their snowy summits, stretch in an immense curve, more than 600
+miles in length, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the plains
+of the Danube. They consist in reality of more than thirty mountain
+masses, representing as many geological groups, and joined to each
+other by elevated passes; but their rocks, whether they be granite,
+slate, sandstone, or limestone, form one continuous rampart rising
+above the plains. In former ages the Alps were higher than they are
+now. This is proved by an examination of their detritus and of the
+strata disintegrated by natural agencies. But, whatever the extent of
+detrition, they still rise in hundreds of summits beyond the line of
+perennial snow, and vast rivers of ice descend from them into every
+upland valley. Looked at from the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy,
+these glaciers and snow-fields present the appearance of sparkling
+diadems encircling the mountain summits.
+
+In the eastern portion of the Alpine system—that is to say, between
+the Mediterranean and Mont Blanc, the culminating point of Europe—the
+average height of the mountain groups gradually increases from 6,500
+to more than 13,000 feet. To the east of Mont Blanc the Alps change
+in direction, and, beyond the vast citadels represented by Monte Rosa
+and the Bernese Oberland, they gradually decrease in height. To the
+east of Switzerland no summit exceeds a height of 13,000 feet, but
+this loss in elevation is fully made up by increase of breadth. And
+whilst the general direction of the principal axis of the Alps remains
+north-easterly, very considerable mountain chains, far exceeding the
+central mass in breadth, are thrown off towards the north, the east,
+and the south-east. A line drawn across the true Alps from Vienna has a
+length of no less than 250 miles.
+
+In thus spreading out, the Alps lose their character and aspect. We
+no longer meet with grand mountain masses, glaciers, and snow-fields.
+Towards the north they gradually sink down into the valley of the
+Danube; towards the south they branch out into secondary chains,
+resting upon the arched plateau of Turkey. But, in spite of the vast
+contrasts offered by the true Alps and the mountains of Montenegro,
+the Hæmus, the Rhodope, and the Pindus, all these mountain chains
+nevertheless belong to the same orographical system. The whole of the
+Balkan peninsula must be looked upon as a natural dependency of the
+Alps; and the same applies to Italy, for the chain of the Apennines is
+nothing but a continuation of the Maritime Alps, and we hardly know
+where to draw the line of separation between them. The Carpathians,
+too, must be included among the {11} mountain chains forming part of
+the system of the Alps. They have been gradually separated from them
+through the continuous action of water, but there can be no doubt
+that, in former times, the semicircle of mountains known as the Little
+Carpathians, the Beskids, the Tatra, the Great Carpathians, and the
+Transylvanian Alps was joined, on the one hand, to the Austrian Alps,
+and on the other to spurs descending from the Balkan. The Danube has
+forced its way through these mountain ramparts, but the passages, or
+“gates,” are narrow; they are strewn with rocks, and commanded by what
+remains of the ancient partition ranges.
+
+The configuration of the Alps, and of the labyrinthine mountain ranges
+branching off from them towards the east, could not fail to exercise a
+most powerful influence upon the history of Europe and of the entire
+world. The only high-roads known to barbarians are those traced out
+by nature herself, and they were consequently able to penetrate into
+Europe only by sea, or through the vast plains of the north. Having
+penetrated to the westward of the Black Sea, their progress was first
+stopped by the lakes and difficult swamps of the Danubian valley; and,
+when they had surmounted these obstacles, they found themselves face to
+face with a barrier of high mountains, whose intricate wooded valleys
+and declivities led up to the inaccessible regions of eternal snow.
+The Alps, the Balkan, and all the other advanced chains of the Alpine
+system constituted an advanced defensive barrier for Western Europe,
+and the conquering nomad tribes who threw themselves against it did so
+at the risk of destruction. Accustomed to the boundless horizon of the
+steppes, they did not venture to climb these steep hills—they turned
+to the northward, where the vast plains of Germania enabled successive
+swarms of immigrants to spread over the country with greater ease. And
+as to the invaders, whom blind rage of conquest impelled to engage in
+the defiles of these mountains, they found themselves caught as in a
+trap; and this accounts for the variety of nations, and of fragments of
+nations, whose presence has converted the countries of the Danube into
+a sort of ethnological chaos. And as the débris carried along by the
+current is deposited in the eddy of a river, so were these fragments of
+nearly every nation of the East accumulated in motley disorder in this
+corner of the Continent.
+
+To the south of this great mountain barrier the migrations between
+Europe and Asia could take place only by sea—a high-road open to
+those nations alone who were sufficiently advanced in civilisation to
+have acquired the art of building ships. Whether pirates, merchants,
+or warriors, they had raised themselves long ago above a state of
+primitive barbarism, and even their voyages of conquest added something
+to the stock of human knowledge. Moreover, owing to the difficulties
+of navigation, they migrated only in small bodies. At whatever point
+they settled they came into contact with populations of a different
+race from their own, and this intercourse gave birth to a number of
+local civilisations, each bearing its own stamp, and nowhere did their
+influence preponderate. Every island of the Archipelago, and every
+valley of ancient Hellas, differed from its neighbours as regards
+social condition, dialect, and customs, but they all remained Greek,
+in spite of the Phœnician and other influences to which they had been
+subjected. It is thus owing to the {12} configuration of the mountain
+chains and coast-lines that the civilisation which developed itself
+gradually in the Mediterranean countries to the south of the Alps
+was, upon the whole, more spontaneous in its nature, and offered more
+variety and greater contrasts, than the civilisation of the far less
+advanced nations of the north, who were moving from place to place on
+vast plains.
+
+The wide range of the Alps and of their advanced chains thus separated
+two distinct worlds, in which historical development went on at a
+different rate. At the same time, the separation between the two
+slopes of the Alpine system was by no means complete. Nowhere in the
+Alps do we meet with cold and uninhabited plateaux, as in the Andes
+and in Tibet, whose enormous extent forms almost insurmountable
+barriers. The Alpine masses are cut up everywhere into mountains and
+valleys, and the climate of the latter is sufficiently mild to enable
+man to exist in them. The mountaineers, who easily maintained their
+independence, owing to the protection extended to them by nature,
+first served as intermediaries between the peoples inhabiting the
+opposite lowlands. It was they who effected the rare exchanges of
+produce which took place between the North and South, and who opened
+the first commercial high-roads between the summits of the mountains.
+The direction of the valleys and the deeply cut mountain passes even
+then indicated the grand routes by which the Alps would be crossed, at
+a future period, for the purposes of commerce or of war. That portion
+of the Alps which lies between the mountain masses of Savoy and of
+the Mediterranean would naturally cease first to form an obstacle to
+military expeditions. The Alps there are of great height, it is true,
+but they are narrower than anywhere else; besides which, the climate on
+the two opposite slopes is similar, and assimilates the mode of life
+and the customs of the people dwelling there. Far more formidable, as a
+natural barrier, are the Alps to the north-east of Mont Blanc, for they
+constitute a climatic boundary.
+
+The other mountain ranges play but a secondary or local part in the
+history of Europe, when we compare them with the Alps. Still, the
+influence which they have exercised upon the destiny of nations is
+no less evident. The table-lands and snow-fields of the Scandinavian
+Alps form a wall of separation between Norwegians and Swedes. The
+quadrangular mountain fort of Bohemia, in the centre of Europe, which
+shelters the Chechians, is almost entirely enclosed by Germans, and
+resembles an island fretted by the waves of the ocean. The hills of
+Wales and of Scotland have afforded a shelter to the Celtic race
+against the encroachments of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans. The
+Bretons, in France, are indebted to their rocks and _landes_ for
+the fact of their not having yet become wholly French; whilst the
+table-land of Limousin, the hills of Auvergne and the Cevennes
+constitute the principal cause of the striking contrast which still
+exists between the inhabitants of Northern and of Southern France. The
+Pyrenees, next to the Alps, constitute the most formidable obstacle
+to the march of nations in Europe; they would have remained an
+insurmountable rampart down to our own time, were it not easy to pass
+round them by their extremities abutting upon the sea. {13}
+
+
+IV.—THE MARITIME REGIONS.
+
+The valleys which radiate in all directions from the great central
+masses of the Alps are admirably adapted for imparting to almost the
+whole of Europe a remarkable unity, whilst they offer, at the same
+time, an extreme variety of aspects and of physical conditions. The
+Po, the Rhone, the Rhine, and the Danube traverse countries having
+the most diverse climates, and yet they have their sources in the
+same mountain region, and the fertilising alluvium which they deposit
+in their valleys results from the disintegration of the same rocks.
+Minor valleys cut up the slopes of the Alps and of their dependent
+chains, and carry towards the sea the waters of the mountains and
+the triturated fragments of their rocks. Running waters are visible,
+wherever we cast our eyes. There are neither deserts, nor sterile
+plateaux, nor inland lakes and river basins such as we meet with in
+Africa and Asia. The rivers of Europe are not flooded as are those of
+certain portions of South America, which deluge half the country with
+water. On the contrary, in the scheme of her rivers Europe exhibits
+a certain degree of moderation which has favoured the work of the
+settler, and facilitated the rise of a local civilisation in each river
+basin. Moreover, although most rivers are sufficiently large to have
+retarded migration, they are not sufficiently so to have arrested it
+for any length of time. Even when roads and bridges did not exist,
+barbarian immigrants easily made their way from the shores of the Black
+Sea to those of the Atlantic.
+
+But Europe, in addition to the advantages due to its framework of
+mountains and the disposition of its river basins, enjoys the still
+greater advantage of possessing an indented coast-line. It is mainly
+the contours of its coasts which impart to Europe its double character
+of unity and diversity, which distinguish it amongst continents. It
+is “one” because of its great central mass, and “diversified” because
+of its numerous peninsulas and dependent islands. It is an organism,
+if we may say so, resembling a huge body furnished with limbs. Strabo
+compared Europe to a dragon. The geographers of the period of the
+revival of letters compared it to a crowned virgin, Spain being the
+head, France the heart, and England and Italy the hands, holding the
+sceptre and the orb. Russia, at that time hardly known, is made to do
+duty for the ample folds of the robe.
+
+The area of Europe is only half that of South America, and one-third
+of that of Africa, and yet the development of its coast-lines is
+superior to that of the two continents taken together. In proportion
+to its area the coasts of Europe have twice the extent of those of
+South America, Australia, and Africa; and although they are to a small
+extent inferior to those of North America, it must be borne in mind
+that the arctic coasts of the latter are ice-bound during the greater
+portion of the year. A glance at the subjoined diagrams will show that
+Europe, as compared with the two other continents washed by the Arctic
+Ocean, enjoys the immense advantage of possessing a coast-line almost
+wholly available for purposes of navigation, whilst a large portion
+of the coasts of Asia and America is altogether useless to man. And
+not only does the sea penetrate into the very heart of {14} temperate
+Europe, cutting it up into elongated peninsulas, but these peninsulas,
+too, are fringed with gulfs and miniature inland seas. The coasts
+of Greece, of Thessaly, and of Thrace are thus indented by bays and
+gulfs, penetrating far into the land; Italy and Spain likewise possess
+numerous bays and gulfs; and the peninsulas of Northern Europe, Jutland
+and Scandinavia, are cut up by the waters of the ocean into numerous
+secondary peninsulas.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.—DEVELOPMENT OF COAST-LINES RELATIVELY TO AREA.
+
+ Europe. Asia. Africa. N. America. S. America. Australia.
+ Total area, square miles 4,005,100 17,308,400 11,542,400 9,376,850 6,803,570 3,450,130
+ Mainland area, square miles 3,758,300 15,966,000 11,293,930 7,973,700 6,731,470 2,934,500
+ Development of coast-line, 18,600 34,110 16,480 30,890 16,390 10,570
+ miles
+ Accessible coasts 17,610 28,200 16,480 26,510 16,390 14,400
+ Ratio of the geometrical to 1 : 2·5 1 : 2·5 1 : 1·4 1 : 3·1 1 : 1·8 1 : 1·7
+ the actual contour
+
+ The shaded circles represent the various continents; the outer circle
+ represents the actual extent of coast-line. The blank space between
+ the two concentric circles represents graphically the difference
+ between the smallest possible or geometrical contour of a country
+ having the area of the respective continents, and the actual contour
+ as exhibited in the existing coast-lines. Europe, being in reality
+ only a peninsula of Asia, hardly admits of this comparison.]
+
+The islands of Europe must be looked upon as dependencies of that
+continent, for most of them are separated from it only by shallow seas.
+Candia and the islands scattered broadcast over the Ægean Sea, the
+Archipelagos of the Ionian Sea, and of Dalmatia, Sicily, Corsica and
+Sardinia, Elba, and the Baleares, are in reality but prolongations,
+or maritime out-stations, of neighbouring peninsulas. To the islands
+of Sealand and Fyen, at the entrance to the Baltic, Denmark owes {15}
+most of her commercial and political importance. Great Britain and
+Ireland, which actually formed a portion of the European continent in a
+past age, cannot be looked upon otherwise than as dependencies of it,
+although the isthmus which once joined them has been destroyed by the
+waters of the ocean. England has actually become the grand commercial
+emporium of Europe, and plays now the same part in the world’s commerce
+that Greece once played in that of the more restricted world of the
+Mediterranean.
+
+It is a remarkable fact that each of the European peninsulas should
+have enjoyed in turn a period of commercial preponderance. Greece, the
+“most noble individuality of the world of the ancients,” came first,
+and when at the height of her power governed the Mediterranean, which
+at that time meant nearly the whole universe. During the Middle Ages
+Amalfi, Genoa, and Venice became the commercial agents between Europe
+and the Indies. The discovery of a passage round the Cape and of
+America diverted the world’s commerce to Cadiz, Seville, and Lisbon, on
+the Iberian peninsula. Subsequently the merchants of the small Dutch
+Republic seized a portion of the heritage of Spain and Portugal, and
+the wealth of the entire world was floated into the harbours of their
+sea-bound islands and peninsulas. In our own days Great Britain, thanks
+to its favourable geographical position, in the very centre of great
+continental masses, and the energy of its people, has become the great
+mart of the world. London, the most populous city of the world, is
+also the great centre of attraction for the treasures of mankind; but
+there can be no doubt that sooner or later it will be supplanted, in
+consequence of the opening of new commercial high-roads, and changes in
+the political preponderance of nations. Perhaps some city of the United
+States will take the place of London in a future age, and thus the
+American belief in the westward march of civilisation will be verified;
+or we may possibly return to the East, and convert Constantinople or
+Cairo into the world’s emporium and centre of intercourse.
+
+But, whatever may happen in the future, the great changes which have
+taken place in the relative importance of the peninsulas and islands
+of Europe in the short span of twenty centuries, sufficiently prove
+that geographical features exercise a varying influence at different
+epochs. That which at one time was looked upon as a great natural
+advantage may become, in course of time, a serious disadvantage. Thus
+the numerous inlets and gulfs enclosed by mountain chains, which
+favoured the rise of the cities of Greece, and gave to Athens the
+dominion of the Mediterranean, now constitute as many obstacles to
+their connection with the existing system of European communications.
+That which in former times constituted the strength of the country
+has become its weakness. In primitive times, before man ventured upon
+the seas, these bays and gulfs formed insurmountable obstacles to the
+migration of nations; at a later date, when the art of navigation had
+been acquired, they became commercial high-roads, and were favourable
+to the development of civilisation; and at the present time they are
+again obstacles in the way of our road-builders and railway engineers.
+{16}
+
+
+V.—CLIMATE.
+
+The influence exercised by the relief of the land and the configuration
+of the coasts varies in different ages, but that of climate is
+permanent. In this respect Europe is the most favoured region of the
+earth, for during a cycle of unknown length it has enjoyed a climate at
+once the most temperate, the most equable, and the most healthy of all
+continents.
+
+Owing to the inland seas which penetrate far into the land, the whole
+of Europe is exposed to the modifying influence of the ocean. With
+the exception of Central Russia, no part of Europe is more than 400
+miles from the sea, and, as most of the mountains slope from the
+centre of the continent towards its circumference, the influence of
+the sea breezes is felt throughout. And thus continental Europe, in
+spite of its great extent, enjoys the advantages of an insular climate
+throughout, the winds passing over the ocean moderating the heat of
+summer and tempering the cold of winter.
+
+The continuous north-easterly movement of the waters of the Atlantic
+likewise has a favourable effect upon the climate of Europe. After
+having been heated by a tropical sun in the Gulf of Mexico, the
+gulf-stream issues through the Strait of Florida, and, spreading over
+the Atlantic, takes its course towards the coasts of Europe. This
+enormous mass of warm water, equal in volume to twenty million rivers
+as large as the Rhone, brings the warmth of southern latitudes to the
+western and northern shores of Europe. Its influence is felt not only
+in the maritime countries of Western Europe, but to some extent as far
+as the Caspian and the Ural Mountains.
+
+The currents of the air exercise as favourable an influence upon the
+climate of Europe as do those of the ocean. The south-westerly winds
+predominating on the coasts pass over the warm gulf-stream, and, on
+reaching Europe, they part with the heat stored up by them between
+the tropics. The north-westerly, northerly, and even north-easterly
+winds, which blow during a portion of the year, are less cold than
+might be expected, for they, too, have to cross the warm waters of
+the gulf-stream. And lastly, there is the Sahara, which elevates the
+temperature of a portion of Europe.
+
+The increase in temperature due to the combined influence of winds
+and ocean currents amounts to 40° 50°, and even 60°, if we compare
+Europe with other parts of the world lying under the same latitudes.
+Nowhere else, not even on the western coast of North America, do the
+isothermals, or lines of equal annual temperature, ascend so high
+towards the arctic regions. The inhabitants of Europe, though they
+may live 900 to 1,200 miles farther away from the equator, enjoy as
+mild a climate as do those of America, and the decrease of temperature
+on going northward is far less rapid than in any other part of the
+globe. This uniformity of temperature constitutes one of the most
+characteristic features of Europe. The whole of it lies within the
+temperate region bounded by the isothermal lines of 32° F. and 68° F.,
+whilst in America and Asia that privileged zone has only half this
+extent. {17}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4.—THE ISOTHERMAL ZONE OF EUROPE.
+
+Scale 1 : 60,000,000.
+
+Erhard.]
+
+This remarkable uniformity in the climate of Europe is exhibited not
+only in its temperature, but likewise in the distribution of its
+rains. The seas washing the shores of Europe supply all parts of it
+with the necessary amount of moisture. There is no rainless district,
+nor, with the exception of a portion of the maritime region of the
+Caspian and a small corner of Spain, any district where droughts
+occasionally entail the entire loss of the harvest. Rains fall not
+only regularly every year, but in most countries they occur in every
+season, the only exception being the countries of the Mediterranean,
+where autumn and winter are the real rainy seasons. Moreover, in spite
+of the great diversity in the physical features of Europe, the amount
+of rain is scarcely anywhere excessive, whether it descends as a fine
+drizzle, as in Ireland, or in heavy showers, as in Provence and on
+the southern slope of the Alps. The annual rainfall scarcely ever
+exceeds thirty-nine inches, except on the flanks of certain mountain
+ranges which arrest the passage of currents charged with moisture.
+This uniformity and moderation in the rainfall exercise a regulating
+influence upon the course of the rivers, for even the smallest amongst
+them, at all events those to the north of the Pyrenees, the Alps, and
+the Balkan, flow throughout the year. They rise and fall generally
+within narrow limits, and inundations on a vast scale are as rare as
+is want of water for purposes of irrigation. In consequence of this
+regularity, Europe is able to derive a greater advantage from its
+waters than other continents where the amount of precipitation is more
+considerable. The Alps contribute much towards {18} maintaining a
+regular flow of the rivers; the excess of humidity which falls to their
+share is stored up in the shape of snow and ice, which descend slowly
+into the valleys, and melt during the heat of summer. This happens
+just at a time when the rivers gain least from rain, and lose most
+by evaporation, and some amongst them would dry up if the ice of the
+mountains did not come to the aid of the waters descending from the
+sky. It is thus that a sort of balance is established in the economy of
+European rivers.
+
+The climate of Europe is thus characterized by uniformity as a whole,
+and by a compensatory action in its contrasts. Regularity and freedom
+from excess, such as are not known in other continents, mark its ocean
+currents, its winds, its temperature and rains, and the course of
+its rivers. These great advantages have benefited its inhabitants in
+the past, and will not cease to do so in the future. Though small in
+extent, Europe possesses by far the largest area of acclimation. Man
+may migrate from Russia to Spain, or from Ireland to Greece, without
+exposing himself to any great risk of life. The inhabitants of the
+Caucasus and the Ural Mountains were thus able to cross the plains and
+mountains of Europe, and to establish themselves on the shores of the
+Atlantic. Soil and climate are equally propitious to man, and enable
+him to preserve his physical and intellectual powers wherever he goes.
+A migratory people might found new homesteads in any part of Europe.
+Their companions of travel—the dog, the horse, and the ox—would not
+desert them on the road, and the seed-corn which they carry with them
+would yield a harvest wherever confided to the earth.
+
+
+VI.—INHABITANTS.
+
+A study of the soil and a patient observation of climatic phenomena
+enable us to appreciate the general influence exercised by the nature
+of the country upon the development of its inhabitants; but it is
+more difficult to assign to each race or nation its due share in
+the progress of European civilisation. No doubt, in their struggles
+for existence, different groups of naked and ignorant savages must
+have been acted upon differently, according to their numbers and
+physical strength, their inborn intelligence, their tastes and mental
+tendencies. But who were those primitive men who first turned to
+account the natural resources of the country in which they dwelt? We
+know not; for, if we go back for a few thousand years, every fact
+is shrouded in darkness. We know nothing even as regards the origin
+of the leading nations of Europe. Are we the “sons of the soil,”
+and the “shoots of oak-trees,” as told in the poetical language of
+ancient tradition, or are we to look upon the inhabitants of Asia as
+the ancestors to whom we are indebted for our languages, and for the
+rudiments of our arts and sciences? Or did those immigrants from a
+neighbouring continent settle down amongst an indigenous population?
+Not many years ago the Asiatic origin of European nations was accepted
+as an established fact, and the original seats of our forefathers
+were pointed out upon the map of Asia. But now most men of science
+are agreed to {19} seek our ancestors upon the very soil which we,
+their descendants, still occupy. Caverns, the shores of oceans and
+lakes, and the alluvial beds of our rivers have yielded the remains
+of human industry, and even human skeletons, which clearly prove that
+long before these supposed immigrations from Asia there existed in
+Europe tribes who had already made some progress in human industry.
+Even in the childhood of history there existed tribes who were looked
+upon as aborigines, and some of their descendants—as, for instance, the
+Basks—have nothing in common with the invaders from the neighbouring
+continent. Nor is it universally admitted that the Aryans—that is, the
+ancestors of the Pelasgians, the Greeks, the Latins, Celts, Germans,
+and Slavs—are of Asiatic origin. Similarity of language may justify
+our belief in the common origin of the Aryans of Europe, the Persians,
+and the Hindoos, but it does not prove that their ancestral home
+should be looked for somewhere near the sources of the Oxus. Many
+men of learning[3] look upon the Aryans as aborigines of Europe, but
+certainty on this point does not exist. No doubt, in prehistoric times,
+intermigrations between the two continents were frequent; but we hardly
+know what directions they took, and can speak with certainty only of
+those migrations of peoples which are related by history. We thus know
+that Europe sent forth to other continents Galatians, Macedonians, and
+Greeks, and more recently innumerable emigrants of all nationalities,
+and received in turn Huns, Avares, Turks, Mongols, Circassians, Jews,
+Armenians, Moors, Berbers, and members of many other nations.
+
+[Illustration: ETHNOGRAPHICAL MAP OF EUROPE]
+
+Leaving out of consideration the smaller families of nations, as well
+as the members of races who have not attained a national existence,
+Europe may be described as consisting of three great ethnological
+divisions, the principal boundary between which is formed by the Alps,
+the Carpathians, and the Balkan.
+
+The first of these great families of European nations, the members of
+which speak Greco-Latin languages, occupies the southern slopes of the
+Balkan and of the Alps, the Iberian peninsula, France, and a portion of
+Belgium, as well as a few detached territories within the limits of the
+ancient Roman empire, altogether surrounded by alien nations. Such are
+the plains of the Lower Danube and a portion of Transylvania, which are
+inhabited by the Rumanians, and a few secluded Alpine valleys inhabited
+by “Romans.” On the other hand, fragments of two ancient nations have
+maintained their ground in the midst of Latinised populations, viz.
+the Celtic inhabitants of Brittany, and the Basks of the Pyrenees.
+Generally speaking, however, all the inhabitants of South-western
+Europe, whether of Celtic, Iberian, or Ligurian race, speak languages
+derived from the Latin, and whatever differences existed originally
+between these various populations, this community of language has more
+or less obliterated them.
+
+The Teutonic nations form the second great group. They occupy nearly
+the whole of Central Europe to the north of the Alps, and extend
+through Holland and Flanders to within a short distance of the
+Straits of Dover. Denmark and the great Scandinavian peninsula, as
+well as Iceland, belong to the same group, and {20} the bulk of the
+inhabitants of the British Islands are likewise generally included in
+it. The latter, however, should rather be described as a mixed race,
+for the aboriginal Celtic population of these islands, which now exists
+pure only in a few remote districts, has amalgamated with Anglo-Saxon
+and Danish invaders, and the language of the latter has become mixed
+with mediæval French, the resulting idiom being almost as much Latin as
+Saxon. The development of national characteristics has been favoured
+by the isolation in which the inhabitants of the British Islands found
+themselves, and they differ essentially from continental neighbours—the
+Scandinavians, Germans, and Celto-Latins—in language and customs.
+
+The Slavs, or Slavonians, form the third group of European nations.
+They are less numerous than the Greco-Latins, but the territories they
+occupy are far more extensive, for they spread over nearly the whole
+of Russia, over Poland, a large portion of the Balkan peninsula, and
+about one-half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. All the great plains
+to the east of the Carpathians are inhabited by Slavs, either pure or
+mixed with Tartars and Mongols. To the west and south of the mountains
+the race is split up into numerous small nations, and in the valley
+of the Danube these come into contact with Rumanians, as well as with
+Turks and Magyars, the two latter being of Asiatic origin, and these
+separate the Slavonians of the north from the Slavonians of the south.
+In the north, Finns, Livonians, and Lithuanians interpose between the
+Slavonians and the Germanic nations.[4]
+
+Race and language, however, are not always identical. Members of one
+race frequently speak the language of another, and race and linguistic
+boundaries, therefore, differ frequently. As for the political
+boundaries, they scarcely ever follow those natural features which
+would have been selected had their settlement been intrusted to the
+spontaneous action of the different nations. They hardly ever coincide
+with the boundaries of races or of languages, except in the case of a
+few high mountain ranges or of arms of the sea. On many occasions the
+countries of Europe were arbitrarily split up in consequence of wars or
+diplomatic arrangements. A few peoples only, protected by the nature
+of their country as well as {21} by their valour, have maintained
+their independence since the age of great migrations, but many more
+have been swept away by successive invasions. Many others, again, have
+alternately seen their frontiers expand and contract more than once
+even during a generation.
+
+The so-called “balance of European powers,” founded as it is upon the
+rights of war and ambitious rivalries between nations, is necessarily
+unstable. Nations eminently fit to lead a common political existence
+are torn asunder on the one side, whilst the most heterogeneous
+elements are thrown together on the other. In these political
+arrangements the nations themselves are never consulted, but their
+wishes and inclinations must nevertheless prevail in the end, and
+the artificial edifice raised by warriors and statesmen will come to
+the ground. A true “balance of power” will only be established when
+every nation of the continent shall have become the arbiter of its
+own destinies, when every pretended right of conquest shall have been
+surrendered, and neighbouring nations shall be at liberty to combine
+for the management of the affairs they have in common. Our arbitrary
+political divisions, therefore, possess but a transitory value. They
+cannot altogether be ignored; but in the following descriptions we
+shall, as far as possible, adhere to the great natural divisions as
+defined by mountains and valleys, and by the distribution of nations
+having the same origin and speaking the same language. But even these
+natural boundaries lose their importance in countries like Switzerland,
+inhabited by nations speaking different languages, but held together by
+the strongest of all ties—the common enjoyment of freedom.
+
+From an historical point of view a description of Europe should
+commence with the maritime countries of the Mediterranean. It was
+Greece which gave birth to our European civilisation, and which at one
+time occupied the centre of the known world. Her poets first sang the
+praises of venturesome navigators, and her historians and philosophers
+collected and classified the information received with respect to
+foreign countries. In a subsequent age, Italy, in the very centre of
+the Mediterranean, took the place of Greece, and for fifteen centuries
+maintained herself therein: Genoa, Venice, and Florence succeeded
+Rome as the leaders of the civilised world. During that period the
+surrounding nations gravitated towards the Mediterranean and Italy;
+and it was only when the Italians themselves enlarged the terrestrial
+sphere by the discovery of a new world beyond the ocean that this
+preponderance passed away from them, to remain for a short time with
+the Iberian peninsula. Greece had been the mediator between Europe
+and the ancient civilisations of Asia and Africa; Spain and Portugal
+became the representatives of Europe in America and the extreme Orient;
+historical development in its progress had followed the axis of the
+Mediterranean from east to west.
+
+It will be found natural, under these circumstances, when we describe
+the three Mediterranean peninsulas in the same volume, particularly
+as they are peopled almost exclusively by Greco-Latin nations.
+France, though likewise Latinised, nevertheless occupies a distinct
+position. It is a Mediterranean country only as respects Provence and
+Languedoc, the rest of its territory sloping towards the Atlantic.
+Its geographical position and history have made France the great {22}
+European thoroughfare upon which the nations of the Mediterranean and
+of the Atlantic meet to exchange their products and to fight their
+battles. Ideas are imported into France from all parts of Europe,
+and she is called upon to act the part of an interpreter between the
+nations of the North and of the South. Next to France we shall describe
+the Germanic countries of Europe, the British Islands, and Scandinavia;
+and lastly, the immense empire of Russia.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{23}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+
+I.—HYDROLOGY.
+
+Greece and its insular satellites prove sufficiently that the unstable
+floods of the Mediterranean have exercised a greater influence upon the
+march of history than did the solid land upon which man trod. Western
+civilisation would never have seen the light had not the waters of the
+Mediterranean washed the shores of Egypt, Phœnicia, Asia Minor, Hellas,
+Italy, Spain, and Carthage. The western nations would have remained in
+their primitive barbarism if it had not been for the Mediterranean,
+which joined Europe, Asia, and Africa; facilitated the intercourse
+between Aryans, Semites, and Berbers; and rendered more equable the
+climate of the surrounding countries, thus facilitating access to
+them. For ages it appeared almost as if mankind could prosper only
+in the neighbourhood of this central sea, for beyond its basin only
+decayed nations were to be met with, or tribes not yet awakened to
+mental activity. “Like frogs around a swamp, so have we settled down
+on the shores of this sea,” said Plato; and the sea he refers to is
+the Mediterranean. It is therefore deserving of description quite as
+much as the inhabited countries which surround it. Unfortunately many
+mysteries still remain hidden beneath its waves.[5]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.—THE DEPTH OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+From a Chart by M. Delesse.]
+
+From an examination of the coasts, as well as from the traditions of
+the people inhabiting them, we learn that the Mediterranean has varied
+frequently in its contours and extent. The straits which connect
+its waters with those of the ocean have frequently changed their
+position. At a time when peninsulas like Greece, and even islands
+like Malta, formed part of continental masses—and that they did so
+in a comparatively recent geological epoch is proved by their fossil
+fauna—the waters of the Mediterranean covered large portions of Africa,
+of Southern Russia, and even of Asia. The researches of Spratt, Fuchs,
+and others have satisfactorily proved that towards the close of the
+miocene age a vast {24} fresh-water lake stretched from the banks of
+the Aral, across Russia, the plains of the Danube and the Archipelago,
+as far as Syracuse in Sicily. Then came the briny waters of the ocean.
+There was a time when the Black Sea and the Caspian connected the
+Archipelago with the Gulf of the Obi. At another epoch the gulfs of
+the Syrtes penetrated far inland, and a large portion of what is now
+the Libyan and Saharan desert was then covered with water. The Strait
+of Gibraltar, which was torn asunder by Hercules according to the
+traditions of the ancients, is in reality but of recent origin, and has
+taken the place of a more ancient strait which joined the Mediterranean
+to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean: this strait has been restored by human
+hands, and is known now as the Suez Canal. The coast-lines of the
+Mediterranean are undergoing perpetual change, owing to the upheaval
+or subsidence of the countries surrounding it. The Nile, the Po, the
+Rhone, and other rivers incessantly enlarge the alluvial plains at
+their mouths, and still further encroach upon the sea. Actually the
+Mediterranean, with its subordinate seas from the Strait of Gibraltar
+to the Sea of Azof, covers an area about thirty times that of the
+British Islands. This area is small if we compare it with the immense
+development of the coasts and the wealth in peninsulas, which impart an
+aspect of life and independence to at least one-third of the ancient
+world. The Mediterranean, though it takes precedence of all the oceans,
+in consequence of the part it has played in history, nevertheless only
+covers an area one-seventieth that of the Pacific.[6] It is broken up,
+moreover, into several separate seas, some of them so small in extent
+that the navigator hardly ever loses sight of the land. In the {25}
+east we have the Black Sea, with its two dependencies, the Seas of
+Azof and of Marmara. The Ægean Sea, or Archipelago, with its numerous
+islands, extends between the deeply indented coasts of Greece, Asia
+Minor, and Crete. The Adriatic stretches towards the north-west,
+between the Balkan peninsula and Italy; and the Mediterranean proper
+is divided into two separate basins, which might appropriately be
+called the Phœnician and Carthaginian Seas, or the Greek and Roman
+Mediterraneans. Each of these basins is again subdivided, the one by
+Crete, the other by the two islands of Sardinia and Corsica. These
+various subdivisions of the Mediterranean differ in area, and still
+more in depth. The Sea of Azof almost deserves the name of “Swamp,”
+which was bestowed upon it by the ancients, for if a ship sinks in it
+the masts remain visible above the water. The Black Sea has a maximum
+depth of over 1,000 fathoms, but the narrow strait which joins it to
+the Sea of Marmara is shallower than many a European river. The cavity
+filled by the Sea of Marmara is far inferior to that of many an inland
+lake; and the Dardanelles, like the Bosphorus, are hardly wider than a
+river. In the Archipelago and the eastern basin of the Mediterranean
+proper the depth corresponds with the protuberance of the land. Abyssal
+depths and “pits” of 260 and even of 540 fathoms are to be found in
+close proximity to the scarped mountain islands of the Cyclades, whilst
+on the low coasts of Egypt the water deepens only gradually, until in
+the centre of the Levantine Sea it attains a depth of 1,750 fathoms.
+The maximum depth—2,170 fathoms—is attained between Crete and Malta. If
+the whole of the waters of the Mediterranean were to be collected into
+an aqueous sphere, the latter would have a diameter of 90 miles; if it
+fell down upon the earth, it would not even wholly cover a country like
+Switzerland.
+
+The Ionian Sea is separated from the Adriatic by a submarine ridge
+rising in the Strait of Otranto, and bounded on the west by a shoal or
+submarine isthmus, already referred to by Strabo, which joins Sicily
+to Tunis. This isthmus forms the true geological boundary between the
+western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean, which are connected
+here by a narrow breach only, the depth of which hardly exceeds 100
+fathoms. The western of these basins is the smaller and shallower of
+the two, but nevertheless it attains a depth of 1,100 fathoms in the
+Tyrrhenian, and of 1,360 fathoms and even 1,640 in the Balearic Sea,
+and is separated from the waters of the Atlantic by a submarine ridge
+lying outside the Strait of Gibraltar, and joining Europe to Africa.[7]
+
+This subdivision of the Mediterranean into separate basins, divided
+from each other by shoals or submarine ridges, by islands and
+promontories, sufficiently explains the contrasts between the phenomena
+of the open ocean and those observed here. In the Mediterranean, it is
+well known, the tides are almost everywhere irregular and uncertain.
+To the east of the Narrows of Gibraltar, in the sea extending between
+Andalusia and Morocco, the tides are hardly felt at all, and {26}
+they are, moreover, interfered with to such an extent by currents
+that it is exceedingly difficult to determine their amplitude, or the
+establishment of the various ports. Nevertheless the rise and fall of
+the tidal wave are sufficiently marked to have attracted the attention
+of Greek and Italian navigators. On the coasts of Catalonia, France,
+Liguria, Naples, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt the oscillation is hardly
+perceptible, but on those of Eastern Sicily and of the Adriatic the
+tide sometimes rises three feet, and, if accompanied by storms, may
+even attain a height of ten feet in certain localities. The Straits of
+Messina and of Euripo (Eubœa) have their regular tides, and in the Gulf
+of Gabes the waters rise and fall with the same regularity as in the
+open ocean. In the Black Sea, however, no tidal movements whatever have
+been discovered hitherto. It is nevertheless probable that more careful
+observations will lead to the discovery of a feeble tide, for it is
+believed that this phenomenon exists even on Lake Michigan, which has
+only one-fifth the area of the Black Sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6.—THE STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR.
+
+According to Robiquet, Randegger, and others. Scale 1 : 750,000.
+
+Erhard.]
+
+The Mediterranean differs not only from the open ocean with respect
+to the feebleness and irregularity of its tides, but it is likewise
+without a great stream-current keeping in constant circulation the
+whole body of its waters. The currents which have been observed in
+various divisions of the Mediterranean can be ascribed only to local
+causes. An Italian geographer of the last century, Montanari, has {27}
+advanced an hypothesis of a great circuit current which entered the
+Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, and, after having washed
+the shores of Africa as far as Egypt, returned to the west along those
+of Asia and Europe; but careful observers have vainly endeavoured
+to discover its existence. They have met only with local currents,
+produced by an indraught of the waters of the Atlantic, by winds, by
+the floods of rivers, or by an excess of evaporation. One of these
+currents sets along the coasts of Morocco and Algeria from west to
+east; another flows along the Italian coast of the Adriatic from north
+to south; and a third from the mouth of the Rhone in the direction of
+Cette and Port Vendres. In fact, the configuration of the sea-bottom,
+and particularly the shoal between Sicily and Tunis, precludes the
+existence of any but surface currents in the Mediterranean.
+
+Amongst the local currents the existence of which has been most clearly
+established are those which convey the waters of the Sea of Azof into
+the Black Sea, and those of the latter into the Archipelago. The Don
+more than makes up for the loss by evaporation in the Sea of Azof, and
+its surplus waters find an exit through the Strait of Kerch into the
+Black Sea. Similarly the waters of the Dniester, the Dnieper, the Rion,
+and of the rivers of Asia Minor, and, above all, of the Danube, which
+by itself conveys a larger volume of water into the Black Sea than
+all the others combined, are discharged through the Bosphorus and the
+Dardanelles into the Archipelago. On the other hand, the Archipelago
+returns to the Black Sea, by means of a submarine counter-current and
+of lateral surface currents, a certain quantity of salt water for the
+fresh water which it receives in excess. This exchange accounts for the
+salineness of the waters of the Black Sea. The volume of fresh water
+discharged into it by the Danube and other rivers is so large that
+in the course of a thousand years its waters would become perfectly
+fresh, if there did not exist these compensatory highly saline
+counter-currents.
+
+Analogous phenomena take place at the other extremity of the
+Mediterranean. Evaporation there is excessive, owing to the
+neighbourhood of the burning sands of the deserts, the winds from which
+blow freely over the sea, absorbing the vapours and dispersing the
+clouds. The loss by evaporation amounts to at least seven feet in the
+course of a year, and as the annual rainfall is estimated to amount to
+twenty inches only, and the volume of water discharged annually by all
+the tributary rivers of the Mediterranean, if uniformly spread over
+its surface, would hardly exceed ten inches in depth, there exists
+thus an excess of evaporation amounting annually to more than four
+feet; and this excess has to be made good by an inflow of the waters
+of the Atlantic, which takes place through the Strait of Gibraltar,
+whose volume far exceeds that of the Amazon in a state of flood. This
+inflow of the waters of the Atlantic is felt, as a current, as far as
+the coasts of Sicily, and, like all other currents, it is bounded by
+lateral currents flowing in a direction contrary to that of the main
+current. During ebb the insetting Atlantic current takes up the whole
+of the strait, but when the tide rises the Mediterranean resists more
+successfully the pressure of the ocean, and this struggle gives birth
+to {28} two counter-currents, one of which skirts the coast of Europe,
+the other that of Africa between Ceuta and Cape Spartel; the latter is
+the larger and more powerful of the two. In addition to these, there
+exists a submarine current, which conveys the highly saline and heavier
+waters of the Mediterranean out into the Atlantic.
+
+The quantity of salt held in solution in various parts of the
+Mediterranean differs widely, as the submarine ridges and shoals which
+divide it into separate basins do not permit its waters to mingle as
+freely as in the open ocean. Owing to the excess of evaporation, the
+quantity of salt is greater on the whole than in the Atlantic, and this
+is the case more particularly on the coast of Africa. But in the Black
+Sea it is far less, and near the mouths of some of the large rivers
+which enter that sea the water is almost fresh.[8]
+
+The temperature of the Mediterranean is affected by the same causes
+which produce its varying salineness, viz. the existence of shoals
+and banks, which separate it into distinct sub-basins. In the open
+ocean the currents convey to all latitudes large bodies of water,
+some of them heated by a tropical sun, others cooled by contact with
+the ice of the polar regions. But these layers of unequal density are
+regularly superimposed one upon the other, owing to the differences in
+their temperature: the warm water remains on the surface, whilst the
+cold water descends to the bottom. In the Mediterranean an analogous
+superimposition exists only to a depth of 110 fathoms, which is the
+depth of the Atlantic current, flowing into it through the Strait of
+Gibraltar. If a thermometer be lowered to a greater depth it will
+indicate no further decrease of temperature, and the immense body of
+water, remaining almost still at the bottom of the Mediterranean, has
+an equable temperature of about 56° F. Observations made at depths
+varying between 110 and 1,640 fathoms have always exhibited the same
+result. Professor Carpenter believes, however, that the abyssal waters
+of some of the volcanic regions have a somewhat higher temperature,
+which may be due to the presence of lava in a state of fusion.
+
+
+II.—ANIMAL LIFE. FISHERIES AND SALT PANS.
+
+Another remarkable feature of the abyssal waters of the Mediterranean
+consists in their poverty of animal life. No doubt there is some life;
+the dredgings of the _Porcupine_ and the telegraph cables, which, on
+being brought to the surface, were found to be covered with shells
+and polypes, prove this. But, compared with those of the ocean, the
+depths of the Mediterranean are veritable deserts. Edward Forbes, who
+explored the waters of the Archipelago, arrived at the conclusion that
+their abyssal depths were entirely devoid of life, but he was wrong
+when he assumed an exceptional case like this to represent a universal
+law. Carpenter thinks that this absence of life in the depths of the
+Mediterranean is due to the great quantity of organic remains which
+is carried into it by the rivers. These remains absorb the oxygen of
+the water, and part with their carbonic acid, which is detrimental to
+{29} animal life. In numerous instances the water of the Mediterranean
+contains only one-fourth the normal quantity of the former gas, but
+fifty per cent. in excess of the latter. To the presence of these
+organic remains the Mediterranean is probably indebted for its
+beautiful azure colour, so different from the black waters of most
+oceans. This blue, then, which is justly celebrated by poets, would
+thus be caused by the impurity of the water. M. Delesse has shown that
+the bottom of nearly the whole of the Mediterranean is covered with
+ooze.
+
+The regions of the Mediterranean immediately below the surface abound
+in animal life, particularly on the coasts of Sicily and Southern
+Italy; but nearly all species, whether fish, testacea, or others, are
+of Atlantic origin. The Mediterranean, in spite of its vast extent, as
+far as its fauna is concerned, is nothing but a gulf of the Lusitanian
+Ocean. Its longitudinal extension and the similarity of climate in its
+various portions have favoured the migration of animals through the
+Strait of Gibraltar as far as the coasts of Syria. At the same time,
+animal life is most varied near this point of entry, and the species
+met with in the western basin are generally of greater size than those
+which exist in the eastern. A very small proportion of non-Atlantic
+species recalls the fact that the Mediterranean formerly communicated
+with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. But amongst a total of more than
+eight hundred molluscs there are only about thirty which have reached
+the seas of Greece and Sicily through the ancient straits separating
+Africa from Asia, instead of through the Strait of Gibraltar.[9] The
+diminution in the number of species in an easterly direction becomes
+most striking when we reach the narrow channel of the Dardanelles and
+the Bosphorus. The Black Sea, in fact, differs essentially from the
+Mediterranean proper as regards temperature. It is refrigerated by
+north-easterly winds sweeping over its surface, to the extent even of
+portions of it becoming now and then covered with a thin coating of
+ice, adhering to the coast. The Sea of Azof has frequently disappeared
+beneath a thick crust of ice, and even the whole of the Black Sea has
+been frozen over in winters of exceptional severity. The cold surface
+waters, together with those conveyed into the Black Sea by large
+rivers, descend to the bottom, and prove most detrimental to animal
+life. Echinodermata and zoophytes are not met with at all in the Black
+Sea; certain classes of molluscs, already rare in the Levantine Sea and
+the Archipelago, are likewise absent; and the total number of species
+of molluscs is only one-tenth of what it is in the Mediterranean. Fish
+are numerous as far as individuals go, but their species are few.
+In fact, the fauna of the Black Sea appears to resemble that of the
+Caspian, from which it is cut off, rather than that of the Greek seas,
+with which the Sea of Marmara connects it.
+
+In addition to the species which have found a second home in the
+Mediterranean, there are some that must still be looked upon as
+visitors. Such are the sharks, which extend their incursions to the
+seas of Sicily, to the Adriatic, and even to the coasts of Egypt and
+Syria. Such, also, are the larger cetacea—whales, rorquals, and sperm
+whales—whose visits, however, are confined now to the Tyrrhenian
+{30} basin, and become less frequent from century to century. The
+tunny-fish of the Mediterranean are also visitors from the coasts
+of Lusitania. First-rate swimmers, they enter through the Strait of
+Gibraltar in spring, ascend the whole of the Mediterranean, make the
+tour of the Black Sea, and return in autumn to the Atlantic, after
+having accomplished a journey of some 5,600 miles. In the opinion
+of the fishermen the tunnies go upon their travels in three immense
+divisions or shoals, and it is the central shoal which visits the
+coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and consists of the largest and strongest
+fish. Each of the three divisions appears to be composed of individuals
+about the same age. For mutual protection they swim in troops, for they
+are preyed upon by enemies innumerable. Dolphins and other fish of prey
+follow their track, but their great destroyer is man. In the summer the
+tunny fishery, or _tonnaro_, is carried on in numerous bays of Sicily,
+Sardinia, Naples, and of Provence. Enormous structures consisting of
+nets enclose these bays, and they are ingeniously arranged so as to
+close gradually around the captured fish, which, passing from net to
+net, find themselves at last in the “chamber of death,” where they are
+massacred. Millions of pounds of flesh are annually obtained from these
+floating “slaughter-houses,” yet the tunny appears year after year
+in multitudes, and on the same coasts. There may have been a slight
+decrease in the number, but their closely packed masses still invade
+the “Golden Horn” of Byzance and other bays, as they did when first
+they attracted the attention of Greek naturalists.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7.—THE PRINCIPAL FISHERIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+Scale 1 : 38,300,000.
+
+Erhard.]
+
+Next to the tunny fisheries those of the sardines and anchovies are
+most important. Sea-urchins and other products of the sea are eaten
+by the inhabitants of the coasts, particularly in Italy, but there is
+no part of the Mediterranean where animal life is so abundant and so
+prodigious in quantity as on the celebrated banks of Newfoundland, or
+on the coasts of Portugal or of the Canaries.
+
+A large number of fishing-boats are engaged, not in the capture of
+fish, but in {31} the collection of articles of dress or of the
+toilet. The purple-shell fisheries on the coasts of Phœnicia, the
+Peloponnesus, and Greece are no longer carried on, but hundreds of
+boats are employed annually during the fine season in fishing for coral
+or sponges.
+
+Coral is found most abundantly in the western portion of the
+Mediterranean, and the Italian fishermen do not confine themselves to
+their own shores—to Sicily, Naples, and Sardinia—but also visit the
+Strait of Bonifacio, the sea off St. Tropez, the vicinity of Cape Creus
+in Spain, and the waters of Barbary. Ordinary sponges are collected in
+the Gulf of Gabes, and at the other extremity of the Mediterranean, on
+the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor, and in the straits winding between
+the Cyclades and Sporades. Sponges are usually found at a depth of from
+12 to 150 feet, and can be gathered by divers; whilst coral occurs at
+far greater depths, and has to be wrenched off with an iron instrument,
+which brings up its fragments, mixed with ooze, seaweeds, and the
+remains of marine animalculæ. This industry is still in a state of
+barbarism: those devoted to it are not as yet sufficiently acquainted
+with the sea and its inhabitants to enable them to carry on the sponge
+and coral fisheries in a rational manner. Yet this they must aim at:
+they must learn how to deprive Proteus, the ever-changing deity, of his
+dominion over the inhabitants of the deep.
+
+Next to the fisheries, the preparation of sea salt constitutes one
+of the leading industries of the Mediterranean coast-lands. But this
+industry, too, is frequently carried on in a primitive way, and only
+in the course of the present century have scientific methods been
+introduced in connection with it. The Mediterranean is admirably suited
+for the production of salt, for its waters have a high temperature,
+they hold a very large quantity of salt in solution, the rise and fall
+of the tides are inconsiderable, and flat seashores alternate with
+steep coasts and promontories. The most productive salt marshes of the
+Mediterranean are probably those on the Lagoon, or Étang de Thau, near
+Cette, and on the littoral of Hyères; but considerable ones may also be
+met with on the coasts of Spain, in Italy, in Sardinia, Sicily, Istria,
+and even on the “limans” of Bessarabia, bordering upon the Black Sea.
+The annual production of salt is estimated at more than a million tons,
+and exceeds, therefore, the entire tonnage of the commercial marine of
+France.[10] But this quantity, large as it is, is infinitesimal if we
+compare it with the saline contents of the sea, and science will enable
+us one day to raise a far more abundant treasure from its sterile
+depths.[11]
+
+
+III.—COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.
+
+Whatever advantages may be yielded by fisheries and salt-works,
+they shrink into insignificance if we compare them with the great
+gain—material, intellectual, {32} and moral—which mankind has derived
+from the navigation of this inland sea. It has repeatedly been pointed
+out by historians that the disposition of the coasts, islands, and
+peninsulas of the Mediterranean of the Phœnicians and Greeks admirably
+favoured the first essays in maritime commerce. Many causes have
+contributed to make this sea the cradle of European commerce: the faint
+summits of distant lands visible even before the port has been quitted;
+numerous nooks along the coasts where a safe refuge may be found in
+case of storms; regular land and sea breezes; an equability of climate
+which makes the sailor feel at home wherever business takes him; and,
+moreover, a great variety of productions resulting from the diverse
+configuration of the Mediterranean coast-lands. And this commerce,
+does it not lead to a peaceful intercourse between peoples on neutral
+ground, and to mutual enlightenment, brought about by an interchange
+of ideas? Every coast-line which facilitates the intercourse between
+nations is, therefore, of immense value as a means of developing
+civilisation.
+
+Civilisation for many centuries marched from the south-east towards the
+north-west, and Phœnicia, Greece, Italy, and France have successively
+become great centres of human intelligence. This historical phenomenon
+is due to the configuration of the sea, which has been the vehicle
+of migratory nations. In fact, the axis of civilisation, if this
+expression be allowed, has become confounded with that axis of the
+Mediterranean which extends from the coast of Syria to the Gulf of
+Lions, on the coast of France. But the Mediterranean has ceased to be
+the only centre of gravitation of Europe, which sends its merchantmen
+now to the two Americas and the farthest East; and civilisation no
+longer marches in that general line from east to west, but rather
+radiates in all directions. Civilising streams depart from England and
+Germany towards Northern America, and from the Latinised countries of
+Europe towards Southern America. Their direction is still westerly,
+but they have been deflected towards the south, to meet the conditions
+imposed by climate and the geographical configuration of land and sea.
+
+It is interesting to trace the changes which have occurred in the
+historical importance of the Mediterranean. As long as that sea
+remained the great highway between nations, the commercial republics
+were content to extend this highway towards the east, by establishing
+caravan routes to the Gulf of Persia, to India, and to China. In the
+Middle Ages Genoese factories dotted the coasts of the Black Sea, and
+extended thence through Trans-Caucasia as far as the Caspian. European
+travellers, and particularly Italians, at that time crossed Western
+Asia in all directions; and many a route hardly known in our days
+was then frequented almost daily. But for several centuries direct
+commercial intercourse with Central Asia has dwindled down to small
+proportions.
+
+The Mediterranean had ceased to be a great ocean highway. Our
+navigators, no longer dreading a boundless sea, took their ships into
+every part of the ocean. The difficult and perilous land routes were
+abandoned, the once busy markets of Central Asia became solitudes,
+and the Mediterranean itself a veritable blind alley, as far as the
+world’s commerce was concerned. This condition of affairs lasted for
+many years, but since the middle of this century our relations with
+the East have {33} been renewed, and the lost ground is rapidly
+being recovered. Within the last year a great commercial revolution
+has been effected through the opening of one of the ancient gates of
+the Mediterranean, and the Suez Canal has become the great highway of
+steamers between Western Europe, the Indies, and Australia. Possibly,
+at no distant future, a similar canal will enable our merchantmen to
+proceed from the Black Sea to the Caspian, and perhaps even to the Amu
+and the Syr, in the very heart of the ancient continent.
+
+It is thus that the great centres of intercommunication, or vital
+points of our planet, as we should like to call them, become shifted in
+the course of time. Port Said, an improvised town on a desert shore,
+has thus become a centre of attraction for travellers and merchandise,
+whilst the neighbouring cities of Tyre and Sidon have dwindled down
+into miserable villages, with nothing to indicate the proud position
+they held in the past. Carthage, too, has perished, and Venice decayed.
+Many a thriving place on the shores of the Mediterranean has been
+reduced to insignificance through the silting up of its harbour, the
+employment of larger vessels, the loss of independence, or through
+political changes of all kinds. But in nearly every instance some
+neighbouring town has taken the place of these decayed harbours, and
+most of the great routes of commerce have maintained their original
+directions, and their terminal points, as well as intermediate
+stations, have remained in the same localities.
+
+There are, moreover, certain places which ships are almost obliged
+to frequent, and where towns of importance arise as a matter of
+course. Such are the Straits of Gibraltar and of Messina; such,
+also, are places like Genoa, Trieste, and Saloniki, which occupy
+the bottom of gulfs or bays penetrating far into the land. Ports
+offering the greatest facilities for embarking merchandise intended
+for foreign countries, such as Marseilles and Alexandria, are likewise
+natural centres of attraction to merchants. One town there is in the
+Mediterranean which enjoys at one and the same time every one of the
+geographical advantages which we have pointed out, for it is situated
+on a strait connecting two seas and separating two continents. This
+town is Constantinople, and despite the deplorable maladministration
+under which it suffers, its position alone has enabled it to maintain
+its place amongst the great cities of the world.
+
+The ports of the Mediterranean no longer enjoy a monopoly of commerce
+as they did for thousands of years, but the number of ships to be met
+with in that inland sea is, nevertheless, proportionately far greater
+than what we meet with on the open oceans. The commercial marine of
+the Mediterranean numbers thirty-seven thousand vessels, of a capacity
+of two million seven hundred and ninety-six thousand tons, without
+counting fishing-boats. This is more than one-fourth of the entire
+commercial marine of the world, as respects the number of ships, and
+one-sixth of it as regards tonnage. This inferiority of tonnage is due
+to the small vessels of ancient types which still maintain their ground
+in Greece and Italy, and which possess certain advantages for the
+coasting trade.
+
+To this marine of the Mediterranean should be added the vessels
+belonging to foreign ports, which visit it for purposes of trade, and
+amongst which those of {34} England take the most prominent rank.
+The Government of Great Britain has even taken care to secure itself
+a place amongst the Mediterranean powers. It has occupied Gibraltar,
+at the eastern entrance to this basin, and taken possession of Malta,
+which commands its centre; and although the western entrance, formed by
+the Suez Canal, is not in its possession, its garrisons on Perim and
+the rock of Aden are able at any moment to close up the only approach
+to it which leads from the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 8.—STEAMER ROUTES AND TELEGRAPHS IN THE
+MEDITERRANEAN.
+
+Scale 1 : 45,000,000.]
+
+The share which England takes in the commerce of the Mediterranean is
+considerable, but it is surpassed by far by that of France and Italy.
+A sovereign who aspired to the dominion of the world once spoke of the
+inland sea extending from the Strait of Gibraltar to Egypt as a “French
+lake;” but with equal justice might it be called a Greek, a Dalmatian,
+or Spanish lake, and with still greater an Italian lake. The pirates
+of Barbary were, in reality, the last “masters” of the Mediterranean:
+their swift vessels presented themselves unexpectedly before the coast
+towns, and carried off their inhabitants. But since their predatory
+fleets have been destroyed, the Mediterranean has become the common
+property of the world, and the meshes of an international network of
+maritime highways become closer from year to year. The merchantmen no
+longer pursue their voyages in company as they did in former times,
+discharging their cargo from port to port, for a single vessel may
+venture now into any portion of the Mediterranean in safety. Still
+there remain the dangers of reefs and of storms. The art of navigation
+has made vast progress; most of the capes, at least on the coasts
+of Europe, are lit up by lighthouses; the approaches to the ports
+are rendered easy by lightships, buoys, and beacons; but shipwrecks
+are nevertheless of frequent occurrence. Even large vessels founder
+sometimes, without leaving a stray plank behind to indicate the place
+of their disappearance.
+
+Steamers travelling along prescribed routes are now gradually taking
+the place of sailing vessels, and where they cross at frequent
+intervals they may be {35} likened to ferry-boats crossing a river.
+The regularity and speed of these steam ferries; the facilities which
+they afford for the conveyance of merchandise; the increasing number of
+railways which convey the produce of the interior to the seaports; and
+lastly, the submarine telegraphs, which have established instantaneous
+means of communication between the principal ports, all contribute
+towards the growth of Mediterranean commerce. This commerce, including
+imports and exports, and the transit through the Suez Canal, actually
+amounts to about £353,000,000, a year.[12] This may not be much for a
+maritime population of a hundred millions, but a perceptible increase
+is taking place from year to year. We should also bear in mind that,
+face to face with the busy peninsulas of Europe, there lies torrid
+Africa, an inert mass, avoided by the sailors of our own age as much as
+it was by those of ancient Greece. Its coasts are hardly ever visited,
+with the exception of those portions which extend from Oran to Tunis,
+and from Alexandria to Port Said. It is matter of surprise, too, that
+certain localities which formerly attracted crowds of vessels, such as
+Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and beautiful Crete, at the very entrance to the
+Archipelago, should still remain outside the ordinary track of our
+steamers.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{36}
+
+
+
+
+GREECE.
+
+
+I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.
+
+Greece, within its confined political boundaries, to the south of
+the Gulfs of Arta and Volo, is a country of about nineteen thousand
+square miles, or at most equal to the ten-millionth part of the earth’s
+surface. Within the vast empire of Russia there are many districts
+more extensive than the whole of Greece, but there is nothing which
+distinguishes these from other districts which surround them, and
+their names call forth no idea in our mind. The little country of the
+Hellenes, however, so insignificant upon our maps—how many memories
+does it not awaken ! In no other part of the world had man attained
+a degree of civilisation equally harmonious in all respects, or more
+favourable to individual development. Even now, though carried along
+within an historical cycle far more vast than that of the Greeks,
+we should do well to look back frequently in order to contemplate
+those small nations, who are still our masters in the arts, and
+first initiated us into science. The city which was the “school of
+Greece” still remains the school of the entire world; and after twenty
+centuries of decay, like some of those extinct stars whose luminous
+rays yet reach the earth, still continues to enlighten us.
+
+The considerable part played by the people of Greece during many
+ages must undoubtedly be ascribed to the geographical position of
+their country. Other tribes having the same origin, but inhabiting
+countries less happily situated—such, for instance, as the Pelasgians
+of Illyria, who are believed to be the ancestors of the Albanians—have
+never risen above a state of barbarism, whilst the Hellenes placed
+themselves at the head of civilised nations, and opened fresh paths to
+their enterprise. If Greece had remained for ever what it was during
+the tertiary geological epoch—a vast plain attached to the deserts
+of Libya, and run over by lions and the rhinoceros—would it have
+become the native country of a Phidias, an Æschylos, or a Demosthenes?
+Certainly not. It would have shared the fate of Africa, and, far from
+taking the initiative in civilisation, would have waited for an impulse
+to be given to it from beyond. {37}
+
+Greece, a sub-peninsula of the peninsula of the Balkans, was even more
+completely protected by transverse mountain barriers in the north than
+was Thracia or Macedonia. Greek culture was thus able to develop itself
+without fear of being stifled at its birth by successive invasions of
+barbarians. Mounts Olympus, Pelion, and Ossa, towards the north and
+east of Thessaly, constituted the first line of formidable obstacles
+towards Macedonia. A second barrier, the steep range of the Othrys,
+runs along what is the present political boundary of Greece. To the
+south of the Gulf of Lamia a fresh obstacle awaits us, for the range
+of the Œta closes the passage, and there is but the narrow pass of the
+Thermopylæ between it and the sea. Having crossed the mountains of
+the Locri and descended into the basin of Thebæ, there still remain
+to be crossed the Parnes or the spurs of the Cithæron before we reach
+the plains of Attica. The “isthmus” beyond these is again defended by
+transverse barriers, outlying ramparts, as it were, of the mountain
+citadel of the Peloponnesus, that acropolis of all Greece. Hellas has
+frequently been compared to a series of chambers, the doors of which
+were strongly bolted; it was difficult to get in, but more difficult to
+get out again, owing to their stout defenders. Michelet likens Greece
+to a trap having three compartments. You entered, and found yourself
+taken first in Macedonia, then in Thessaly, then between the Thermopylæ
+and the isthmus. But the difficulties increase beyond the isthmus, and
+Lacedæmonia remained impregnable for a long time.
+
+At an epoch when the navigation even of a land-locked sea like the
+Ægean was attended with danger, Greece found herself sufficiently
+protected against the invasions of oriental nations; but, at the
+same time, no other country held out such inducements to the pacific
+expeditions of merchants. Gulfs and harbours facilitated access to
+her Ægean coasts, and the numerous outlying islands were available as
+stations or as places of refuge. Greece, therefore, was favourably
+placed for entering into commercial intercourse with the more highly
+civilised peoples who dwelt on the opposite coasts of Asia Minor. The
+colonists and voyagers of Eastern Ionia not only supplied their Achæan
+and Pelasgian kinsmen with foreign commodities and merchandise, but
+they also imparted to them the myths, the poetry, the sciences, and the
+arts of their native country. Indeed, the geographical configuration
+of Greece points towards the east, whence she has received her first
+enlightenment. Her peninsulas and outlying islands extend in that
+direction; the harbours on her eastern coasts are most commodious,
+and afford the best shelter; and the mountain-surrounded plains there
+offer the best sites for populous cities. Greece, at the same time,
+does not share the disadvantage of Turkey, which is almost cut off from
+the western world by a mountain region difficult to cross. The Ionian
+Sea, to the west of the Peloponnesus, it is true, is, comparatively
+speaking, a desert; but farther north the Gulf of Corinth almost cuts
+in two the Greek peninsula, and the sight of the distant mountains of
+Italy, which are visible from the Ionian Islands, must have incited
+to an exploration of the western seas. The Acarnanians, who knew how
+to build vaults long before the Romans, were thus brought early into
+contact with the Italians, to whom they imparted their {38} knowledge,
+and at a subsequent period the Greeks became the civilisers of the
+whole western world of the Mediterranean.
+
+The most distinctive feature of Hellas, as far as concerns the relief
+of the ground, consists in the large number of small basins, separated
+one from the other by rocks or mountain ramparts. The features of the
+ground thus favoured the division of the Greek people into a multitude
+of independent republics. Every town had its river, its amphitheatre of
+hills or mountains, its acropolis, its fields, pastures, and forests,
+and nearly all of them had, likewise, access to the sea. All the
+elements required by a free community were thus to be found within each
+of these small districts, and the neighbourhood of other towns, equally
+favoured, kept alive perpetual emulation, too frequently degenerating
+into strife and battle. The islands of the Ægean Sea, likewise, had
+constituted themselves into miniature republics. Local institutions
+thus developed themselves freely, and even the smallest island of the
+Archipelago has its great representatives in history.
+
+But whilst there thus exists the greatest diversity, owing to the
+configuration of the ground and the multitude of islands, the sea acts
+as a binding element, washes every coast, and penetrates far inland.
+These gulfs and numerous harbours have made the maritime inhabitants
+of Greece a nation of sailors—amphibiæ, as Strabo called them. From
+the most remote times the passion for travel has always been strong
+amongst them. When the inhabitants of a town grew too numerous to
+support themselves upon the produce of their land, they swarmed out
+like bees, explored the coasts of the Mediterranean, and, when they had
+found a site which recalled their native home, they built themselves a
+new city. It was thus Greek cities arose in hundreds of places, from
+the Mæotis Palus to beyond the columns of Hercules—from Tanais and
+Panticapæum to Gades and Tingis, the modern Tangier. Thanks to those
+numerous colonies, some of them more powerful and renowned than the
+mother towns which gave birth to them, the veritable Greece, the Greece
+of science and art and republican independence, in the end overflowed
+its ancient cradle, and sporadically occupied the whole circumference
+of the Mediterranean. The Greeks held the same position relatively to
+the world of the ancients which is occupied at the present time by
+the Anglo-Saxons with reference to the entire earth. There exists,
+indeed, a remarkable analogy between Greece, with its archipelago, and
+the British Islands, at the other extremity of the continent. Similar
+geographical advantages have brought about similar results, as far as
+commerce is concerned, and between the Ægean and the British seas time
+and space have effected a sort of harmony.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The admiration with which travellers behold Greece is due, above all,
+to the memories attaching to every one of its ruins, to the smallest
+amongst its rivulets, and the most insignificant rock in its seas.
+Scenery in Provence or Spain, though it may surpass in grace or
+boldness of outline anything to be seen in Greece, is appreciated only
+by a few. The mass go past it without emotion, for names like Marathon,
+Leuctra, or Platææ are not connected with it, and the rustle of bygone
+ages is not heard. But even if glorious memories were not associated
+with the {39} coasts of Greece, their beauty would nevertheless
+entitle them to our admiration. In the gulfs of Athens or of Argos
+the artist is charmed not only with the azure blue of the waters,
+the transparency of the sky, the ever-changing perspective along the
+shores, and the boldness of the promontories, but also with the pure
+and graceful profile of the mountains, which consist of layers of
+limestone or of marble. We almost fancy we look upon architectural
+piles; and the temples with which many a summit is adorned appear to
+epitomize them.
+
+It is verdure and the sparkling water of rivulets which we miss most
+on the shores of Greece. Nearly all the mountains near the coast
+have been despoiled of their large trees. There remain only bushes,
+mastic, strawberry, and juniper trees, and evergreen oaks; even the
+carpet of odoriferous herbs which clothes the declivities, and upon
+which the goat browses, has in many instances been reduced to a few
+miserable patches. Torrents of rain have carried away the mould,
+and the naked rock appears on the surface. From a distance we only
+see greyish declivities, dotted here and there with a few wretched
+shrubs. Even in the days of Strabo most mountains along the coasts
+had been robbed of their forests, and one of our modern authors says
+that “Greece is a skeleton only of what it used to be !” By a sort of
+irony, geographical names derived from trees abound throughout Hellas
+and Turkey: Caryæ is the “town of walnut-trees,” Valanidia that of the
+Valonia oaks, Kyparissi that of cypresses, Platanos or Plataniki that
+of plane-trees. Everywhere we meet with localities whose appellation is
+justified by nothing. Forests at the present day are confined almost
+entirely to the interior and to the Ionian coast. The Œta Mountains,
+some of the mountains of Ætolia, the hills of Acarnania, and Arcadia,
+Elis, Triphylia, and the slopes of the Taygetus, in the Peloponnesus,
+still retain their forests. And it is only in these forest districts,
+visited solely by herdsmen, that savage animals, such as the wolf, the
+fox, and the jackal, are now met with. The chamois, it is said, still
+haunts the recesses of the Pindus and Œta Mountains; but the wild boar
+of the Erymanthus, which must have been a distinct species if we are to
+judge by antique sculptures, exists no more in Greece, and the lion,
+still mentioned by Aristotle, has not been seen for two thousand years.
+Amongst the smaller animals there is a turtle, common in some parts of
+the Peloponnesus, which the natives look upon with the same aversion as
+do many western nations upon the toad and the salamander.
+
+Greece is a small country, but the variety of its climate is
+nevertheless great. Striking differences in the climate of different
+localities are produced by the contrasts between mountains and plains,
+woodlands and sterile valleys, coasts having a northern or southern
+aspect. But even leaving out of sight these local differences, it
+may safely be asserted that the varieties of climate which we meet
+with in traversing Greece from north to south are scarcely exceeded
+in any other region. The mountains of Ætolia, in the north, whose
+slopes are covered with beech-trees, remind us of the temperate zone
+of Europe, whilst the peninsulas and islands towards the east and
+south, with their thickets of fig and olive trees, their plantations
+of oranges and lemons, their aloe hedges and rare palm-trees, belong
+to the sub-tropical zone. But even neighbouring districts occasionally
+{40} differ strikingly as regards climate. In the ancient lake basin
+of Bœotia the winters are cold, the summers scorching, whilst the
+temperature of the eastern shore of Eubœa is equable, owing to the
+moderating influence of sea breezes. Within a narrow compass Greece
+presents us with the climates of a large portion of the earth, and
+there can be no doubt that this diversity of climate, and the contrasts
+of every kind springing from it, must have favourably influenced the
+intellectual development of the Hellenes. A spirit of inquiry was
+called forth amongst them which reacted upon their commercial tastes
+and industrial proclivities.
+
+The diversity of the climate of the land, however, is compensated for,
+in Greece, by a uniformity in the climate of the maritime districts. As
+in a mountain valley, the winds of the Ægean Sea blow alternately in
+contrary directions. During nearly the whole of summer the atmospheric
+currents of Eastern Europe are attracted towards the African deserts.
+The winds from the north of the Archipelago and Macedonia then speed
+the navigator on his voyage to the south, and on many occasions the
+conquering tribes of the northern shores of that sea have availed
+themselves of them in their improvised attacks upon the inhabitants
+of the more southern districts of Asia Minor and of Greece. These
+regular northerly currents, known as etesian or annual winds, cease
+on the termination of the hot season, when the sun stands above the
+southern tropic. They are, moreover, interrupted every night, when
+the cool sea air is attracted by the heated surface of the land.
+When the sun has set the wind gradually subsides; there is a calm,
+lasting a few moments; and then the air begins to move in an inverse
+direction—“the land begins to blow,” as the sailors say. Nor is this
+regular wind without its counter-current, known as the _embates_, or
+propitious south-easterly breeze of which the poets sing. General winds
+and breezes, moreover, are deflected from their original directions
+in consequence of the configuration of the coast and the direction
+of mountain chains. The Gulf of Corinth, for instance, is shut in by
+high mountains on the north and the south, and the winds alternately
+enter it from the east or west—a phenomenon likened by Strabo to the
+breathing of an animal.
+
+The rains, like the winds, deviate in many places from the average,
+and whilst the water pours down into some mountain valleys as into a
+funnel, elsewhere the clouds drift past without parting with a drop of
+their humid burden. Contrasts in the amount of precipitation are thus
+added to those resulting from differences of configuration and variety
+of climate. As a rule, rain is more abundant on the western shores of
+Greece than on the eastern, and this fact accounts for the smiling
+aspect of the hills of Elis, as compared with the barren declivities
+of Argolis and Attica. Thunder-storms, driven before the winds of the
+Mediterranean, likewise recur with greater regularity in the western
+portion of the peninsula. In Elis and Acarnania the roll of thunder may
+be heard in spring daily, for whole weeks, in the afternoon. No sites
+more apposite could have been found for temples dedicated to Jupiter,
+the god of lightning.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The ancient inhabitants of the Cyclades, and probably, also, those
+of the coasts {41} of Hellas and Asia Minor, had already attained a
+considerable amount of culture long before the commencement of our
+historical records. This has been proved by excavations made in the
+volcanic ashes of Santorin and Therasia. At the time their houses were
+buried beneath the ashes, the Santoriniotes had begun to pass from the
+age of stone into that of copper. They knew how to build arches of
+stone and mortar, they manufactured lime, used weights made of blocks
+of lava, wove cloth, made pottery, dyed their stuffs, and ornamented
+their houses with frescoes; they cultivated barley, peas, and lentils,
+and had begun to trade with distant countries.
+
+We do not know whether these men were of the same race as the Hellenes;
+but thus much is certain—that at the earliest dawn of history the
+islands and coasts of the Ægean Sea were peopled by various families of
+Greeks, whilst the interior of the country and the western shores of
+the peninsula were inhabited by Pelasgians. These Pelasgians, moreover,
+were of the same stock as the Greeks, and they spoke a language derived
+from the same source as the dialects of the Hellenes. Both were Aryans,
+and, unless natives of the soil, they must have immigrated into Greece
+from Asia Minor by crossing the Hellespont, or by way of the islands
+of the Archipelago. The Pelasgians, according to tradition, sprang
+from Mount Lycæus, in the centre of the Peloponnesus; they boasted of
+being “autochthons,” “men of the black soil,” “children of oaks,” or
+“men born before the moon.” All around them lived tribes of kindred
+origin, such as the Æolians and the Leleges, and these were afterwards
+joined by Ionians and Achæans. The Ionians, who, in a subsequent age,
+exercised so great an influence over the destinies of the world, only
+occupied the peninsula of Attica and the neighbouring Eubœa. The
+Achæans for a long time enjoyed a preponderance, and in the end the
+Greek clans collectively became known by that name. Later on, when
+the Dorians had crossed the Gulf of Corinth where it is narrowest,
+and established themselves as conquerors in the Peloponnesus, the
+Amphictyons, or national councils, sitting alternately at Thermopylæ
+and Delphi, conferred the name of Hellenes, which was that of a small
+tribe in Thessaly and Phthiotis, upon all the inhabitants of the
+peninsula and the islands. The name of Greek, which signifies, perhaps,
+“mountaineer,” “ancient,” or “son of the soil,” gradually spread
+amongst the nation, and in the end became general. The Ionians of Asia
+Minor, and the Carians of the Sporades, emulated the Phœnicians by
+trading from port to port amongst these half-savage tribes, and, like
+bees which convey the fecundating pollen from flower to flower, they
+carried the civilisation of Egypt and the East from tribe to tribe.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 9.—MAINOTE AND SPARTAN.]
+
+Phœnician merchants and Roman conquerors scarcely modified the elements
+composing the population of Hellas, but during the age of migrations
+barbarians in large numbers penetrated into Greece. For more than two
+centuries did the Avares maintain themselves in the Peloponnesus. Then
+came the Slavs, aided, on more than one occasion, by the plague in
+depopulating the country. Greece became a Slavonia, and a Slavonian
+language, probably Servian, was universally spoken, as is proved by
+the majority of geographical names. The superstitions and legends {42}
+of the modern Greeks, as has been remarked by many authors, are not
+simply a heritage derived from the ancient Hellenes, but have become
+enriched by phantoms and vampires of Slav invention. The dress of the
+Greeks, too, is a legacy of their northern conquerors. But, in spite
+of this, the polished language of the Hellenes {43} has regained by
+degrees its ancient preponderance, and the race has so thoroughly
+amalgamated these foreign immigrants, that it is impossible now to
+trace any Servian elements in the population. But hardly had Hellas
+escaped the danger of becoming Slav when it was threatened with
+becoming Albanian. This occurred during the dominion of Venice. As
+recently as the commencement of the present century Albanian was the
+dominant language of Elis, Argos, Bœotia, and Attica, and even at the
+present day a hundred thousand supposed Hellenes still speak it. The
+actual population of Greece is, therefore, a very mixed one, but it is
+difficult to say in what proportions these Hellenic, Slav, and Albanian
+elements have combined. The Mainotes, or Maniotes, of the peninsula
+terminating in Cape Matapan, are generally supposed to be the Greeks of
+the purest blood. They themselves claim to be the descendants of the
+ancient Spartans, and amongst their strongholds they still point out
+one which belonged to “Signor Lycurgus.” Their Councils of Elders have
+preserved from immemorial times, and down to the war of independence,
+the title of Senate of Lacedæmonia. Every Mainote professes to love
+unto death “Liberty, the highest of all goods, inherited from our
+Spartan ancestors.” Nevertheless, a good many localities in Maina bear
+names derived from the Servian, and these prove, at all events, that
+the Slavs resided in the country for a considerable time. The Mainotes
+practise the _vendetta_, as if they were Montenegrins. But is not this
+a common custom amongst all uncivilised nations?
+
+However this may be, in spite of invasions and intermixture with other
+races, the Greeks of to-day agree in most points with the Greeks of
+the past. Above all things, they have preserved their language, and
+it is truly matter for surprise that the vulgar Greek, though derived
+from a rural dialect, should differ so slightly only from the literary
+language. The differences, analogous to what may be observed with
+respect to the languages derived from the Latin, are restricted almost
+to two points, viz. the contraction of non-accentuated syllables and
+the use of auxiliary verbs. It was, therefore, easy for the modern
+Greeks to purify their language from barbarisms and foreign terms,
+and to restore it gradually to what it was in the time of Thucydides.
+Nor has the race changed much in its physical features, for in most
+districts of modern Greece the ancient types may yet be recognised.
+The Bœotian is still distinguished by that heavy gait which made him
+an object of ridicule amongst the other Greeks; the Athenian youth
+possesses the suppleness, grace of movement and bearing which we admire
+so much in the horsemen sculptured on the friezes of the Parthenon; the
+Spartan women have preserved that haughty and vigorous beauty which
+constituted the charm of the virgins of Doris. As regards morals,
+the descent of the modern Hellenes is equally evident. Like their
+ancestors, they are fond of change, and inquisitive; as the descendants
+of free citizens, they have preserved a feeling of equality; and,
+still infatuated with dialectics, they hold forth at all times as
+if they were in the ancient market-place, or Agora. They frequently
+stoop to flattery: like the ancient Greeks, too, they are apt to rate
+intellectual merit above purity of morals. {44} Like sage Ulysses of
+the Homeric poem, they well know how to lie and cheat with grace; and
+the truthful Acarnanian and the Mainote, who are “slow to promise,
+but sure to keep,” are looked upon as rural oddities. Another trait
+in the character of the modern and ancient Greeks, and one which
+distinguishes them from all other Europeans, is this—that they do not
+allow themselves to be carried away by passion, except in the cause of
+patriotism. The Greek is a stranger to melancholy: he loves life, and
+is determined to enjoy it. In battle he may throw it away, but suicide
+is a species of death unknown amongst the modern Greeks, and the more
+unhappy they are, the more they cling to existence. They are very
+seldom afflicted with insanity.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 10.—FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE POPULATION OF GREECE.]
+
+In spite of the diverse elements which compose it, the Greek
+nationality is one of the most homogeneous in Europe. The Albanians,
+of Pelasgian descent like the Greeks, do not cede to the latter in
+patriotism; and it was they—the Suliotes, Hydriotes, Spezziotes—who
+fought most valiantly for national independence. The eight hundred
+families of Rumanian or Kutzo-Wallachian Zinzares who pasture
+their herds in the hills of Acarnania and Ætolia, and are known as
+Kara-Gunis, or “black cloaks,” speak the two languages, and sometimes
+marry Greek girls, though they never give their own daughters in
+marriage to the Greeks. Haughty and free, they are not sufficiently
+numerous to be of any great importance. To foreigners the Greeks are
+rather intolerant, and they take no pains to render their stay amongst
+them agreeable. The Turks—who were numerous formerly in certain parts
+of the Peloponnesus, in Bœotia, and in the {45} island of Eubœa, and
+whose presence recalled an unhappy period of servitude—have fled to
+a man, and only the fez, the narghile, and the slippers remind us of
+their former presence. The Jews, though met with in every town of the
+East, whether Slav or Mussulman, dare hardly enter the presence of the
+Greeks, who are, moreover, their most redoubtable rivals in matters
+of finance: they are to be found only in the Ionian Islands, where
+they managed to get a footing during the British Protectorate. In this
+same Archipelago we likewise meet with the descendants of the ancient
+Venetian colonists, and with emigrants from all parts of Italy. French
+and Italian families still form a distinct element of the population
+of Naxos, Santorin, and Syra. As to the Maltese porters and gardeners
+at Athens and Corfu, they continue for the most part in subordinate
+positions, and never associate with the Greeks.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The homogeneous character of the population of Greece does not admit
+of that country being divided into ethnological provinces, like
+Turkey or Austro-Hungary, but it consists geographically of four
+distinct portions. These are (1), continental Hellas, known since the
+Turkish invasion as Rumelia, in remembrance of the “Roman” empire of
+Byzantium; (2), the ancient Peloponnesus, now called the Morea, perhaps
+a transposition of the word “Romea,” or from a Slav word signifying
+“sea coast,” and applied formerly to Elis; (3), the islands of the
+Ægean Sea; (4), the Ionian Islands. In describing the various portions
+of Greece we shall make use, in preference, of the ancient names of
+mountains, rivers, and towns; for the Hellenes of our own day, proud of
+the glories of the past, are endeavouring gradually to get rid of names
+of Slav or Italian origin, which still figure upon the maps of their
+country.[13]
+
+
+II.—CONTINENTAL GREECE.
+
+The Pindus, which forms the central chain of Southern Turkey, passes
+over into Greece, and imparts to it an analogous orographical
+character. On both sides of this conventional boundary we meet with the
+same rocks, the same vegetation, the same landscape features, and the
+same races of people. By dividing the Epirus and handing over Thessaly
+to the Turks, European diplomacy has paid no attention to natural
+features. The eastern portion of the boundary is made to follow the
+line of water parting over the range of the lofty Othrys, commanding
+the plain of the Sperchius. Westward of the Pindus the boundary {46}
+crosses transversely the valley of the Achelous, and the hills which
+separate it from the Gulf of Arta.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 11.—MOUNT PARNASSUS AND DELPHI.]
+
+The isolated summit of Mount Tymphrestus, or Velukhi, which rises where
+the grand chain of the Othrys branches off from the Pindus, is not the
+culminating point of continental Greece, but it is a centre from which
+the principal mountain spurs and rivers radiate. Within its spurs lies
+hidden the charming valley of Karpenisi, and an elevated ridge joins
+them, towards the south-east, to the most important mountain mass of
+modern Greece, viz. the group surmounted by the snow-clad pyramids of
+the Vardusia and Khiona, whose slopes are covered with dark firs, and
+to the superb Katavothra, the Œta of the ancients, on which Hercules
+built his funeral pile. The mountains of Vardusia and Khiona are face
+to face with the fine mountain masses of Northern Morea, likewise
+wooded and covered with snow during the greater part of the year.
+
+The mountains of Ætolia, to the west of the Velukhi and the Vardusia,
+are far less elevated, but they are rugged, and form a veritable chaos
+of rocks, savage defiles, and thickets, into which only Wallachian
+herdsmen venture. In Southern Ætolia, on the shores of the lakes and
+along the rivers, the country is more accessible, but mountains rise
+there likewise, and by tortuous ridges they are brought into connection
+with the system of the Pindus. Those on the coast of Acarnania,
+opposite to the Ionian Islands, are steep, covered with trees and
+shrubs; they are the mountains of the “Black Continent” mentioned by
+Ulysses. {47} To the east of the Achelous there is another coast
+chain, well known to mariners: this is the Zygos, the southern slopes
+of which, arid and austere, are seen from off Missolonghi. Still
+further to the east another range comes down to the seashore, and,
+together with the promontories on the opposite coast of the Morea,
+forms the narrow entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. Close to this
+entrance, on the Ætolian side, there rises bold Mount Varassova, a huge
+block of rock. Local tradition tells us that the Titans endeavoured to
+throw this rock into the sea, so that it might form a bridge between
+the two coasts; but the rock proved too heavy, and it was dropped where
+we now see it.
+
+Towards the Ægean Sea the mountain mass of the Katavothra is continued
+by a coast range running in a direction parallel to the mountains of
+the island of Eubœa. This range should be described rather as a series
+of mountain-groups separated from each other by deep hollows, extensive
+depressions, and even by river valleys. These mountains, though low
+and intersected by numerous roads, are nevertheless difficult of
+access, for their slopes are steep, their promontories abrupt, and
+their precipices sudden, and in the times of the ancient Greeks a small
+number of men repeatedly defended them against large armies. At one
+extremity of this range is the passage of Thermopylæ; at the other, on
+the eastern foot of the Pentelicus, the famous plain of Marathon.
+
+The mountain groups on the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, and
+to the south of Bœotia, may be looked upon as a range running parallel
+with that following the channel of Eubœa, but far more beautiful and
+picturesque. Every one of its summits recalls the sweet memories of
+poetry, or conjures up the image of some ancient deity. To the west we
+find ourselves in the presence of “double-headed” Parnassus, to which
+fled Deucalion and Pyrrha, the ancestors of the Greeks, and where the
+Athenians celebrated their torchlight dances in honour of Bacchus.
+From the summits of the Parnassus, which rival in height those of the
+Khiona, raising its pyramidal head towards the north-west, nearly the
+whole of Greece, with its gulfs, islands, and mountains, lies spread
+out below us, from the Thessalian Olympus to the Taygetus, at the
+extremity of the Peloponnesus; and close by, at our feet, lies the
+admirable basin of Delphi, the place of Peace and Concord, where Greeks
+forgot their animosities. The mountain group towards the east next to
+Parnassus is quite equal to it. The valleys of the Helicon, the seat of
+Apollo and the Muses, are still the most verdant and the most smiling
+in all Greece. The eastern slope of the Helicon is more especially
+distinguished for its charming beauty, its woods, its verdant pastures,
+gardens, and murmuring springs, which contrast most favourably with the
+bare and arid plains of Bœotia. If Mount Parnassus may boast of the
+Castalian spring, Mount Helicon possesses that of Hippocrene, which
+burst forth from the ground when struck by the hoof of Pegasus. The
+elongated summit of the Cithæron, the birthplace of Bacchus, joins
+the mountains of Southern Bœotia to those of Attica, whose marble has
+become famous through the neighbourhood of the city which they shelter.
+Mount Parnes rises to the north of Athens; to the east of it, like the
+pediment of a temple, rises the Pentelicus, in which are {48} the
+quarries of Pikermi, rendered famous through their fossil bones; on the
+south appears Mount Hymettus, celebrated for its flowers and its bees.
+Farther away, the Laurium, with its rich argentiferous slags, stretches
+towards the south-east, and terminates in Cape Sunium, consecrated in
+other days to Minerva and Neptune, and still surmounted by fifteen
+columns of an ancient temple.
+
+Another isolated mountain group to the south of Attica, and occupying
+the entire width of the Isthmus of Megara, served the Athenians as a
+rampart of defence against their neighbours of the Peloponnesus. This
+is the mountain group of Gerania, the modern Pera Khora.[14] Having
+passed beyond it, we find ourselves upon the Isthmus of Corinth,
+properly so called, confined between the Gulfs of Athens and of
+Corinth. It is a narrow neck of land, scarcely five miles across,
+whose arid limestone rocks hardly rise two hundred feet above the sea.
+This neutral bit of territory, lying between two distinct geographical
+regions, naturally became a place for meetings, festivals, and markets.
+The remains of a wall built by the Peloponnesians across the isthmus
+may still be traced, as may also the canal commenced by order of Nero.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The limestone mountains of Greece, as well as those of the Epirus and
+of Thessaly, abound in lakes, but all the rivers are swallowed up in
+“sinks,” or _katavothras_, leaving the land dry and arid. Southern
+Acarnania, a portion of which is known as Xeromeros, or the “arid
+country,” on account of the absence of running water, abounds in
+lake basins of this kind. To the south of the Gulf of Arta, which
+may not inaptly be described as a sort of lake communicating with
+the sea through a narrow opening, there are several sheets of water,
+the remains of an inland sea, silted up by the alluvial deposits of
+the Achelous. The largest of these lakes is known to the natives as
+Pelagos, or “big sea,” because of its extent and the agitated state of
+its waters, which break against its coasts. This is the Trichonius of
+the ancient Ætolians. Reputed unfathomable, it is, in truth, very deep,
+and its waters are perfectly pure; but they are discharged sluggishly
+into another basin far less extensive, and surrounded by pestilential
+marshes, and through a turgid stream they even find their way into
+the Achelous. The hills surrounding Lake Trichonis are covered with
+villages and fields, whilst the locality around the lower lake has
+been depopulated by fever. The country, nevertheless, is exceedingly
+beautiful to look upon. Hardly have we passed through a narrow gorge,
+or _klisura_, of Mount Zygos before we enter upon a bridge over a
+mile in length, which a Turkish governor caused to be thrown across
+the swamps separating the two lakes. This viaduct has sunk down more
+than half its {49} height into the mud, but it is still sufficiently
+elevated to enable the eye freely to sweep over the surface of the
+waters, and to trace the coasts which bound them. Oaks, planes, and
+wild olive-trees intermingle beneath us, their branches hung with
+festoons of wild vine, and these, with the blue waters of the lake and
+the mountains rising beyond it, form a picture of great beauty.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 12.—LOWER ACARNANIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 800,000.]
+
+Another lake basin lies to the south of the Zygos, between the alluvial
+lands of the Achelous and the Fidari. It is occupied by a swamp
+filled with fresh, brackish, or salt water; and since the days of
+ancient Greece, this swamp, owing to the apathy of the inhabitants,
+has continued to increase in extent at the expense of the cultivated
+land. Missolonghi the heroic is indebted for its name to its position
+near these marshes, for the meaning of it is “centre of marshes.” A
+barrier, or _ramma_, here and there broken through by the floods,
+separates the basin of Missolonghi from the Ionian Sea. During the
+war of independence every opening in this barrier was protected by
+redoubts or stockades, but at present the only obstruction consists
+of the reed barriers of the fishermen, which are opened in spring to
+admit the fish from the sea, and closed in summer to prevent their
+escape. Missolonghi, though surrounded by brackish water, is a healthy
+place, thanks to the breezes from the sea; whilst a heavy atmosphere
+charged with miasmata hangs perpetually over the bustling little town
+of Ætoliko (Anatolikon), which lies farther to the north-west in the
+midst of the swamps, and is joined to the dry land by two bridges.
+Between Ætoliko and the river Achelous may be observed a large number
+of rocky eminences, rising like pyramids above the plain. These are
+no doubt ancient islands, such as still exist between the mainland
+and the island of St. Mauro. The mud brought down by the Achelous has
+gradually converted the intervals between these {50} rocks into dry
+land. In former times the commercial city of Œniadæ occupied one of
+these islets. The geological changes already noticed by Herodotus are
+thus still going on under our eyes, and the muds of the Achelous, to
+which it owes its modern name of Aspro, or “white,” incessantly extend
+the land at the expense of the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 13.—THERMOPYLÆ.
+
+From the French Staff Map (1852). Scale 1 : 330,000.]
+
+The Achelous, which the ancients likened to a savage bull, owing to
+its rapid current and great volume, is by far the most important river
+of Greece. One of the great feats ascribed to Hercules consisted
+in breaking off one of the horns of this bull; that is to say, he
+embanked the river, and thus protected the lands which it used to
+inundate. The neighbours of the Achelous, the rapid Fidari (Evenus, on
+the banks of which Hercules killed the centaur Nessus, for offering
+violence to Dejanira) and the Mornos, which rises in the snows of the
+Œta, cannot compare with it. Still less is it equalled by the Oropus,
+the Cephissus, and the Ilissus, “wet only when it rains,” which flow
+eastward into the Ægean Sea. The principal river of Eastern Greece, the
+Sperchius, is inferior to the Achelous, but, like it, has extensively
+changed the aspect of the plain near its mouth. When Leonidas and his
+three hundred heroes guarded the defiles of Thermopylæ against the
+Persians, the Gulf of Lamia extended much farther into the land than
+it does now. But the alluvial deposits of the river have extended its
+delta, and several rivulets which formerly flowed {51} directly into
+the sea have now to be numbered amongst its tributaries; the sea has
+retired from the foot of the Callidromus for a distance of several
+miles; and the narrow pass of Thermopylæ has been converted into a
+plain sufficiently wide to enable an entire army to manœuvre upon it.
+The hot springs which gush from the rocks, by forming deposits of
+calcareous tufa, may likewise have contributed towards this change
+of coast-line; nor are more violent convulsions of nature precluded
+in a volcanic region like this, subject to frequent earthquakes.
+Sailors still point out a small island in this neighbourhood, formed
+of scoriæ, from which the incensed Hercules hurled his companion,
+Lichas, into the ocean. Hot springs abound on the opposite coast of
+Eubœa, and the incrustations formed by them are so considerable as to
+assume the appearance of glaciers when seen from a distance. A bathing
+establishment exists now near the hot sulphur springs of Thermopylæ,
+and strangers are thus enabled to explore this region, so rich in
+memories of a great past. The pedestal, however, upon which reposed
+the figure of a marble lion, placed there in honour of Leonidas, has
+been destroyed by ruthless hands, and utilised in the construction of a
+mill !
+
+The basin of the Cephissus, enclosed by the chains of the Œta and
+Parnassus, is one of the most remarkable from an hydrological point
+of view. The river first flows through a bottom-land formerly a
+lake, and then, forcing for itself a passage through a narrow defile
+commanded by the spurs of Mount Parnassus, it winds round the rock upon
+which stood the ancient city of Orchomenus, and enters upon a vast
+plain, where swamps and lakes are embedded amidst cultivated fields
+and reed-banks. These swamps are fed, likewise, by numerous torrents
+descending from the Helicon and other mountains in its vicinity. One
+of these is the torrent of Livadia, into which the bounteous springs
+of Memory and Oblivion—Mnemosyne and Lethe—discharge themselves. In
+summer a large portion of the plain is dry, and it yields a bountiful
+harvest of maize, the stalks of which are sweet like sugar-cane. But
+after the heavy rains of autumn and winter the waters rise twenty,
+and even twenty-five feet, and the plain is converted into a vast
+lake, ninety-six square miles in extent. The myth of the deluge of
+Ogyges almost leads us to believe that the rising floods occasionally
+invaded every valley which debouches into this basin. To the ancients
+the shallower part of this lake was known as Cephissus, and its deep
+eastern portion as Copais, from Copæ, a town occupying a promontory on
+its northern shore, and now called Topolias.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 14.—LAKE COPAIS
+
+From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 500,000.
+
+K. Katavothras.]
+
+The importance of regulating the floods just referred to, and of
+preventing the sudden overflow of the waters to the destruction of the
+cultivated fields, may readily be imagined. The ancient Greeks made
+an effort to accomplish this task. To the east of the large Lake of
+Copais there is another lake basin, about one hundred and thirty feet
+lower, and encompassed by precipitous rocks, incapable of cultivation.
+This basin, the Hylice of the Bœotians, appears to be made by nature
+for receiving the superabundant waters of the Copais. The remains of a
+canal may still be traced in the plain, which was evidently intended to
+convey into {52} it the floods of the Copais, but it appears never to
+have been completed. No doubt care was taken to keep open the various
+_katavothras_, or subterranean channels, through which the waters of
+the Copaic lake discharge themselves into the sea. One of these, on the
+north-western shore of the lake, and close to the rock of Orchomenus,
+swallowed up the river Melas, and conveyed its waters to the Gulf of
+Atalanta. Farther to the east other subterranean channels flow towards
+Lakes Hylice and Paralimni, but the most important of these channels
+are towards the north-east, in the Gulf of Kokkino. In that extreme
+angle of the lake, the veritable Copais, the waters of the Cephissus
+rush against the foot of Mount Skroponeri, and are swallowed up by
+the ground so as to form a subterranean delta. To the south there is
+a cavernous opening in the rock, but this is merely a sort of tunnel
+passing underneath a promontory, and, except during the rainy season,
+it may be traversed dry-shod. Beyond this, another opening swallows
+up one of the most important branches of the Cephissus, which makes
+its reappearance in the shape of bounteous springs pouring their
+waters into the sea. Two other branches of the river disappear in
+the rocks about a mile farther north. They join soon afterwards, and
+flow northwards beneath the bottom of a sinuous valley. The old Greek
+engineers dug pits in this valley, which enabled them to descend to
+the subterranean waters, and to clear away obstructions interfering
+with their flow. Sixteen of these pits have been discovered between
+the opening of the katavothra and the place where the waters reappear.
+Some of these are still thirty to one hundred feet in depth; but most
+of them have become choked up with stones and earth. These ancient
+engineering works, which Crates vainly endeavoured to restore in the
+time of Alexander, may possibly date {53} from the mythical age of
+King Minyas of Orchomenus,[15] and the successful draining of these
+marshes may account for the well-filled treasury of that king spoken
+of by Homer. Thus the ingenuity of the Homeric age had succeeded in
+accomplishing a work of the engineering art which baffles our modern
+men of science !
+
+[Illustration: PEASANTS FROM THE ENVIRONS OF ATHENS.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The whole of Western Greece, filled as it is by the mountains of
+Acarnania, Ætolia, and Phocis, is condemned by nature to play a very
+subordinate part to the eastern provinces. In the time of the ancient
+Greeks these provinces were looked upon almost as a portion of the
+world of the barbarians, and even in our own days the Ætolians are the
+least cultivated of all the Greeks. There is no commerce except at a
+few privileged places close to the sea, such as Missolonghi, Ætoliko,
+Salona, and Galaxidi. The latter, which is situated on a bay, into
+which flows the Pleistus, a river at one time consecrated to Neptune,
+although quite dry during the greater part of the year, was, up to
+the war of independence, the busiest seaport on the Gulf of Corinth.
+As for Naupactus, or Epakto, (called Lepanto by the Italians), it
+was important merely from a strategical point of view, on account
+of its position at the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth, which is
+sometimes named after it. Many naval engagements were fought to force
+the entrance into the gulf, defended by the castles of Rumelia and
+Morea—the ancient Rhium and Antirrhium. A curious phenomenon has been
+observed in connection with the channel which forms the entrance to the
+Gulf of Corinth. Nowhere more than 36 fathoms in depth, it is subject
+to perpetual changes in its width, owing to the formation of alluvial
+deposits by maritime currents. What one current deposits is carried
+away by the other. At the epoch of the Peloponnesian war this channel
+was 7 stadia, or about 1,200 yards, wide; at the time of Strabo its
+width was only 5 stadia; whilst in our own days it is no less than
+2,200 yards from promontory to promontory. The entrance of the Gulf of
+Arta, between the Turkish Epirus and Greek Acarnania, does not present
+the same phenomena, and its present width is about equal to that
+assigned to it by every ancient author; that is to say, about 1,000
+yards.
+
+The valleys and lake basins of Eastern Greece, and more especially its
+position between the Gulf of Corinth, the Ægean Sea, and the channel of
+Eubœa, which almost convert it into a peninsula, sufficiently account
+for the prosperity of that country. With its cities of Thebes, Athens,
+and Megara, it is essentially a land of historical reminiscences. The
+contrast between the two most important districts of this region—Bœotia
+and Attica—is very striking. The first of these is an inland basin, the
+waters of which are collected into lakes, where mists accumulate, and
+a rich vegetation springs forth from a fat alluvial soil. Attica, on
+the other hand, is arid. A thin layer of mould covers the terraces of
+its rocky slopes; its valleys open out into the sea; the summits of its
+mountains rise into an azure sky; and the blue waters of the Ægean wash
+their base. Had the Greeks been fearful of the sea; had they confined
+themselves, as in the earliest {54} ages, to the cultivation of the
+soil, Bœotia, no doubt, would have retained the preponderance which
+it enjoyed in the time of the Minyæ of wealthy Orchomenus. But the
+progress of navigation and the allurements of commerce, which proved
+irresistible to the Greeks, were bound by degrees to transfer the lead
+to the men of Attica. The city of Athens, which arose in the midst of
+the largest plain of this peninsula, therefore occupied a position
+which assured to it a grand future.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 15.—THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS.]
+
+The choice of Athens as the modern capital of Greece has been much
+criticized. Times have changed, no doubt, and the natural centres
+of commerce have become shifted, in consequence of the migrations
+of nations. Corinth, on the isthmus joining continental Greece to
+the Peloponnesus, and commanding two seas, undoubtedly deserved the
+preference. Its facilities for communicating with Constantinople and
+the Greek maritime districts still under the rule of the Osmanli, on
+the one hand, and with the western world, from which now proceed all
+civilising impulses, on the other, are certainly greater than those
+of Athens. If Greece, instead of a small centralised kingdom, had
+become a federal republic, which would have been more in accordance
+with her genius and traditions, there is no doubt that other towns of
+Greece, more favourably situated than Athens for establishing rapid
+communications with the rest of Europe, would soon have surpassed that
+town in population and commercial wealth. Athens, however, has grown
+upon its plain, and, by the construction of a railway, it has become
+even {55} a maritime city, as in ancient days, when its triple walls
+joined it to the ports of the Piræus and Phalerum.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 16.—ATHENS AND ITS LONG WALLS.
+
+According to Kiepert and Schmidt. Scale 1 : 114,000.]
+
+But how great the difference between the monuments of the ancient
+city and of the modern ! The Parthenon, though gutted by the shells
+of the Venetian Morosini, and robbed since of its finest sculptures,
+still retains its pure and simple beauty, which agrees so well with
+the sobriety of the surrounding landscape—still remains the finest
+architectural work of the world. By the side of this majestic ruin, on
+the same plateau of the Acropolis, where the mariner in the Gulf of
+Ægina saw the gilt spear-head of Athene Promachos glitter in the sun,
+there rise other monuments, the Erechtheum and the Propylæa, hardly
+inferior to it, and dating likewise from the great period of art.
+Outside the city, on a promontory, rises the temple of Theseus, the
+best-preserved monument of Greek antiquity. Elsewhere, on the banks
+of the Ilissus, a group of columns marks the site of the magnificent
+temple of Olympian Jupiter, which it took the Athenians seven hundred
+years to build, and which their degenerate descendants made use of as
+a quarry. Remarkable remains have been discovered in many other parts
+of the ancient city, and the least of them are of interest, for they
+recall the memory of illustrious men. On such a rock sat the Areopagus
+which condemned Socrates; from this stone tribune Demosthenes addressed
+the multitude; and here walked Plato with his disciples !
+
+A similar historical interest attaches to nearly every part of Attica,
+whether we visit the city of Eleusis, where the mysteries of Ceres were
+celebrated, or the {56} city of Megara, with its double Acropolis,
+or whether we explore the field of Marathon and the shores of the
+island of Salamis. Even beyond Attica the memories of the past attract
+the traveller to Platæa, to Leuctra, Chæronea, Thebes of Œdipus, and
+Orchomenus of Minyas, though, in comparison with what these districts
+were in other times, they are now deserts. In addition to Athens and
+Thebes, there are now only two cities in eastern continental Greece
+which are of any importance. These are Lamia, in the midst of the low
+plains of the Sperchius, and Livadia, in Bœotia, at one time celebrated
+for the cavern of Trophonius, which archæologists have not yet
+succeeded in identifying. The island of Ægina, which belongs to Attica,
+offers the same spectacle of decay and depopulation as the mainland.
+Anciently it supported more than two hundred thousand inhabitants; at
+present it hardly numbers six thousand. But the island still retains
+the picturesque ruin of its temple of Minerva, and the prospect which
+it affords of the amphitheatre of hills in Argolis and Attica is as
+magnificent as ever.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 17.—ANCIENT ATHENS.
+
+According to Kiepert and Schmidt. Scale 1 : 30,000.]
+
+
+III.—THE MOREA, OR PELOPONNESUS.
+
+Geographically the Peloponnesus well deserves the name of island,
+which was bestowed upon it by the ancients. The low Isthmus of Corinth
+completely severs it from the mountainous peninsula of Greece. It is
+a world in itself, small enough as far as the mere space is concerned
+which it occupies upon the map, but great on account of the part it has
+played in the history of humanity. {57}
+
+On entering the Peloponnesus from the Isthmus of Corinth, we see rising
+in front of us the mountain rampart of Oneium, which defended the
+entrance of the peninsula, and upon one of whose promontories was built
+the nearly impregnable citadel of Corinth. These mountains form part
+of the general mountain system of the whole island, and, sheltered by
+them, its inhabitants could live in security. The principal mountain
+mass, whence all other chains radiate towards the entrances of the
+peninsula, is situated in the interior of the country, about forty
+miles to the west of Corinth. There Mount Cyllene of the ancient
+Greeks, or Zyria, rises into the air, its flanks covered with dark
+pines; and farther away still, the Khelmos, or Aroanian Mountain,
+attains even a more considerable height, its snows descending into a
+valley on its northern slope, where they give rise to the river Styx,
+the cold waters of which prove fatal to perjurers, and disappear in
+a narrow chasm, one of the entrances to Hades. A range of wooded
+peaks, to the west of the Khelmos, connects that mountain with the
+Olonos (Mount Erymanthus), celebrated as the haunt of the savage boar
+destroyed by Hercules. All those mountains, from Corinth as far as
+Patras, form a rampart running parallel with the southern shore of
+the gulf, in the direction of which they throw off spurs enclosing
+steep valleys. In one of these—that of Buraikos—we meet with the grand
+caverns of Mega-Spileon, which are used as a monastery, and where the
+most curious structures may be seen built up on every vantage-ground
+offered by the rocks, suggesting a resemblance to the cells of a vast
+nest of hornets.
+
+The table-land of the Peloponnesus is thus bounded towards the north by
+an elevated coast range. Another chain of the same kind bounds it on
+the east. It likewise starts from Mount Cyllene, and extends southward,
+its various portions being known as Gaurias, Malevo (Mount Artemisium),
+and Parthenion. It is then broken through by a vast depression, but
+again rises farther south as the range of Hagios Petros, or Parnon,
+to the east of Sparta. Getting lower by degrees, it terminates in the
+promontory of Malea, opposite to the island of Cerigo. It was this
+cape, tradition tells us, which formed the last refuge of the Centaurs;
+that is to say, of the barbarian ancestors of the modern Tsakonians. No
+promontory was more dreaded by Greek navigators than this Cape Malea,
+owing to sudden gusts of wind, and an ancient proverb says, “When thou
+hast doubled the cape forget the name of thy native land.”
+
+The mountains of Western Morea do not present the regularity of the
+eastern chain. They are cut through by rivers, and to the south of the
+Aroanian Mountains and the Erymanthus they ramify into a multitude
+of minor chains, which now and then combine into mountain groups,
+and impart the most varied aspect to that portion of the plateau.
+Everywhere in the valleys we come unexpectedly upon landscapes to which
+an indescribable charm is imparted by a group of trees, a spring, a
+flock of sheep, or a shepherd sitting upon a heap of ruins. We are in
+beautiful Arcadia, sung by the poets. Though in great part deprived of
+its woods, it is still a beautiful country; but more charming still
+are the eastern slopes of the plateau, which descend towards the
+Ionian Sea. There luxuriant forests and {58} sparkling rivulets add
+an element of beauty to blue waves, distant islands, and a transparent
+sky, which is wanting in nearly every other part of maritime Greece.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 18.—MOUNT TAYGETUS.]
+
+The table-land of Arcadia is commanded on the west by pine-clad
+Mænalus, and bounded on the south by several mountain groups which give
+birth to separate mountain chains. One of these mountain masses—the
+Kotylion, or Palæocastro—thus gives rise to the mountains of Messenia,
+amongst which rises the famous Ithome, and to those of Ægaleus,
+which spread over the peninsula to the west of the Gulf of Coron,
+and reappear in the sea as the rocky islets of Sapienza, Cabrera,
+and Venetikon. Another mountain mass, the Lycæus, or Diaforti—the
+Arcadian Olympus, which the Pelasgians claim for their cradle—and
+which rises almost in the centre of the Peloponnesus, is continued
+westward of Laconia by an extended mountain chain, the most elevated
+and most characteristic of all the Morea. The highest crest of these
+mountains is the famous Taygetus, known also as Pentedactylum (five
+fingers), because of the five peaks which surmount it; or as St. Elias,
+in honour, no doubt, of Helios, the Dorian sun-god. A portion of the
+lower slopes of this mountain is clothed with forests of chestnuts and
+walnuts. {59} interspersed with cypresses and oaks; but its crest is
+bare, and snow remains upon it during three-fourths of the year. The
+snows of Taygetus direct the distant mariner to the shores of Greece.
+On approaching the coast, he sees rising above the blue waters the
+spurs and outlying ridges of the Kakavuni, or “bad mountain.” Soon
+afterwards he comes in sight of the promontory of Tainaron, with its
+two capes of Matapan and Grasso—immense blocks of white marble more
+than six hundred feet in height, upon which the quails settle in
+millions after their fatiguing journey across the sea. Into the caverns
+at its foot the waters rush with a dull noise which the ancients
+mistook for the barking of Cerberus. Cape Matapan, like Malea, is
+dreaded amongst mariners as a great “destroyer of men.”
+
+The three southern extremities of the Peloponnesus are thus occupied
+by high mountains and rocky declivities. The peninsula of Argolis, in
+the east, is likewise traversed by mountain ranges, which start from
+Mount Cyllene, similarly to the Gaurias and the mountains of Arcadia.
+The whole of the Peloponnesus is thus a country of table-lands and
+mountain ranges. If we except the plains of Elis, which have been
+formed by the alluvial deposits carried down by the rivers of Arcadia,
+and the lake basins of the interior, which have been filled up in the
+course of ages, we meet with nothing but mountains.[16] The principal
+mountain masses—the Cyllene, the Taygetus, and Parnon—are composed
+of crystalline schists and metamorphic marbles, as in continental
+Greece. Strata of the Jurassic age and beds of cretaceous limestone
+are here and there met with at the foot of these more ancient rocks.
+Near the coast, in Argolis, and on the flanks of the Taygetus,
+eruptions of serpentines and porphyries have taken place, whilst
+on the north-eastern coast of Argolis, and especially on the small
+peninsula of Methone, there exist recent volcanoes—amongst others,
+the Kaimenipetra, which M. Fouqué identifies with the fire-vomiting
+mouths of Strabo, and which had its last eruption twenty-one centuries
+ago. These volcanoes are, no doubt, the vents of a submarine area of
+disturbance which extends through Milos, Santorin, and Nisyros, to the
+south of the Ægean Sea.
+
+The sulphur springs which abound on the western coast of the
+Peloponnesus are, perhaps, likewise evidences of a reaction of the
+interior of the earth.
+
+It is the opinion of several geologists that the coasts of Western
+Greece are being insensibly upheaved. In many places, and particularly
+at Corinth, we meet with ancient caverns and sea beaches at an
+elevation of several feet above the sea-level. It is this upheaval, and
+not merely the alluvial deposits brought down by rivers, which explains
+the encroachment of the land upon the sea at the mouth of the Achelous
+and on the coast of Elis, where four rocky islets have been joined to
+the land. Elsewhere a subsidence of the land has been noticed, as in
+the Gulf of {60} Marathonisi and on the eastern coast of Greece, where
+the ancient peninsula of Elaphonisi has been converted into an island.
+But even there the fluvial deposits have encroached upon the sea. The
+city of Calamata is twice as distant from the seashore now as in the
+days of Strabo, and the traces of the ancient haven of Helos, on the
+coast of Laconia, are now far inland.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The limestone rocks of the interior of the Peloponnesus abound as much
+in chasms, which swallow up the rivers, as do Bœotia and the western
+portion of the whole of the Balkan peninsula. Some of these katavothras
+are mere sieves, hidden beneath herbage and pebbles, but others are
+wide chasms and caverns, through which the course of the underground
+waters may be readily traced. In winter wild birds post themselves
+at the entrances of these caverns, in expectation of the prey which
+the river is certain to carry towards them; in summer, after the
+waters have retired, foxes and jackals again take possession of their
+accustomed dens. The water swallowed up by these chasms on the plateau
+reappears on the other side of the mountains in the shape of springs,
+or _kephalaria_ (_kephalovrysis_). The water of these springs has been
+purified by its passage through the earth, and its temperature is that
+of the soil. It bursts forth sometimes from a crevice in the rocks,
+sometimes in an alluvial plain, and sometimes even from the bottom of
+the sea. The subterranean geography of Greece is not yet sufficiently
+known to enable us to trace each of these kephalaria to the katavothras
+which feed them.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 19.—LAKES PHENEA AND STYMPHALUS.
+
+From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 500,000.]
+
+The ancients were most careful in keeping open these natural funnels,
+for, by facilitating the passage of the water, they prevented the
+formation of swamps. These precautions, however, were neglected during
+the centuries of barbarism which overcame Greece, and the waters were
+permitted to accumulate in many places at the expense of the salubrity
+of the country. The plain of Pheneus, or Phonia, a vast chasm between
+the Aroanian Mountains and the Cyllene, has thus repeatedly been
+converted into a lake. In the middle of last century the whole of this
+basin {61} was filled with water to a depth of more than 300 feet.
+In 1828, when this sheet of water had already become considerably
+reduced, it was still 6 miles long and 150 feet in depth. At length,
+a few years afterwards, the subterranean sluices opened, the waters
+disappeared, and there remained only two small marshes near the places
+of exit. But in 1850 the lake was again 200 feet in depth. Hercules, we
+are told, constructed a canal to drain this valley and to cleanse its
+subterranean outlets, but the inhabitants content themselves now with
+placing a grating above the “sink-holes,” to prevent the admission of
+trunks of trees and of other large objects carried along by the floods.
+
+To the east of the valley of Pheneus, and on the southern foot of Mount
+Cyllene, there is another lake basin, celebrated in antiquity because
+of the man-eating birds which infested it, until they were exterminated
+by Hercules. This is the Stymphalus, alternately lake and cultivated
+land. During winter the waters cover about one-third of the basin; but
+it happens occasionally, after heavy rains, that the lake resumes its
+ancient dimensions. There is only one katavothra through which the
+waters can escape, and this, instead of being near the shore, as usual,
+is at the bottom of the lake. It swallows up not only the water of
+the lake, but likewise the vegetable remains carried into it, and the
+mud formed at its bottom; and this detritus is conveyed through it to
+some subterranean cavity, where it putrefies slowly, as may be judged
+from the fetid exhalations proceeding from the katavothra. The water,
+however, is purified, and when it reappears on the surface, close to
+the seashore, it is as clear as crystal.
+
+There are many other lake basins of the same kind between the mountains
+of Arcadia and the chain of the Gaurias. They all have their swamps
+or temporary lakes, but the katavothras, in every instance, are
+sufficiently numerous to prevent an inundation of the entire valley.
+The most important of these lake basins is formed by the famous plain
+of Mantinea, upon which many a battle was fought. From an hydrological
+point of view this is one of the most curious places in the world;
+for the waters which collect there are discharged into two opposite
+seas—the Gulf of Nauplia on the east, and in the direction of the
+Alpheus and the Ionian Sea towards the west. There may exist even some
+subterranean rivulet which discharges itself, towards the south, into
+the Eurotas and the Gulf of Laconia.
+
+The disappearance of the waters underground has condemned to sterility
+several parts of the Peloponnesus, which a little water would convert
+into the most fertile regions of the globe. The surface waters quickly
+suck up and form subterranean rivers, hidden from sight, which only
+see the light again, in most instances, near the seashore, when it is
+impossible to utilise them. The plain of Argos, though surrounded by a
+majestic amphitheatre of well-watered hills, is more sterile and arid
+even than are Megara and Attica. Its soil is always dry, and soaks
+up water like a sieve, which may have given rise to the fable of the
+Danaids. But to the south of that plain, where there is but a narrow
+cultivable strip of land between the mountains and the seashore, a
+great river bursts forth from the rocks. This is the Erasinus.
+
+Other springs burst forth at the southern extremity of the plain,
+close to the defile {62} of Lerna, which, like that of the Erasinus,
+are supposed to be fed from Lake Stymphalus. Close to them is a chasm
+filled with water, said to be unfathomable. It abounds in tortoises,
+and venomous serpents inhabit the adjoining marsh. These are the
+_kephalaria_, or “heads,” of the ancient hydra of Lerna, which Hercules
+found it so difficult to seize hold of. Still farther south there is
+another spring which rises from the bottom of the sea, more than three
+hundred yards from the shore. This spring—the Doinæ of the ancients,
+and Anavula of modern Greek mariners—is, in reality, but the mouth of
+one of the rivers swallowed up by the katavothras of Mantinea. When the
+sea is still it throws up a jet rising to a height of fifty feet.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 20.—THE PLATEAU OF MANTINEA.
+
+From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 400,000.
+
+K. Katavothras.]
+
+Analogous phenomena may be witnessed in the two southern valleys of
+the peninsula, those of Sparta and Messenia. The Iri, or Eurotas, is,
+in reality, but a large rivulet, which discharges itself into the
+Gulf of Marathonisi, at the end of a gorge, {63} through which the
+waters of the Lake of Sparta forced themselves a passage during some
+ancient deluge; but it is only on rare occasions that its volume of
+water is sufficient to remove the bar which obstructs its mouth. The
+Vasili-Potamo (“royal river”), on the other hand, which bursts forth at
+the foot of a rock a short distance from the Eurotas, though its whole
+course does not exceed five miles, discharges a considerable volume of
+water throughout the year, and its mouth is at all times open. As to
+the river of Messenia, the ancient Pamisus, now called Pirnatza, it is
+the only river of Greece, besides the Alpheus, which forms a harbour
+at its mouth, and it can be ascended by small vessels for a distance
+of eight miles; but this advantage it owes exclusively to the powerful
+springs of Hagios Floros, which are fed by the mountains on the east.
+These springs, which form a large swamp where they rise to the surface,
+are the real river, if volume of water is to be decisive, and the
+country watered and fertilised by them was called the “Happy” by the
+ancients, on account of its fertility.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 21.—BIFURCATION OF THE GASTUNI.
+
+From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 400,000.]
+
+The western regions of the Peloponnesus receive more rain, and they are
+likewise in the possession of the most considerable river, the Alpheus,
+now called Ruphia, from one of its tributaries. The latter, the ancient
+Ladon, conveys a larger volume of water towards the sea than the
+Alpheus. It was as celebrated amongst the Greeks as was the Peneus
+of Thessaly, on account of the transparency of its waters, and the
+smiling scenery along its banks. It is partly fed by the snows of Mount
+Erymanthus, and, like most rivers of the Morea, derives a portion of
+its waters from subterranean tributaries rising on the central plateau.
+The Ladon thus receives the waters of Lake Phenea, whilst the Alpheus
+proper {64} is fed in its upper course from katavothras on the shores
+of the ancient lakes of Orchomenus and Mantinea. Having traversed the
+basin of Megalopolis, anciently a lake, it passes through a series of
+picturesque gorges, and reaches its lower valley. A charming tradition,
+illustrative of the ties of amity which existed between Elis and
+Syracuse, makes this river plunge beneath the sea and reappear in
+Sicily, close to the fountain of his beloved Arethusa. The ancient
+Greeks, who witnessed the disappearance of so many rivers, would hardly
+have looked upon this submarine course of the Alpheus as a thing to
+wonder at.
+
+The Alpheus and all other rivers of Elis carry down towards the sea
+immense masses of detritus, which they spread over the plains extending
+from the foot of the mountains to the seashore. The ruins of Olympia
+disappeared in this manner beneath alluvial deposits. They have all
+frequently changed their beds, and not one amongst them has done
+so more frequently than the Peneus, or river of Gastuni. Anciently
+it discharged its waters to the north of the rocky promontory of
+Chelonatas, whilst in the present day it turns abruptly to the south,
+and enters the sea at a distance of fifteen miles from its ancient
+mouth. Works of irrigation may partly account for this change, but
+there can be no doubt that nature unaided has by degrees much modified
+the aspect of this portion of Greece. Islands originally far in the
+sea have been joined to the land; numerous open bays have gradually
+been cut off from the sea by natural embankments, and transformed into
+swamps or lagoons. One of the latter extends for several leagues to the
+south of the Alpheus, and is divided from the sea by a fine forest of
+pines. These majestic forests, in which the Triphylians paid honour to
+their dead, the surrounding hills dotted over with clumps of trees, and
+Mount Lycæus, from whose flanks are precipitated the cascades dedicated
+to Neda, the nurse of Jupiter, render this the most attractive district
+of all the Morea to a lover of nature.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Peloponnesus presents us with one of the most striking instances
+of the influence exercised by the nature of the country upon the
+historical development of its inhabitants. Held to Greece by a mere
+thread, and defended at its entrance by a double bulwark of mountains,
+this “isle of Pelops” naturally became the seat of independent tribes
+at a time when armies still recoiled from natural obstacles. The
+isthmus was open as a commercial high-road, but it was closed against
+invaders.
+
+The relief of the peninsula satisfactorily explains the distribution
+of the tribes inhabiting it, and the part they played in history. The
+whole of the interior basin, which has no visible outlets towards the
+sea, naturally became the home of a tribe who, like the Arcadians,
+held no intercourse with their neighbours, and hardly any amongst
+themselves. Corinth, Sicyon, and Achaia occupied the seashore on
+the northern slopes of the mountains, but were separated by high
+transversal chains. The inhabitants of these isolated valleys long
+remained strangers to each other, and when at length they combined to
+resist the invader, it was too late. Elis, in the west, with its wide
+valleys and its insalubrious plains extending along a coast having no
+havens, naturally played but a secondary part {65} in the history of
+the peninsula. Its inhabitants, exposed to invasions, owing to their
+country being without natural defences, would soon have been enslaved,
+had they not placed themselves under the protection of all the rest of
+Greece by converting their plain of Olympia into a place of meeting,
+where the Hellenes of Europe and of Asia, from the continent and from
+the islands, met for a few days’ festival to forget their rivalries and
+animosities. The basin of Argos and the mountain peninsula of Argolis,
+on the eastern side of the Peloponnesus, on the other hand, are
+districts having natural boundaries, and are easily defended. Hence the
+Argolians were able to maintain their autonomy for centuries, and even
+in the Homeric age they exercised a sort of hegemony over the remainder
+of Greece. The Spartans were their successors. The country in which
+they established themselves possessed the double advantage of being
+secure against every attack, and of furnishing all they stood in need
+of. Having firmly established themselves in the beautiful valley of
+the Eurotas, they found no difficulty in extending their power to the
+seashore, and to the unfortunate Helos. At a later date they crossed
+the heights of the Taygetus, and descended into the plains of Messenia.
+That portion of Greece likewise formed a natural basin, protected by
+elevated mountain ramparts; and the Messenians, who were kinsmen of
+the Spartans and their equals in bravery, were thus able to resist
+for a century. At length they fell, and all the Southern Peloponnesus
+acknowledged the supremacy of Sparta, which was now in a position to
+assert its authority over the whole of Greece. Then it was that the
+mountain-girt plateau on the road from Lacedæmonia to Corinth, upon
+which stood the cities of Tegea and Mantinea, and which was made by
+nature for a field of Mars, became the scene of strife.
+
+The Peloponnesus, with its sinuous shores, forms a remarkable contrast
+to Attica. Its characteristics are essentially those of a continent,
+and anciently the Peloponnesians were mountaineers rather than
+mariners. Except in Corinth, where the two seas nearly join, and a few
+towns of Argolis, which is another Attica, there were no inducements
+for the inhabitants to engage in maritime commerce; and in their
+mountain valleys and upland plains they were entirely dependent upon
+the rearing of cattle and husbandry. Arcadia, in the centre of the
+peninsula, was inhabited only by herdsmen and labourers; and its name,
+which originally meant “country of bears,” has become the general
+designation for an eminently pastoral country. The Laconians also,
+separated from the sea by rocky mountains which hem in the valley
+of the Eurotas at its point of issue, preserved for a long time the
+customs of warriors and of cultivators of the soil, and took to the sea
+only with reluctance. “When the Spartans placed Eurotas and Taygetus
+at the head of their heroes,” says Edgar Quinet, “they distinctly
+connected the features of the valley with the destinies of the people
+by whom it was occupied.”
+
+In the very earliest ages the Phœnicians already occupied important
+factories on the coasts of the Peloponnesus. They had established
+themselves at Nauplia, in the Gulf of Argos; and at Cranaæ, the modern
+Marathonisi or Gythion, in Laconia, they purchased the shells which
+they required to dye their purple {66} cloths. The Greeks themselves
+were in possession of a few busy ports, amongst which was “sandy
+Pylos,” the capital of Nestor, whose position is now held by Navarino,
+on the other side of the gulf. At a subsequent date, when Greece had
+become the centre of Mediterranean commerce, Corinth, so favourably
+situated between the two seas, rose into importance, not because of its
+political influence, its cultivation of the arts, or love of liberty,
+but through the number and wealth of its inhabitants. It is said that
+it had a population of three hundred thousand souls within its walls.
+Even after it had been razed by the Romans it again recovered its
+ancient pre-eminence. But the exposed position of the town has caused
+it to be ravaged so many times that all commerce has fled from it. In
+1858, when an earthquake destroyed Corinth, that once famous city had
+dwindled down into a poor village. The city has been rebuilt about five
+miles from its ancient site, on the shore of the gulf named after it,
+but we doubt whether it will ever resume its ancient importance unless
+a canal be dug to connect the two seas. The high-roads from Marseilles
+and Trieste to Smyrna and Constantinople would then lead across the
+Isthmus of Corinth, and this canal might attract an amount of shipping
+equal to that which frequents other ocean channels or canals similarly
+situated. But for the present the isthmus is almost deserted, and only
+the passengers who are conveyed by Greek steamers to the small ports
+on its opposite shores cross it. The ancients, who had failed in the
+construction of a canal, and who made no further effort after the time
+of Nero, because they imagined one of the two seas to be at a higher
+level than the other, had provided, at all events, a kind of tramway,
+by means of which their small vessels could be conveyed from the Gulf
+of Corinth to the Ægean Sea.[17]
+
+After the Crusades, when the powerful Republic of Venice had gained
+a footing upon the coasts of Morea, flourishing commercial colonies
+arose along them, in Arcadia, on the island of Prodano (Prote), at
+Navarino, Modon, Coron, Calamata, Malvoisie, and Nauplia in Argolis.
+At the call of these Venetian merchants the Peloponnesus again became
+a seat of trade, and resumed, to some extent, that part in maritime
+enterprise which it had enjoyed in the time of the Phœnicians. But
+the advent of the Turk, the impoverishment of the soil, and the civil
+wars which resulted therefrom, again forced the inhabitants to break
+off all intercourse with the outer world, and to shut themselves up
+in their island as in a prison. Tripolis, or Tripolitza, in the very
+centre of the peninsula, and called thus, it is said, because it
+is the representative of three ancient cities—Mantinea, Tegea, and
+Pallantium—then became the most populous place. Since the Greeks have
+regained their independence life again fluctuates towards the seashore
+as by a sort of natural sequence. Patras, close to the entrance of the
+Gulf of Corinth, and near the most fertile and best-cultivated plains
+on the eastern shore, is by far the most important city at present,
+and, in anticipation of its future extension, the streets of a new town
+have been laid out, in the firm belief that it will some day rival
+Smyrna and Trieste in extent. {67}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 22.—THE VALLEY OF THE EUROTAS.
+
+From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 370,000.]
+
+The other towns of the peninsula, even those which exhibited the
+greatest activity during the dominion of the Venetians, are but of very
+secondary importance, if we compare them with this emporium of the
+Peloponnesus. Ægium, or Vostitza, on the Gulf of Corinth, is a poor
+port, less celebrated on account of its commerce than in consequence
+of a magnificent plane-tree, more than fifty feet in girth, the hollow
+trunk of which was formerly used as a prison. Pyrgos, close to the
+Alpheus, has no port at all. The fine roadstead of Navarino, defended
+against winds and waves by the rocky islet of Sphacteria, is but
+little frequented, and the merchantmen riding at anchor there never
+outnumber the Turkish men-of-war at the bottom, where they have lain
+since the battle fought in 1828. Modon and Coron have likewise fallen
+off. Calamata, at the mouth of the fertile valleys of Messenia, has an
+open roadstead only, and vessels cannot always ride in safety upon it.
+The celebrated Malvoisie, now called Monemvasia, is hardly more than a
+heap of ruins, and the vineyards in its neighbourhood, which furnished
+the exquisite wine named after the town, have long ceased to exist.
+Nauplia, which was the capital of the modern kingdom of Greece during
+the first few years of its existence, possesses the advantage of a {68}
+well-sheltered port; but its walls, its bastions, and its forts give
+it the character of a military town rather than of a commercial one.
+
+The towns in the interior of the country, whatever glories may attach
+to them, are hardly more now than large villages. The most celebrated
+of all, Sparta, thanks to the fertility of its environs, promises
+to become one of the most prosperous cities of the interior of the
+Peloponnesus. Sparta—that is, the “scattered city,”—was named thus
+because its houses were scattered over the plain, defended only by
+the valour of their inhabitants, and not by walls. In the Middle Ages
+Sparta was supplanted by the neighbouring Mistra, whose decayed Gothic
+buildings and castles occupy a steep hill on the western side of the
+Eurotas; but it has now recovered its supremacy amongst the towns of
+Laconia. Argos, which is more ancient even than the city of Lacedæmon,
+has likewise risen anew from its ruins; for the plain in which it lies,
+though occasionally dried up, is of great natural fertility.
+
+Strangers, however, who explore the countries of the Peloponnesus,
+do not go in search of these newly risen cities, where a few stones
+only remind them of the glories of the past, but are attracted by the
+ancient monuments of art. In that respect Argolis is one of the richest
+provinces of Greece. Near to Argos the seats of an amphitheatre are cut
+into the steep flanks of the hill of Larissa. Between Argos and Nauplia
+a small rock rises in the middle of the plain, which is surmounted
+by the ancient Acropolis of Tiryns, the Cyclopean walls of which are
+more than fifty feet in thickness. A few miles to the north of Argos
+are the ruins of Mycenæ, the city of Agamemnon, where the celebrated
+“Gate of Lions,” coarsely sculptured when Greek art first dawned,
+and the vast vaults known as the Treasury of the Atrides, mainly
+attract the attention of visitors. These vaults are amongst the oldest
+and best-preserved antiquities of Greece. They exhibit most solid
+workmanship, and one of the stones, which does duty as a lintel over
+the entrance-gate, weighs no less than one hundred and sixty-nine tons.
+At Epidaurus, in Argolis, on the shores of the Gulf of Ægina, and close
+to the most famous temple of Æsculapius, we still meet with a theatre
+which has suffered less from time than any other throughout Greece.
+Shrubs, interspersed with small trees, surround it; but we can still
+trace its fifty-four rows of white marble seats, capable of affording
+accommodation to twelve thousand spectators. Amongst other famous ruins
+of Argolis are the beautiful remains of a temple of Jupiter at Nemea,
+and the seven Doric columns of Corinth, said to be the oldest in all
+Greece. But the most beautiful edifice of the peninsula must be sought
+for near Arcadian Phigalia, in the charming valley of the Neda. This is
+the temple of Bassæ, erected by Ictinus in honour of Apollo Epicurius,
+and its beauty is enhanced by the oaks and rocks which surround it.
+
+Citadels, however, are the buildings we most frequently meet with;
+and many a fortified place, with its walls and acropolis, yet
+exists as in the days of ancient Greece. The walls of Phigalia and
+Messenia still have their ancient towers, gates, and redoubts. Other
+fortifications were utilised by the Crusaders, Venetians, or Turks,
+and by them furnished with crenellated walls and keeps, which add
+another picturesque feature to the landscape. One of these ancient {69}
+fortresses, transformed during the Middle Ages, rises at the very
+gates of the Peloponnesus—namely, the citadel of Corinth, the strongest
+and most commanding of all.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Several of the islands of the Ægean Sea must be looked upon as natural
+dependencies of the Peloponnesus, to which submarine ledges or shoals
+attach them.
+
+The islands along the coast of Argolis, which are inhabited by Albanian
+seamen, who were amongst the foremost to fight the Turk during the
+struggle for Hellenic independence, have lost much of their former
+commercial importance. Poros, a small Albanian town on a volcanic
+island of the same name, which the revolted people chose for their
+capital, is, however, still a bustling place, for it has an excellent
+harbour, and the Greek Government has made it the principal naval
+station of the kingdom. Hydra, on the other hand, and the small
+island of Spezzia, next to it, have lost their former importance.
+They are both rocky islands, without arable soil, trees, or water,
+and yet they formerly supported a population of fifty thousand souls.
+About 1730 a colony of Albanians, weary of the exactions of some
+Turkish pasha on the mainland, fled to the island of Hydra. They
+were left in peace there, for they agreed to pay a trifling tribute.
+Their commerce—leavened, to be sure, with a little piracy—assumed
+large dimensions, and immediately before the war of independence the
+Albanians of Hydra owned nearly 400 vessels of 100 to 200 tons each,
+and they were able to send over 200 vessels, armed with 200 guns,
+against the Turks. By engaging so enthusiastically in this struggle
+for liberty, the Hydriotes, without suspecting it, wrought their own
+ruin. No sooner was the cause of Greece triumphant than the commerce of
+Hydra was transferred to Syra and the Piræus, which are more favourably
+situated.
+
+Cythera of Laconia, a far larger island than either of those mentioned,
+and better known by the Italian name of Cerigo, formed a member of
+the Septinsular Republic, although not situated in the Ionian Sea,
+and clearly a dependency of the Peloponnesus. Cythera is no longer
+the island of Venus, and its voluptuous groves have disappeared. Seen
+from the north, it resembles a pile of sterile rocks. It nevertheless
+yields abundant harvests, possesses fine plantations of olive-trees,
+and populous villages. Cerigo, in former times, enjoyed considerable
+importance, owing to its position between the Ionian Sea and the
+Archipelago; but Cape Malea has lost its terrors now, and the harbour
+of refuge on the island is no longer sought after. Heaps of shells,
+left there by Phœnician manufacturers of purple, have been found on the
+island; and it was the Phœnicians who introduced the worship of Venus
+Astarte.
+
+
+IV.—THE ISLANDS OF THE ÆGEAN SEA.
+
+Islands and islets are scattered in seeming disorder over the Ægean
+Sea, the name of which may probably mean “sea of goats,” because these
+islands appeared at a distance like goats. By a singular misapplication
+the modern term {70} Archipelago, instead of sea, is now used to
+designate these groups of islands. The Sporades, in the north, form
+a long range of islands stretching in the direction of Mount Athos.
+The island of Scyros, farther south, the birthplace of Achilles and
+place of exile of King Theseus, occupies an isolated position; the
+large island of Eubœa extends along the coast of the continent; and in
+the distance rise the white mountains of the Cyclades, likened by the
+ancient Greeks to a circle of Oceanides dancing around a deity.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 23.—EURIPUS AND CHALCIS.
+
+Scale 1 : 220,000.]
+
+All these islands are so many fragments of the mainland. This is
+proved by their geological structure, or by shoals which attach them
+to the nearest coast. The Northern Sporades are a branch of Mount
+Pelion. Eubœa is traversed by limestone mountains of considerable
+height, running parallel to the chains of Attica, Argolis, Mount
+Olympus, and Mount Athos. Scyros is a rocky mountain mass, whose axis
+runs in the same direction as that of the central chain of Eubœa.
+The summits of the Cyclades continue the ranges of Eubœa and Attica
+towards the south-east, and the same micaceous and argillaceous
+schists, limestones, and crystalline marbles are found in them. They
+are, indeed, “mountains of Greece {71} scattered over the sea.” If
+Athens may boast of the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, the Cyclades
+produce the glittering marbles of Naxos, and the still more beautiful
+ones of Paros, from which were chiselled the statues of heroes and of
+gods. Curious caverns are met with in the limestone of the islands,
+especially that of Antiparos, the existence of which was not known to
+the ancients, and the Cave of Sillaka, on the island of Cythnos, or
+Thermia, celebrated for its hot springs. Granite is found on some of
+the islands, and particularly in the small island of Delos, dedicated
+to the worship of Apollo and Diana. In the south, finally, the Cyclades
+are traversed by a chain of volcanic islands, extending from the
+peninsula of Methana, in Argolis, to Cos and the shores of Asia Minor.
+
+Eubœa may be looked upon almost as a portion of the continent, for
+the strait which separates it from the mainland resembles a submerged
+longitudinal valley, and is nowhere of great depth or width. At its
+narrowest part it is no more than two hundred and fourteen feet across,
+and from the most remote times, Chalcis, the capital of the island, has
+been joined to the mainland by a bridge. The irregular tidal currents
+flowing through this strait were looked upon as marvellous by the
+Greeks, and Aristotle is said to have flung himself into it because
+he was unable to explain this phenomenon. The Italian name of the
+island, Negroponte, is formed by a series of corruptions from Euripus,
+by which name the ancients knew the strait between the island and the
+mainland. Eubœa has at all times shared in the vicissitudes of the
+neighbouring provinces of Attica and Bœotia. When the cities of Greece
+were at the height of their glory, those of Eubœa—Chalcis, Eretria,
+and Cerinthus—enjoyed likewise a high degree of prosperity, and
+dispatched colonies to all parts of the Mediterranean. Later on, when
+invaders ravaged Attica, Eubœa shared the same fate, and at present it
+participates in every political and social movement of the neighbouring
+continent.
+
+In Northern Eubœa there are forests of oaks, pines, elms, and
+plane-trees; the villages are embedded in orchards; and the surrounding
+country resembles what we have seen in Elis and Arcadia. But in the
+Cyclades we look in vain for charming landscapes. Foliage and running
+water abound only in a very few spots. Arid rocks, more arid even than
+those on the coast of Greece, predominate, and only in a few favoured
+spots do we meet with a few olive-trees, valonia oaks, pines, and
+fig-trees. Everywhere else the hills are naked. And yet these islands
+arouse feelings of devotion in us, for their names are great in
+history. The highest summits of most of them have been named after the
+prophet Elias, the biblical successor of Apollo, the god of the sun;
+and justly so, for the sun reigns supreme upon these austere rocks, and
+his scorching rays destroy every vestige of vegetation.
+
+Antimilos, one of the uninhabited islands of this group, still affords
+an asylum to the wild goat (_Capra Caucasica_), which has disappeared
+from the remainder of Europe, and is met with only in Crete, and
+perhaps Rhodes. Wild pigs likewise haunt the rocks of Antimilos.
+Rabbits were introduced from the West, and abound in the caverns
+of some of the Cyclades, and especially on Myconus and Delos. The
+ancient authors never mention these animals. It is a curious fact that
+{72} hares and rabbits never inhabit the same island, with the sole
+exception of Andros, where the hares occupy the extreme north, whilst
+the rabbits have their burrows in the southern portion of the island.
+As a curiosity, we may also mention that a large species of lizard,
+called crocodile by the inhabitants, is found on the islands, but not
+on the neighbouring continent, and we may conclude from this that the
+Cyclades were separated from the Balkan peninsula at a very remote
+period.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+A chain of volcanic islands bounds the Cyclades towards the south,
+where they are separated from Crete by an ocean trough of great depth.
+Milos is the most important of these islands. It has an irregularly
+shaped crater, which has been invaded by the sea, and forms there
+one of the safest and most capacious harbours of refuge in the
+Mediterranean. Milos has had no eruption within historic times, but the
+existence of solfataras and of hot springs proves that its volcanic
+forces are not yet quite extinct.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 24.—NEA KAMMENI.
+
+According to Danfalik.]
+
+The actual centre of volcanic activity has to be looked for in a small
+group of islands known as Santorin, and lying midway between Europe and
+Asia. These islands consist of marbles and schists, similar to those
+of the other Cyclades, and they surround a vast crater no less than
+twelve hundred and eighty feet in depth. The crescent-shaped island
+of Thera, on the east, presents bold cliffs towards the crater, while
+its gentle outer slopes are covered with vineyards producing exquisite
+wine. Therasia, on the west, rises like an immense wall; and the islet
+of {73} Aspronisi, between the two, indicates the existence of a
+submarine partition wall which separates the crater from the open sea.
+The submarine volcano occupies the centre of this basin. It remains
+quiescent for long periods, and then suddenly arousing itself, it
+ejects immense masses of scoriæ. Nearly twenty-one centuries ago the
+first island rose to the surface in the centre of this basin. This
+island is known now as Palæa Kammeni, or the “old volcano.” Three years
+of eruptions in the sixteenth century gave birth to the smallest of
+the three islands, Mikra Kammeni. A third cone of lava, Nea Kammeni,
+rose in the eighteenth century; and quite recently, between 1866 and
+1870, this new island has more than doubled its size, overwhelming
+the small village of Volkario and its port, and extending to within a
+very short distance of Mikra Kammeni. No less than half a million of
+partial eruptions occurred during those five years, and the ashes were
+sometimes thrown to a height of four thousand feet. Even from Crete
+clouds of ashes could be seen suspended in the air, black during the
+day, and lit up by night.
+
+Thousands of spectators hastened to Santorin from all quarters of the
+world to witness these eruptions, and amongst them were several men of
+science—Fouqué, Gorceix, Reiss, Stübel, and Schmidt—whose observations
+have proved of great service. The crater of Santorin appears to have
+been produced by a violent explosion which shattered the centre of the
+ancient island, and covered its slopes with enormous masses of tufa.[18]
+
+Southern Eubœa and the vicinity of Port Gavrion, on the island of
+Andros, are inhabited by Albanians, but the population in the remainder
+of the Archipelago is Greek. The families of Italian or French descent
+on Scyros, Syra, Naxos, and Santorin are not sufficiently numerous
+to constitute an element of importance. They claim to be of French
+descent, and are known in the Archipelago as Franks, and during the war
+of independence they claimed the protection of the French Government.
+In former times nearly the whole of the land was held by these Franks,
+who had taken possession of it during the Middle Ages, and these large
+estates are made to account for the sparse population of Naxos, which
+supported a hundred thousand inhabitants formerly, but is now hardly
+able to support one-seventh that number.
+
+The Cyclades are farther removed from the coast of Greece than Eubœa,
+and they have not always shared in the historical dramas enacted
+upon the neighbouring continent. Their position in the centre of the
+Archipelago naturally caused them to be visited by all the nations
+navigating the Mediterranean, and their inhabitants were thus subjected
+to the most diverse influences. In ancient times the mariners of
+Asia Minor and of Phœnicia called at the Cyclades on their voyages
+to Greece; during the Middle Ages the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the
+Venetians, the Genoese, the Knights of Rhodes, and the Osmanli were
+masters {74} there in turn; and in our own days the nations of Western
+Europe, with the Greeks themselves, hold the preponderance in the
+Archipelago.
+
+These historical vicissitudes have caused the centre of gravity of
+the Cyclades to be shifted from island to island. In the time of the
+ancient Greeks, Delos, the island of Apollo, was looked upon as the
+“holy land,” where merchants congregated from all quarters, carried
+on business in the shadow of sanctuaries, and held slave markets at
+the side of the temples. The sale of human flesh became in the end the
+main feature of the commerce of Delos, and in the time of the Roman
+emperors as many as ten thousand slaves were bartered away there in a
+single day. But the markets, the temples, and monuments of Delos have
+vanished, and its stony soil supports now only a few sheep. During the
+Middle Ages Naxos enjoyed the predominance; and at present, Tinos, with
+its venerated church of the Panagia and its thousands of pilgrims, is
+the “holy land” of the Archipelago; whilst Hermopolis, on Syra, though
+without trees or water, holds the position of commercial metropolis of
+the Cyclades. The latter was a town of no importance before the war of
+independence; but it remained neutral during that struggle, and thus
+attracted numerous refugees from other islands, and, thanks to its
+central position, it has since become the principal mart, dockyard, and
+naval station of the Ægean Sea. Whether travellers proceed to Saloniki,
+Smyrna, Constantinople, or the Black Sea, they must stop at Hermopolis.
+The town formerly occupied the heights only, for fear of pirates,
+but it has descended now to the foot of the hill, and its quays and
+warehouses extend along the seashore.
+
+Commerce has peopled the naked rocks of Syra, but it has not yet
+succeeded in developing the resources of the Archipelago as in ancient
+times. Eubœa is no longer “rich in cattle,” as its name implies, and
+only exports corn, wine, fruit, and the lignite extracted from the
+mines near Kumi. The gardens of Naxos yield oranges, lemons, and
+citrons; Scopelos, Andros, and Tinos, the latter one of the best
+cultivated amongst the islands, export wines, which are excelled,
+however, by those of Santorin, the Calliste of the earliest Greeks.
+The volcanic and other islands of the Cyclades export millstones,
+china clay, lavas, and cimolite, this being used in bleaching. Naxos
+exports emery, and that is all. The marbles of Paros even remain
+untouched, and the excellent harbour of that island only rarely sees
+a vessel. The inhabitants of the Cyclades confine themselves to the
+cultivation of the soil, and to the breeding of a few silkworms, the
+surplus population of Tinos, Siphnos, and others emigrating annually
+to Constantinople, Smyrna, or Greece, to work as labourers, cooks,
+potters, masons, or sculptors. But whilst some of the islands can
+boast of a surplus population, there are others which are the abode
+of a few herdsmen only. Most of the islands between Naxos and Amorgos
+are hardly more than barren rocks. Antimilos, like Delos, is merely
+a pasture-ground sown over with rocks. Seriphos and Giura are still
+dreary solitudes, as in the time of the Roman emperors, when they
+were set aside as places of exile. Seriphos, however, possesses iron
+of excellent quality, and may, in consequence, again become of some
+importance. On Antiparos there are lead mines. {75}
+
+
+V.—THE IONIAN ISLES.
+
+The island of Corfu, on the coast of Epirus, and the whole of the
+Archipelago to the west of continental and peninsular Greece, down to
+the island of Cythera, which divides the waters of the Ionian Sea from
+those of the Ægean, have passed through the most singular political
+vicissitudes in the course of the last century. Corfu, thanks to
+the protection extended to it by the Venetian Republic, is the only
+dependency of the Balkan peninsula which successfully resisted the
+assaults of the Turk. When Venice was handed over to the Austrians
+by Bonaparte in 1797, Corfu and the Ionian Islands were occupied by
+the French. A few years afterwards the Russians became the virtual
+masters in these islands, which they formed into a sort of aristocratic
+republic under the suzerainty of the Porte. In 1807 the French once
+more took possession of them; but the English captured one after the
+other until there remained to them only Corfu, and this, too, had to
+be given up in 1814. The Ionian Islands were then converted into a
+“Septinsular Republic,” governed by the landed aristocracy, supported
+by British bayonets. Twice did England alter the constitution of this
+republic in a democratic sense, but the patriotism of the islanders
+refused to submit to British suzerainty; and, when Great Britain parted
+with her conquest, the Ionian Islands annexed themselves to Greece,
+and they now form the best educated, the wealthiest, and the most
+industrious portion of that kingdom. England, no doubt, consulted her
+own interests when she set free her Ionian subjects; but her action is
+nevertheless deserving of approbation. England exhibited her faith in
+the axiom that moral influence is superior to brute force, and yielded
+with perfect good grace, not only the commercial ports of the islands,
+but likewise the citadel of Corfu, which gave her the command of the
+Adriatic. This magnanimous policy has not hitherto met with imitators
+in other countries, but England herself has still many opportunities of
+applying it in other parts of the world.
+
+Corfu, the ancient Corcyra, has always held the foremost place amongst
+the Ionian Islands. It owes this position to the vicinity of Italy,
+and to the commercial advantages derived from an excellent port and
+a vast roadstead almost resembling an inland lake. The inhabitants
+are fond of appealing to Thucydides in order to prove that Corfu
+is the island of the Phæaces of Ulysses. They even pretend to have
+discovered the rivulet in which beauteous Nausicaa washed the linen
+of her father, and the shaded walks near the city are known by them
+as the gardens of Alcinous. Corfu is the only one of the islands
+which can boast of a small perennial stream, the Messongi, which is
+navigable for a short distance in barges. The hills, which are placed
+like a screen in front of the plains of the Epirus, are exposed to
+the full force of the south-westerly winds, which bring much rain;
+the vegetation, consequently, is rich: orange and lemon trees form
+fragrant groves around the city, vines and olive-trees hide the barren
+ground of the hills, and waving fields of corn cover the plains.
+Corfu, unfortunately, is exposed to the hot sirocco, blowing from the
+south-east, and this very much curtails its advantages as a winter
+station for invalids. {76}
+
+The city occupies a triangular peninsula opposite the coast of the
+Epirus, and is the largest, and commercially the most important, of
+the former republic. It is strongly fortified, and its successive
+possessors—Venetians, French, Russians, and English—have sought to
+render it impregnable. A beautiful prospect may be enjoyed from its
+bastions; but far superior is that from Mount Pantokratoros, the
+“commandant,” for it extends across the Strait of Otranto to Italy.
+The commercial relations with the latter, as well as the traditions
+of Venetian dominion, have converted Corfu into a city almost half
+Italian, and numerous families residing in it belong to both nations,
+the Greek and the Italian, by descent as well as language. Italian
+remained the official language of the island until 1830. Maltese
+porters and gardeners constitute a prominent element amongst the
+cosmopolitan population of the city.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 25.—CORFU.]
+
+Corfu formerly owned the town of Butrinto and a few villages on the
+mainland; but an English governor thought fit to surrender them to the
+terrible Ali Pasha, {77} and the only dependencies of Corfu at present
+are the small islets near it, viz. Othonus (Fano), Salmastraci, and
+Ericusa, in the north; Paxos, with its caverns, and Antipaxos, the
+rocks of which exude asphalt, on the south. Paxos is said to produce
+the best oil in Western Greece.
+
+Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante, and a few smaller islands, form
+a crescent-shaped archipelago off the entrance to the Gulf of Patras.
+They are the summits of a half-submerged chain of calcareous mountains,
+alternately flooded by the rains or scorched by the sun. Their valleys,
+like those of Corfu, produce oranges, lemons, currants (“Corinthians”),
+wine, and oil, which form the objects of a brisk commerce. The
+inhabitants very much resemble those of Corfu, the Italian element
+being strongly represented, except on Ithaca.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 26.—THE CHANNEL OF SANTA MAURA.
+
+From the French Staff Map.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+Leucadia, or the “white island,” thus called because of its glittering
+chalk cliffs, is evidently a dependency of the continent. The ancients
+looked upon it as a peninsula converted into an island by Corinthian
+colonists, who cut a canal through the isthmus which joined it to the
+mainland; but this legend is not borne out by an examination of the
+locality. These Corinthians probably merely dug a navigable channel
+through the shallow lagoon which separates the island from the coast,
+and does not exceed eighteen inches in depth. In fact, if there were
+any tides in the Ionian Sea, the island of Leucadia would be converted
+twice daily into a peninsula. A bridge, of which there still exist
+considerable remains, formerly joined the island to the mainland near
+the southern extremity of the lagoon, whilst an island occupied by the
+citadel of Santa Maura—a name sometimes applied to the whole of the
+island—defended its entrance to the north. {78} Until recently this
+was the only spot in Western Greece where a grove of date-trees might
+be seen. A magnificent aqueduct of two hundred and sixty arches, which
+was also used as a viaduct, joined the citadel to Amaxiki, the chief
+town and harbour of Leucadia. This monument of Turkish enterprise—it
+was constructed in the reign of Bajazet—has sustained much injury from
+earthquakes. Amaxiki might be supposed to be haunted by fever, owing
+to the salt swamps and lagoons which surround it; but such is not the
+case: on the contrary, it is a comparatively healthy town, and its
+women are noted for freshness of complexion and beauty. To the south
+of it rise the wooded mountains which terminate in the promontory
+of Leucate (Dukato), opposite to Cephalonia. On the summit of this
+promontory stood a temple of Apollo, whence, at the annual festival of
+the god, a condemned criminal was hurled as an expiatory victim. It was
+celebrated, also, as the lover’s leap, whence lovers leaped into the
+sea to drown their passion.
+
+Cephalonia, or rather Cephallenia, is the largest of the Ionian
+Islands, and its highest summit—Mount Ænus, or Elato—is the culminating
+point of the entire Archipelago. Mariners from the centre of the Ionian
+Sea can see at one and the same time Mount Ætna in Sicily and this
+mountain of Cephalonia. The forests of conifers, to which the latter
+is indebted for its Italian name of Montenero, have for the greater
+part been destroyed by fire, but there still remain a few clumps of
+magnificent firs. On its summit may be seen the remains of a temple of
+Jupiter. The island is fertile and populous, but suffers much from want
+of water. All its rivers dry up in summer, the calcareous soil sucking
+up the rain, and most of the springs rise from the bottom of the sea,
+far away from the fields thirsting after water. On the other hand, two
+considerable streams of sea-water find their way into the bowels of the
+island.
+
+This curious phenomenon occurs a short distance to the north of
+Argostoli, a bustling town, having a safe but shallow harbour. The
+two oceanic rivers are sufficiently powerful to set in motion the
+huge wheels of two mills, one of which has been regularly at work
+since 1835, and the other since 1859. Their combined discharge amounts
+to 35,000,000 gallons daily, and naturalists have not yet decided
+whether they form a vast subterranean lake, in which beds of salt are
+constantly being deposited, or whether they find their way through
+numerous threads, and, by hydrostatic aspiration, into the subterranean
+rivers of the island, rendering their water brackish. The latter is
+the opinion of Wiebel, the geologist, and thus much we may assume for
+certain—that these subterranean waters and caverns are one of the
+principal causes of the severe earthquakes which visit Cephalonia so
+frequently. The island of Asteris, between Cephalonia and Ithaca, upon
+which stood the city of Alalkomenæ, exists no longer, and was probably
+destroyed by one of those earthquakes.
+
+Ithaca of “divine Ulysses,” the modern Theaki, is separated from
+Cephalonia by the narrow channel of Viscardo, thus named after Robert
+Guiscard. The island is small, and all the sites referred to in the
+Odyssey are still pointed out there, from the spring of Arethusa to the
+acropolis of Ulysses; but the black forests which clothed the slopes of
+Mount Neritus have disappeared. The inhabitants are {79} excessively
+proud of their little island, rendered so famous by the poetry of
+Homer, and in every family we meet with a Penelope, a Ulysses, and a
+Telemachus. But the present inhabitants have no claim whatever to be
+the descendants of the crafty son of Laertes, for during the Middle
+Ages their ancestors were exterminated by invaders, and in 1504 the
+deserted fields were given, by the Senate of Venice, to colonists drawn
+from the mainland. Most of those immigrants came from the Epirus, and
+the dialect spoken by the islanders is much mixed with Albanian words.
+At the present time the island is well cultivated, and Vathy, its chief
+port, carries on a brisk commerce in raisins, currants, oil, and wine.
+Ithaca, as in the days of Homer, is the “nurse of valiant men.” The
+inhabitants are tall and strong, and Dr. Schliemann is enthusiastic
+about the high standard of virtue and morality prevailing amongst them.
+There are neither rich nor poor, but they are great travellers, and
+natives of Ithaca are met with in every populous city of the East.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 27.—ARGOSTOLI.
+
+According to Wiebel.
+
+Scale 1 : 78,000.]
+
+“Zante, fior del Levante,” say the Italians. And, indeed, this
+ancient island, Zacynthus, is richer in orchards, fields, and villas
+than any other of this Archipelago. An extensive plain, bounded by
+ranges of hills, occupies the centre of this “golden isle”—a vast
+garden, abounding in vines, yielding currants of superior quality.
+The inhabitants are industrious, and not content with cultivating
+their own fields, they assist also in the cultivation of those of
+Acarnania, receiving wages or a share of the produce in return. The
+city of Zante, on the eastern coast of the island, facing Elis, is the
+wealthiest and cleanest town in the Archipelago. {80} Unfortunately
+it suffers frequently from earthquakes, to which a volcanic origin is
+ascribed. Nor is this improbable, for bituminous springs rise near the
+south-eastern cape of the island, and though worked since the days of
+Herodotus, they still yield about a hundred barrels of pitch annually.
+Oil springs discharge themselves close to the shore, and even at the
+bottom of the sea; and near Cape Skinari, in the north, a kind of rank
+grease floats on the surface of the waters.
+
+The only islets dependent upon Zante are the Strivali, or the
+Strophades, to which flew the hideous harpies of ancient mythology.[19]
+
+
+VI.—THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF GREECE.
+
+The Greeks, although they have not altogether fulfilled the
+expectations of Philhellenes, have nevertheless made great strides in
+advance since they have thrown off the yoke of the Turks. The deeds
+of valour performed during the war of independence recalled the days
+of Marathon and Platæa; but it was wrong to expect that a short time
+would suffice to raise modern Greece to the intellectual and artistic
+level of the generation which gave birth to an Aristotle and a
+Phidias. Nor can we expect that a nation should throw off, in a single
+generation, the evil habits engendered during an age of servitude,
+and digest at once the scientific conquests made in the course of
+twenty centuries. We should likewise bear in mind that the population
+of Greece is small, and that it is thinly scattered over a barren
+mountain region. The numerous ports, no doubt, offer great facilities
+for commerce, nor have their inhabitants failed to avail themselves
+of them; but there is hardly a country in Europe which offers equal
+obstacles to a development of its agricultural and industrial
+resources. The construction of roads, owing to the mountains, meets
+with difficulties everywhere, whilst the blue sea invites its beholders
+to distant climes and commercial expeditions. No immigration from the
+neighbouring Turkish provinces has consequently taken place, whilst
+many Hellenes, and more especially natives of the Ionian Islands and
+the Cyclades, annually seek their fortune in Constantinople, Cairo,
+and even distant India. Men of enterprise leave the country, and there
+remains behind only a horde of intriguers, who look upon politics as
+a lucrative business, and an army of government officials, who depend
+upon the favour of a minister for future promotion. This state of
+affairs explains the singular fact that the most prosperous Greek
+communities exist beyond the borders of the kingdom of Greece. These
+foreign communities are better and more liberally governed than those
+at home. In spite of the Pasha, who enjoys the right of supervision,
+the administration of the smallest Greek {81} community in Thracia or
+Macedonia might serve as a pattern to the independent and sovereign
+kingdom of Greece. Every one there takes an interest in the prosperity
+of the commonwealth; but in Greece a rapacious bureaucracy takes care
+only of its own advancement, the electors are bribed, and the expenses
+thus illegally incurred are recovered by illegal exactions and robbery,
+such as have prevailed for many years.
+
+The actual population of Greece may amount to 1,500,000 souls; that
+is to say, it includes about two-fifths of all the Greeks residing
+in Europe and Asia. The population is less dense than in any other
+country of Europe, including Turkey. Greece, at the epoch of its
+greatest prosperity, is said to have supported 6,000,000 or 7,000,000
+inhabitants. Attica was ten times more populous at that time, and many
+islands which now support only a few herdsmen could then boast of
+populous towns. Sites of ancient cities abound on the barren plateaux,
+on the banks of the smallest rivulet, and crown every promontory
+throughout the ancient countries of the Hellenes, from Cyprus to Corfu,
+and from Thasos to Crete.
+
+The country, however, is being gradually repeopled. Before the war
+of independence, the population, including the Ionian Islands,
+amounted, perhaps, to 1,000,000; but battles and massacres diminished
+it considerably, and in 1832 the number of inhabitants was 950,000
+at most. Since that epoch there has been an annual increase varying
+between 9,000 and 14,000 souls. This increase, however, is spread
+very unequally over the country. The towns increase rapidly, but
+several islands, and more especially Andros, Santorin, Hydra, Zante,
+and Leucadia, lose more inhabitants by emigration than they gain
+by an excess of births over deaths. The swamp fevers prevailing in
+continental Greece much retard the increase of population. Naturally
+the climate is exceedingly salubrious, but the water, in many
+localities, has been permitted to collect into pestilential swamps,
+and the draining of these and their cultivation would not only add
+to the wealth of the country, but would likewise free it from a dire
+plague.[20]
+
+Unfortunately agriculture progresses but slowly in Greece, and its
+produce is not even sufficient to support the population, still less
+to supply articles for export. And yet the cultivable soil of Greece
+is admirably suited to the growth of vines, fruits, cotton, tobacco,
+and madder. Figs and oranges are delicious; the wines of Santorin and
+the Cyclades are amongst the finest produced in the Mediterranean; the
+oil of Attica is as superior now as when Athene planted the sacred
+olive-tree; {82} but, excepting a little cotton grown in Phthiotis,
+and the raisins known as currants or Corinthians, which are exported
+from the Ionian Islands and Patras to the annual value of about
+£1,500,000, agriculture contributes but little towards the exports. One
+of the principal articles is the valonia, a species of acorn picked up
+in the forests, and used by tanners.
+
+In a country so far behindhand in agriculture manufactures cannot be
+expected to flourish. All manufactured articles have consequently to
+be imported from abroad, and especially from England. Greece does not
+even possess tools to work its famous marble quarries, though they
+are richer than those of Carrara. There is only one metallurgical
+establishment in the whole of the kingdom—that of Laurion. The ancients
+had been working argentiferous lead mines in that part of the country
+for centuries, and vast masses of unexhausted slag had accumulated
+near them. This waste is now being scientifically treated in the
+smelting-works of Ergastiria, and nearly ten thousand tons of lead, and
+a considerable quantity of silver, are produced there annually. Quite a
+brisk little town has arisen near the works, and its harbour is one of
+the busiest in all Greece. But the founders of this flourishing concern
+had to struggle against jealousies, and the “Laurion question” nearly
+embroiled the Governments of France and Italy with Greece.[21]
+
+The Greeks do not support themselves by agriculture, nor can they boast
+of manufactories, and they would be doomed to starvation if they did
+not maintain six thousand vessels acting in the lucrative business of
+ocean carriers throughout the Mediterranean. This Greek mercantile
+marine is superior to that of Russia, almost equal to that of Austria,
+and six times larger than that of Belgium, and we should bear in mind
+that many vessels sailing under Turkish colours are actually owned by
+Greeks. The ancient instinct of the race comes out strongly in this
+coast navigation. The large fleets of swift ocean steamers belong to
+the powerful companies of the West, and the Greeks are content to sail
+in small vessels suited to the requirements of the coasting trade,
+which hardly ever extend their voyages beyond the limits of the ancient
+Greek world. None can compete with them as regards low freight, for
+every sailor has an interest in the cargo, and all of them are anxious
+to increase the profits. One may have furnished the wood, another the
+rigging, a third a portion of the cargo, whilst their fellow-citizens
+have advanced money for the purchase of merchandise, without requiring
+any bond except their word of honour. On many of these vessels all are
+partners, all work alike, and share in the proceeds of the venture.
+
+But, whatever the sobriety and intelligence of these Greek mariners,
+they cannot escape the fate which has overtaken the small trader and
+the handicraftsman throughout the world. The cheap vessels of the
+Greeks may be able to contend for a long time against the steamers of
+powerful companies, but in the end they must succumb. The country will
+lose its place amongst the commercial nations of the world unless its
+agricultural and industrial resources are quickly developed, {83} and
+railways are constructed to convey the products of the interior to the
+sea-coast. Greece, even now, has only a few carriage roads, not so
+much because the mountains offer insurmountable obstacles, but because
+its heedless inhabitants are content with the facilities for transport
+offered by the sea. It would be impossible in our day to travel from
+the Pylos to Lacedæmon in a chariot, as was done by Telemachus; for the
+road connecting these places leads along precipices and over dangerous
+goat paths. Greece and Servia are the European states which remained
+longest without a railway, and even now the former is content with a
+short line connecting Athens with its harbour. It has certainly been
+proposed to construct several lines of the utmost importance, but,
+owing to the bankrupt condition of the Greek exchequer, these works
+have not yet been begun. The public income is not sufficient to meet
+the expenditure, the debt exceeds £15,000,000, and the interest on the
+loans remains unpaid.[22]
+
+The poverty of the majority of the inhabitants of Greece is equal to
+that of the State. The peasants are impoverished by the payment of
+tithes, and of a Government impost double or even treble their amount.
+Though naturally very temperate, they are hardly able to sustain life;
+they dwell in unwholesome dens, and are frequently unable to put by
+sufficient means for the purchase of clothing and other necessaries.
+The young men of the poorest districts of Greece thus find themselves
+forced to emigrate in large numbers, either for a season or for an
+indefinite period. Arcadia may be likened in this respect to Auvergne,
+to Savoy, and to other mountain countries of Central Europe. The
+Ætolians, however, exchange their fine savage valleys for foreign
+cities only very reluctantly, though they, too, suffer intensely from
+the weight of taxation. In ancient times, before their spirit was
+broken by servitude, they would have resisted the tax-gatherer with
+arms in their hands. They now content themselves with sallying forth
+from their villages, in order to pile up a heap of stones by the side
+of the high-road, as a testimony of the injustice with which they have
+been treated. This heap of stones is _anathema_. Every peasant passing
+it religiously adds a stone to this mute monument of execration, and
+the earth, the common mother of all, is thus charged with the task of
+vengeance.
+
+Ignorance, the usual attendant of poverty, is great in the rural
+districts of Greece, and especially in those difficult of access.
+In Greece, as in Albania and Montenegro, they believe in perfidious
+nymphs, who secure the affections of young men, and then drag them
+down below the water; they believe in vampyres, in the evil eye
+and witchcraft. But the Greeks are an inquiring race, anxious to
+learn, in spite of their poverty. The peasant of Ithaca will stop
+a traveller of education on the road, in order that he may read to
+him the poetry of Homer. Elementary schools have been established in
+nearly every village, in spite of the poverty of the Government. If
+no school buildings can be secured, the classes meet in the open air.
+The scholars, far from playing truant, hardly raise their eyes from
+the books to notice a passing stranger or the flight of a bird. The
+scholars in the superior schools and at the University of Athens are
+equally {84} conscientious and assiduous. It may be that some of them
+merely aspire to become orators, but they certainly do not resort to a
+city on the pretence of study, whilst in reality they yield themselves
+up to debauchery. Amongst the students of the University of Athens
+there are many who work half the night at some handicraft, others who
+hire themselves out as servants or coachmen, to enable them to pursue
+their studies as lawyers or physicians.
+
+This love of study cannot fail to secure to the Greek nation an
+intellectual influence far greater than could be looked for from the
+smallness of its numbers. The Greeks of the East, moreover, look upon
+Athens as their intellectual centre, whither they send their sons in
+pursuit of knowledge. They found scholarships in connection with the
+schools of Athens, and largely contribute towards their support. And
+it is not only the rich Greek merchants of Trieste, Saloniki, Smyrna,
+Marseilles, and London who are thus mindful of the true interests of
+their native country, but peasants of Thracia and Macedonia, too,
+devote their savings to the promotion of public education. The people
+themselves support their schools and museums, and pay their professors.
+The Academy of Athens, the Polytechnic School, the University, and
+the Arsakeion, an excellent ladies’ college—these all owe their
+existence to the zeal of Greek citizens, and not to the Government. It
+may readily be understood from this how carefully these institutions
+are being watched by the entire nation, and how salutary must be the
+influence of young men and women returning to their native provinces
+after they have been educated at them.
+
+It is thus a common language, common traditions, and a common hope
+for the future that have made a nation of the Greeks in spite of
+treaties. Greek patriotism is not confined to the narrow limits laid
+down by diplomacy. Whether they reside in Greece proper, in European or
+Asiatic Turkey, the Greeks feel as one people, and they lead a common
+national life independently of the Governments of Constantinople and
+Athens. Nay, amongst the Greeks dwelling in foreign lands this feeling
+of nationality is, perhaps, most intense, for they are not exposed to
+the corrupting influence of a bureaucracy. They have more carefully
+guarded the traditions and practices of municipal government, and
+are practically in the enjoyment of greater individual liberty. The
+Greek nation, in its entirety, numbers close upon 4,000,000 souls. Its
+power, already considerable, is growing from day to day, and is sure to
+exercise a potent influence upon the destinies of Mediterranean Europe.
+
+We are told sometimes that community of religion might induce the
+Greeks to favour Russian ambition, and to open to that power the road
+to Constantinople. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Hellenes
+will never sacrifice their own interests to those of the foreigner. Nor
+do there exist between Greece and Russia those natural ties which alone
+give birth to true alliances. Climate, geographical position, history,
+commerce, and, above all, a common civilisation, attach Greece to that
+group of European nations known as Greco-Latin. In tripartite Europe
+the Greeks will never range themselves by the side of the Slav, but
+will be found amongst the Latin nations of Italy, France, and Spain.
+
+[Illustration: TURKEY IN EUROPE and GREECE
+
+By E. G. Ravenstein, F.R.G.S.
+
+Scale 1 : 5,000,000.]
+
+{85}
+
+
+VII.—GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
+
+The protecting powers have bestowed upon Greece a parliamentary and
+constitutional Government, modelled upon West European patterns.
+Theoretically the King of the Greeks reigns, but does not govern, and
+his ministers are responsible to the Chambers, whose majority changes
+with the fluctuations of public opinion. In reality, however, the
+power of the King is limited only by diplomacy. Nor do those Western
+institutions respond to the traditions and the genius of the Greeks,
+and although the charter has been modified three times since the
+declaration of independence, it has never been strictly adhered to.
+
+In accordance with the constitution of 1864, every Greek citizen
+possessing any property whatever, or exercising a profession, has a
+right to vote on attaining his twenty-fifth year, and becomes eligible
+as a deputy at thirty. The deputies, one hundred and eighty-seven in
+number, are elected for four years, and are paid for their services.
+The civil list of the King, inclusive of a subvention granted by the
+protecting powers, amounts to £46,000 a year.
+
+The orthodox Greek Church of Hellas is independent of the Patriarch
+of Constantinople. It is governed by a Holy Synod, sitting in the
+capital, and presided over by an archbishop as metropolitan. A royal
+commissioner is present at the meetings of the Synod, and countersigns
+every proposition that is carried. Decisions not bearing this official
+signature are void. The King, on the other hand, is permitted to
+dethrone or remove a bishop only by consent of the Synod, and in
+accordance with the canon law. The constitution guarantees religious
+liberty, but this official Church nevertheless exercises considerable
+powers, and frequently calls upon the civil authorities to give force
+to its decrees. The Synod carefully watches over the observance of
+religious dogmas; it points out to the authorities heretical or
+heterodox preachers and writers, and demands their suppression;
+exercises a censorship over books and religious pictures; and calls
+upon the civil tribunals to punish offenders.
+
+There are no longer any Mohammedans in Greece, except sailors or
+travellers, and the last Turk has quitted Eubœa. The only Church
+besides the established one which can boast a considerable number of
+adherents is the Roman Catholic. It prevails amongst the middle classes
+on Naxos, and on several others of the Cyclades, and is governed by two
+archbishops and four bishops.
+
+Greece is divided into thirteen nomes, or nomarchies, and these, again,
+into fifty-nine eparchies. Each eparchy is subdivided into districts,
+or dimes (dimarchies), and the latter into parishes, governed by
+paredres, or assistant dimarchs. These officials are appointed by the
+King, and are in receipt of small emoluments. The number of officials
+is proportionately greater in Greece than in any other part of Europe.
+They form the sixtieth part, or, including their families, the twelfth
+part of the population, and although their pay is small, they swallow
+up between them more than half the public income. {86}
+
+The thirteen nomes and fifty-nine eparchies of Greece, with their
+population in 1870:―
+
+ Eparchies. Population.
+
+ Mantinea 46,174
+ Kynuria 26,733
+ Gartynia 41,408
+ Megalopolis 17,425
+ ───────
+ Arkadia 131,740
+ ═══════
+
+ Lakedæmon 46,423
+ Gythion 13,957
+ Itylos (Œtylos) 26,540
+ Epidauros Limera 18,931
+ ───────
+ Lakonia 105,851
+ ═══════
+
+ Kalamæ 25,029
+ Messini 29,529
+ Pylia 20,946
+ Triphylia 29,041
+ Olympia 25,872
+ ───────
+ Messenia 130,417
+ ═══════
+
+ Nauplia 15,022
+ Argos 22,138
+ Korinthia 42,803
+ Spetsæ and Hermionis 19,919
+ Hydra and Trizinia 17,301
+ Kythyra 10,637
+ ───────
+ Argolis and Korinthia 127,820
+ ═══════
+
+ Syros 30,643
+ Koa 8,687
+ Andros 19,674
+ Tinos 11,022
+ Naxos 20,582
+ Thira (Thera, Santorin) 21,901
+ Milos 10,784
+ ───────
+ Kyklades 123,293
+ ═══════
+
+ Attiki 76,919
+ Ægina 6,103
+ Megaris 14,949
+ Thiva (Thebæ) 20,711
+ Livadia 18,122
+ ───────
+ Attiki and Viotia (Bœotia) 136,804
+ ═══════
+
+ Khalkis 29,013
+ Xerochorion 11,215
+ Karystia 33,936
+ Skopelos 8,377
+ ───────
+ Euvia (Eubœa) 82,541
+ ═══════
+
+ Phthiotis 26,747
+ Parnasis 20,368
+ Lokris 20,187
+ Doris 49,119
+ ───────
+ Phthiotis and Phokis 106,421
+ ═══════
+
+ Mesolongion (Missolonghi) 18,997
+ Valtos 14,027
+ Trichonia 14,453
+ Evrytania 33,018
+ Navpaktia 22,219
+ Vonitza and Xeromeros 18,979
+ ───────
+ Akarnania and Ætolia 121,693
+ ═══════
+
+ Patras 46,527
+ Ægialia 12,764
+ Kalavryta 39,204
+ Ilia (Elis) 51,066
+ ───────
+ Achaia and Ilis (Elis) 149,561
+ ═══════
+
+ Kerkyra (Corfu) 25,729
+ Mesi 21,754
+ Oros 24,983
+ Paxi (Paxos) 3,582
+ Leucas (Santa Maura) 20,892
+ ───────
+ Kerkyra (Corfu) 96,940
+ ═══════
+
+ Kranæa 33,358
+ Pali 17,377
+ Sami 16,774
+ Itaki 9,873
+ ───────
+ Kephallinia 77,382
+ ═══════
+
+ Zakynthos (Zante) 44,557
+
+The modern nomenclature has been adopted in the above table.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{87}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TURKEY IN EUROPE.[23]
+
+
+I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.
+
+The Balkan peninsula is, perhaps, that amongst the three great
+peninsulas of Southern Europe which enjoys the greatest natural
+advantages, and occupies the most favourable geographical position.
+In its outline it is far less unwieldy than Spain, and even surpasses
+Italy in variety of contour. Its coasts are washed by four seas; they
+abound in gulfs, harbours, and peninsulas, and are fringed by numerous
+islands. Several of its valleys and plains vie in fertility with the
+banks of the Guadalquivir and the plains of Lombardy. The floras
+of two climes intermingle on its soil, and add their charms to the
+landscape. The mountains of Turkey do not yield to those of the two
+other peninsulas in graceful outline or grandeur, and most of them are
+still covered with virgin forests. If they are less accessible than the
+Apennines of Italy or the _sierras_ of Spain, that is owing simply to
+the want of roads; for they are, as a rule, of moderate elevation, and
+the plateaux from which they rise are narrower and more extensively
+intersected by valleys than is the table-land of Castile. Both Spain
+and Italy are closed in the north by mountain barriers difficult to
+cross, whilst the Balkan peninsula joins the continental trunk by
+almost imperceptible transitions, and nowhere is it separated from it
+by well-defined natural boundaries. The Austrian Alps extend without
+a break into Bosnia, and the Carpathians cross the Danube in order to
+effect a junction with the system of the Balkan. To the east of the
+“Iron Gate” there are no mountains at all, and Turkey is bounded there
+by the broad valley of the Danube. {88}
+
+The proximity and parallelism of the coasts of two continents confer
+upon the Balkan peninsula an advantage unrivalled, perhaps, throughout
+the world. It is separated from Asia only by the narrow channel which
+joins the Black Sea to the Ægean Sea: this channel is an ocean highway,
+and yet forms no serious obstacle to the migration of nations from
+continent to continent. If the Black Sea were larger than it is at
+present; if it still formed _one_ sea with the Caspian, and extended
+far into Asia, as it did in a past age, then Constantinople would
+necessarily become the great centre of the ancient world. That proud
+position was actually held by it a thousand years ago, and even if it
+should never recover it, its geographical position alone insures to
+it an importance for all time to come. If the city were to be razed
+to day, it would arise again to-morrow at some other spot in the
+neighbourhood. In the dawn of history powerful Ilion kept watch at the
+entrance of the Dardanelles: it survives in the city on the Bosphorus;
+and had there been no Byzantium, its mantle would have descended upon
+some other town in the same locality.
+
+We know the part played by ancient Greece in the history of human
+culture. Macedonia and Thracia, the two other countries bordering upon
+the Ægean, have played their part too. It was those provinces which,
+after the invasion of the Persians, gave birth to the movement of
+reaction which led the armies of Alexander to the Euphrates and Indus.
+The power of the Romans survived there for a thousand years after Rome
+itself had fallen, and the precious germs of civilisation, which at
+a later period regenerated Western Europe, were nurtured there. It
+is true, alas ! that the Turk has put a stop to every enterprise of
+a civilising nature. These conquerors of Turanian race were carried
+into the Balkan peninsula in the course of a general migration of
+nations towards the west, which went on for three thousand years, and
+was attended by perpetual broils. It is now five hundred years since
+the Turks obtained a footing in the peninsula, and for more than four
+hundred years they have been its masters, and during that long period
+the old Roman empire of the East has been severed, as it were, from
+the rest of Europe. The normal progress of these highly favoured
+countries has been interrupted by incessant wars between Christians
+and Mohammedans, by the decay of the nations conquered or enslaved by
+the Turks, and by the heedless fatalism of the masters of the country.
+But the time is approaching when that important portion of Europe will
+resume the position due to it amongst the countries of the earth.
+
+Vast tracts of the Balkan peninsula are hardly better known to us than
+the wilds of Africa. Kanitz found rivers, hills, and mountains figuring
+upon our maps which have no existence. Another traveller, Lejean,
+found that a pretended low pass through the Balkans existed only in
+the imagination. Russian geodesists engaged upon the measurement of an
+arc of a meridian found that Sofia, one of the largest and best-known
+cities of Turkey, had been inserted upon the best maps at a distance
+of nearly a day’s journey from its true position. The entire chain of
+the Balkans had to be shifted considerably to the south, in consequence
+of explorations carried on within the last few years. Men of science
+have hardly ventured yet to explore the plateaux of Albania or Mount
+Pindus, and much remains yet to {89} be done before our knowledge of
+the topography of the Balkan peninsula can be called even moderately
+complete. The voyages and explorations of a host of travellers[24]
+have, however, made known to us its general features and its geological
+formations. Their task was by no means an easy one, for the mountain
+masses and mountain chains of the peninsula do not constitute a
+regular, well-defined system. There is no central range, with spurs
+running out on both sides, and gradually decreasing in height as they
+approach the plains. Nor is the centre of the peninsula its most
+elevated portion, for the culminating summits are dispersed over the
+country apparently without order. The mountain ranges run in all the
+directions of the compass, and we can only say, in a general way, that
+those of Western Turkey run parallel with the Adriatic and Ionian
+coasts, whilst those in the east meet the coasts of the Black Sea and
+the Ægean at right angles. The relief of the soil and the water-sheds
+make it appear almost as if Turkey turned her back upon continental
+Europe. Its highest mountains, its most extensive table-lands, and its
+most inaccessible forests lie towards the west and north-west, as if
+they were intended to cut it off from the shores of the Adriatic and
+the plains of Hungary, whilst all its rivers, whether they run to the
+north, east, or south, finally find their way into the Black Sea or the
+Ægean, whose shores face those of Asia.
+
+This irregularity in the distribution of the mountains has its
+analogue in the distribution of the various races which inhabit the
+peninsula. The invaders or peaceful colonists, whether they came
+across the straits from Asia Minor, or along the valley of the Danube
+from Scythia, soon found themselves scattered in numerous valleys, or
+stopped by amphitheatres having no outlet. They failed to find their
+way in this labyrinth of mountains, and members of the most diverse
+races settled down in proximity to each other, and frequently came into
+conflict. The most numerous, the most warlike, or the most industrious
+races gradually extended their power at the expense of their
+neighbours; and the latter, defeated in the struggle for existence,
+have been scattered into innumerable fragments, between which there is
+no longer any cohesion. Hungary has a homogeneous population, if we
+compare it with that of Turkey; for in the latter country there are
+districts where eight or ten different nationalities live side by side
+within a radius of a few miles.
+
+Time, however, has brought some order into this chaos, and commercial
+intercourse has done much to assimilate these various races. Speaking
+broadly, Turkey in Europe may now be said to be divided into four
+great ethnological zones. The Greeks occupy Crete, the islands of
+the Archipelago, the shores of the Ægean Sea, and the eastern slopes
+of Mounts Pindus and Olympus; the Albanians hold the country between
+the Adriatic and Mount Pindus; the Slavs, including Servians, Croats,
+Bosnians, Herzegovinians, and Tsernagorans (Montenegrins), occupy
+the Illyrian Alps, towards the north-west; whilst the slopes of the
+Balkan, the Despoto Dagh, and the plains of Eastern Turkey belong to
+the Bulgarians, who, as far as language goes, are Slavs likewise. As
+to the Turks, the lords of the land, {90} they are to be met with in
+most places, and particularly in the large towns and fortresses; but
+the only portion of the country which they occupy to the exclusion of
+other races is the north-eastern corner of the peninsula, bounded by
+the Balkans, the Danube, and the Black Sea.
+
+
+II.—CRETE AND THE ISLANDS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO.
+
+Crete, next to Cyprus, is the largest island inhabited by Greeks. It is
+a natural dependency of Greece, but treaties made without consulting
+the wishes of the people have handed it over to the Turks. It is Greek
+in spite of this, not only because the majority of its inhabitants
+consider it to be so, but also because of its soil, its climate, and
+its geographical position. On all sides it is surrounded by deep seas,
+except towards the north-west, where a submarine plateau joins it to
+Cythera and the Peloponnesus.
+
+There are few countries in the world more favoured by nature. Its
+climate is mild, though sometimes too dry in summer; its soil fertile
+in spite of the waters being swallowed up by the limestone rocks;
+its harbours spacious and well sheltered; and its scenery exhibits
+both grandeur and quiet beauty. The position of Crete, at the mouth
+of the Archipelago, between Europe, Asia, and Africa, seems to have
+destined that island to become the great commercial emporium of that
+part of the world. Aristotle already observed this, and, if tradition
+can be trusted, Crete actually held that position for more than three
+thousand years. During that time it “ruled the waves;” the Cyclades
+acknowledged the sway of Minos, its king; Cretan colonists established
+themselves in Sicily; and Cretan vessels found their way to every part
+of the Mediterranean. But the island unfortunately became divided into
+innumerable small republics jealous of each other, and was therefore
+unable to maintain this commercial supremacy in the face of Dorian and
+other Greeks. At a subsequent period the Romans subjected the island,
+and it never recovered its independence. Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians,
+and Turks have held it in turn, and by each of them it has been laid
+waste and impoverished.
+
+The elongated shape of the island, and the range of mountains which
+runs through it from one extremity to the other, enable us to
+understand how it was that at a time when most Greeks looked upon
+the walls of their cities as synonymous with the limits of their
+fatherland, Crete became divided into a multitude of small republics,
+and how every attempt at federation (“syncretism”) miserably failed.
+The inhabitants, in fact, were more effectually separated from each
+other than if they had inhabited a number of small islands forming an
+archipelago. Most of the coast valleys are enclosed by high mountains,
+the only easy access to them being from the sea, and communications
+between the towns occupying their centres are possible only by crossing
+difficult mountain paths easily defended. In all Crete there exists
+but one plain deserving the name, viz. that of Messara, to the south
+of the central mass of mountains. It is the granary of the island, and
+the Ieropotamo, or “holy river,” which traverses it, has a little water
+even in the middle of summer. {91}
+
+The contour of Crete corresponds in a remarkable manner with the height
+of its mountains. Where these are high, the island is broad; where
+they sink down, it is narrow. In the centre of the island rises Mount
+Ida (Psiloriti), where Jupiter was educated by the Corybantes, and
+where his tomb was shown. Its lofty summit, covered with snow almost
+throughout the year, its gigantic buttresses, and the verdant valleys
+at its base render it one of the most imposing mountains in the world;
+but it was still more magnificent in the time of the ancient Greeks,
+when forests covered its slopes, and justified its being called Mount
+Ida, or “the wooded.” On the summit of this mountain the whole island
+lies spread out beneath our feet; the horizon towards the north, from
+Mount Taygetus to the shores of Asia, is dotted with islands and
+peninsulas; and in the south a wide expanse of water extends beyond the
+barren and inhospitable island of Gaudo.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 28.—THE GORGE OF HAGIO RUMELI.]
+
+The Leuca-Ori, or “White Mountains,” in the western extremity of the
+island, are thus called on account of the snow which covers their
+summits, or because {92} of their white limestone cliffs. They are
+exceedingly steep, and perfectly bare, hardly any verdure being met
+with even in the valleys at their foot. They are known, also, as the
+Mountains of the Sphakiotes, the descendants of the ancient Dorians,
+who have retired into their fastnesses, where they are protected by
+nature against every attack. Some of their villages are accessible
+only by following the stony bed of mountain torrents leaping down from
+the heights in small cascades. During the rains the water rushes down
+these ravines in mighty torrents. The “gates are closed” then, as it
+is said. One of these gates, or _pharynghi_, is that of Hagio Rumeli,
+on the southern slope of the Leuca-Ori. When rain threatens it is
+dangerous to enter these gorges, for the waters rush down and carry
+everything before them. During the war of independence the Turks vainly
+endeavoured to force this “gate” of the strong mountain citadel. The
+level pieces of ground on these heights are sufficiently extensive to
+support a considerable population, if it were not for the cold. The
+villages of Askyfo occupy one of these plains, which is surrounded on
+all sides by an amphitheatre of mountains. In former times this cavity
+was occupied by a lake. This is proved by ancient beaches and by other
+evidence. But the waters of the lake found an outlet through some
+katavothras (_khonos_, “sinks”) and discharged themselves into the sea.
+
+The remaining mountains of the island are less elevated and far less
+sterile than the White Mountains. The most remarkable amongst them
+are the Lasithi, and, still farther west, those of Dicte, or Sitia, a
+sort of pendant to the Mountains of the Sphakiotes. Raised sea-beaches
+have been traced along their northern slopes, covered with shells of
+living species, and they prove that that portion of the island has been
+upheaved more than sixty feet during a recent geological epoch. The
+northern coast, between the White Mountains and Mount Dicte, offers a
+greater variety of contour than does the south coast. Its capes, or
+_acroteria_, project far into the sea, and thence are gulfs, bays, and
+secure anchorages. For these reasons most commercial cities have been
+built upon that side of the island, which faces the Archipelago and
+presents a picture of life, whilst the south coast, facing Africa, is
+comparatively deserted. All the modern cities on the northern coasts
+have been built upon the sites of ancient ones. Megalokastron, better
+known by its Italian name of Candia, is the Heracleum of the ancients,
+the famous haven of Cnossus. Retimo, on the western front of Mount
+Ida, is easily identified with the ancient Rithymna; whilst Khanea
+(Canea), whose white houses are almost confounded with the arid slopes
+of the White Mountains, represents the Cydonia of the Greeks, famous
+for its forests of quince-trees. Canea is the actual capital, and
+although not the most populous, it is nevertheless the most important
+and the busiest city of the island. It has a second haven to the
+east, Azizirge, on Suda Bay, one of the best sheltered on the island,
+and promises to become one of the principal maritime stations on the
+Mediterranean.[25] {93}
+
+Crete has certainly lost much in population and wealth, and the
+epithet of the “isle of a hundred cities,” which it received from
+the ancient Greeks, no longer applies to it. Miserable villages
+occupy the sites of the ancient cities, their houses built from the
+materials of a single ruined wall, whilst immense quarries had to be
+opened in order to supply the building materials required in former
+times. The famous “labyrinth” is one of the most considerable of these
+ancient quarries. Crete, in spite of its great fertility, exports
+merely a few agricultural products, and nothing now reminds us of the
+fruitful island upon which Ceres gave birth to Plutus. The peasants
+are the reputed owners of the land, but they take little heed of its
+cultivation. Their olives yield only an inferior oil, and though
+the wine they make is good in spite of them, it is no longer the
+Malvoisie so highly prized by the Venetians. The cultivation of cotton,
+tobacco, and of fruit of all sorts is neglected. The only progress in
+agriculture which can be recorded during the present century consists
+in the introduction of orange-trees, whose delicious fruit is highly
+appreciated throughout the East. M. Georges Perrot has drawn attention
+to the singular fact that, with the exception of the olive-trees
+and the vine, the cultivated trees of the island are confined to
+particular localities. Thus chestnuts are met with only at the western
+extremity of the island; vigorous oaks and cypresses are confined to
+the elevated valleys of the Sphakiotes; the valonia oaks are met with
+only in the province of Retimo; Mount Dicte alone supports stone-pines
+and carob-trees; and a promontory in South-eastern Crete, jutting out
+towards Africa, is surmounted by a grove of date-trees—the finest
+throughout the Archipelago.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 29.—CRETE, OR CANDIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 2 470,000.
+
+The district inhabited by Mohammedans is shaded vertically.]
+
+The inhabitants of Crete and the neighbouring islets are still Greek,
+in spite of successive invasions, and they still speak a Greek dialect,
+recognised as a corrupted Dorian. The Slavs, who invaded the island
+during the Middle Ages, have left no trace except the names of a few
+villages. The Arabs and Venetians, too, have been assimilated by the
+aboriginal Cretans; but there still exist a considerable {94} number
+of Albanians, the descendants of soldiers, who have retained their
+language and their customs. As to the Mohammedans or pretended Turks,
+who constitute about one-fifth of the total population, they are, for
+the most part, the descendants of Cretans who embraced Islamism in
+order to escape persecution. They are the only Hellenes throughout the
+East who have embraced, in a body, the religion of their conquerors;
+but since religious persecution has subsided several of those
+Mohammedan Greeks have returned to the religion of their ancestors. The
+Greeks of Crete are thus not only vastly in the majority, but they hold
+the first place also in industry, commerce, and wealth; it is they who
+buy up the land, and the Mohammedan gradually retires before them. All
+Cretans, with the exception of the Albanians, speak Greek, and only in
+the capital and in a portion of Messara, where the Mohammedans live in
+compact masses, has the Turkish language made any progress.
+
+We need not be surprised, therefore, if the Greeks lay claim to a
+country in which their preponderance is so marked. But, in spite of
+their valour, they were no match against the Turkish and Egyptian
+armies which were brought against them.
+
+The Cretans are said to resemble their ancestors in the eagerness
+with which they do business, and in their disregard of truth. They
+may possibly be “Greeks amongst Greeks—liars amongst liars;” but
+they certainly cannot be reproached with being bad patriots. On the
+contrary, they have suffered much for the sake of their fatherland, and
+during the war of independence their blood was shed in torrents on many
+a battle-field. The vast cavern of Melidhoni, on the western slope of
+Mount Ida, was the scene of one of the terrible events of this war. In
+1822 more than three hundred Hellenes, most of them women, children,
+and old men, had sought refuge in this cavern. The Turks lit a fire
+at its mouth, and the smoke, penetrating to its farthest extremity,
+suffocated the unfortunate beings who had hoped to find shelter there.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The profound “Sea of Minos,” to the north of Crete, separates that
+island from the Archipelago. All the islands of the latter have been
+assigned to the kingdom of Greece—Astypalæa, vulgarly called Astropalæa
+or Stampalia, alone excepted, which still belongs to the Turks. The
+ancients called this island the “Table of the Gods,” although it is
+only a barren rock. It clearly belongs to the eastern chain of the
+Cyclades, as far as geological formation and the configuration of
+the sea-bottom go; but the diplomats allowed its fifteen hundred
+inhabitants to remain under the dominion of Turkey.
+
+Amongst the other islands inhabited by Greeks, but belonging to
+Turkey, Thasos is that which lies nearest to the coast of Europe.
+The strait which separates it from Macedonia is hardly four miles
+across, and in its centre there is an island (Thasopulo), as well as
+several sand-banks, which interfere much with navigation. Though a
+natural dependency of Macedonia, this island is governed by a mudir
+of the Viceroy of Egypt, to whom the Porte made a present of it. When
+Mohammed II. put an end to the Byzantine empire, Thasos and the {95}
+neighbouring islands formed a principality, the property of the
+Italian family of the Gateluzzi.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 30.—THE ÆGEAN SEA.
+
+According to Robiquet. Scale, 1 : 5,170,000.
+
+The map is shaded to express the depth of the sea. The palest tint
+indicates a depth of less than 55 fathoms; the next tint a depth of 55
+to 275 fathoms; the next a depth of 275 to 550 fathoms; and the darkest
+tint a depth of over 550 fathoms.]
+
+Thasos is one of those countries of the ancient world the present
+condition of which contrasts most unfavourably with former times.
+Thasos, an ancient Phœnician colony, was once the rival, and
+subsequently the wealthy and powerful ally, of Athens: its hundred
+thousand inhabitants worked the gold and iron mines of {96} the island;
+they quarried its beautiful white marble; cultivated vineyards yielding
+a famous wine; and extended their commercial expeditions to every part
+of the Ægean Sea. But now there are neither mines nor quarries, the
+vines yield only an inferior product, the agricultural produce hardly
+suffices for the six thousand inhabitants of the island, and the
+ancient haven of Thasos is frequented only by the tiniest of vessels.
+The island has recovered very slowly from the blow inflicted upon it
+by Mohammed II., who carried nearly the whole of its inhabitants to
+Constantinople. Thasos after this became a haunt of pirates, and its
+inhabitants sought shelter within the mountains of the interior. They
+are Hellenes, but their dialect is very much mixed with Turkish words.
+Unlike other Hellenes, they are not anxious to improve their minds.
+They are degenerate Greeks, and they know it. “We are sheep and beasts
+of burden,” they’ repeatedly told the French traveller, Perrot.
+
+Thasos, however, is the only island of the Archipelago where wooded
+mountains and verdant landscapes survive. Rains are abundant, and
+its vegetation luxuriant. Running streams of water murmur in every
+valley; large trees throw their shade over the hill-sides; the villages
+near the foot of the mountain are hidden by cypresses, walnut, and
+olive-trees; the valleys which radiate in all directions from the
+centre of the island abound in planes, laurels, yoke-elms, and vigorous
+oaks; and dark pine forests cover the higher slopes of the hills,
+the glittering barren summits of Mount St. Elias and of other high
+mountains alone rising above them.
+
+Samothrace, though smaller than Thasos, is much more elevated. Its
+mountains are composed of granite, schists, limestones, and trachyte,
+and form a sort of pendant to Mount Athos, on the other side of the
+Ægean Sea. If we approach Samothrace from the north or the south, it
+presents the appearance of a huge coffin floating upon the waters;
+from the east or west its profile resembles a pyramid rising from the
+waves. From its summit Neptune watched the fight of the Greeks before
+Troy. In the dark oak forests of the Black Mountains were carried on
+the mysteries of Cybele and her Corybantes, as well as the Cabiric
+worship, which was intimately connected with them, and Samothrace was
+to the ancient Greeks what Mount Athos is to the moderns—a sacred land.
+Numerous ruins and inscriptions remain to bear witness to the zeal of
+devout travellers from all parts of the world. But with the downfall of
+the heathen temples the pilgrims disappeared. There is only one village
+on the island now. Its inhabitants lead a secluded life, and the only
+strange faces they see are those of the sponge-fishers who frequent the
+island during summer. The entire absence of harbours, and the dangerous
+current which separates Samothrace from Imbro, keep off the mariner,
+and though the valleys are extremely fertile, they have not hitherto
+attracted a single immigrant from the neighbouring continent.
+
+Imbro and Lemnos are separated from Samothrace by a deep sea, and
+appear to continue the range of the Thracian Chersonesus. Imbro, which
+is nearest to the continent, is the more elevated of the two islands,
+but its St. Elias does not attain half the height of the mountains
+of Samothrace. There are no forests {97} upon the slopes of this
+mountain, the valleys are covered with stones, and hardly an eighth
+of the surface of the island is capable of cultivation. Still, the
+position of Imbro, close to the mouth of the Dardanelles and upon an
+international ocean highway, will always secure to it a certain degree
+of importance. The majority of the inhabitants live in a small valley
+in the north-eastern portion of the island, and though the rivulet
+which flows through this valley regularly dries up in summer, it is
+nevertheless called emphatically the Megalos Potamos, or “big river.”
+
+Lemnos, or Limni, is the largest island of Thracia, and at the same
+time the least elevated and the most barren. You may walk for hours
+there without seeing a tree. Even olive-trees are not met with in the
+fields, and the village gardens can boast but of few fruit trees.
+Timber has to be procured from Thasos or the continent. Lemnos, in
+spite of all this, is exceedingly fertile; it produces barley and
+other cereals in plenty, and the pastures amongst its hills sustain
+40,000 sheep. The island consists of several distinct mountain groups
+of volcanic origin, 1,200 to 1,500 feet in height, and separated by
+low plains covered with scoriæ, or by gulfs penetrating far inland.
+In the time of the ancient Greeks the volcanoes of Lemnos had not yet
+quenched their fires, for it was in one of them that Vulcan, when
+hurled from heaven, established his smithy, and, with the assistance of
+the Cyclops, forged his thunderbolts for Jupiter. About the beginning
+of our era Mount Mosychlos and the promontory of Chryse were swallowed
+up by the sea, and the vast shoals which extend from the eastern part
+of the island in the direction of Imbro probably mark their site.
+Since the disappearance of Mount Mosychlos, Lemnos has not again
+suffered from volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. The majority of the
+inhabitants are Greeks, and the Turks who have settled amongst them
+are being evicted by the conquered race, which is superior to them
+in intelligence and industry. Commerce is entirely in the hands of
+the Greeks. Its principal seat is at Kastro—the ancient Myrhina—which
+occupies a headland between two roadsteads. Sealed earth is one of the
+articles exported, and is found in the mountains. In ancient times it
+was much prized as an astringent, and is so still throughout the East.
+It is not considered to possess its healing qualities unless it has
+been collected before sunrise on Corpus Christi day.
+
+The small island of Stratio (Hagios Eustrathios) depends politically
+and commercially upon Lemnos. It, too, is inhabited by Greeks. As to
+the islands along the coast of Asia Minor, they form a portion of
+Turkey in Europe as far as their political administration is concerned,
+but geographically they belong to Asia.[26] {98}
+
+
+III.—TURKEY OF THE GREEKS (THRACIA, MACEDONIA, AND THESSALY).
+
+The whole of the Ægean seaboard of European Turkey is occupied
+by Greeks, and this proves the great influence which the sea has
+exercised upon the migrations of the Mediterranean nations. Thessaly,
+Macedonia, Chalcis, and Thrace are more or less Greek countries, and
+even Constantinople lies within Greece, as defined by ethnological
+boundaries. The geographical distribution of race there does not, in
+fact, coincide with the physical features of the country—its mountains,
+rivers, and climate. The Turkey of the Greeks is, in reality, no
+geographical unit, and the only tie which unites it are the waters of
+the Archipelago, which wash all its shores.
+
+Nowhere else does the Balkan peninsula exhibit such varied features
+as on the shores of the Ægean Sea, and of the adjoining basin of the
+Sea of Marmara. Bluffs, hills, and mountain masses rise abruptly from
+the plain; arms of the sea extend far inland; and ramified peninsulas
+project into the deep waters of the ocean. It appears almost as if
+nature were making an effort to create an archipelago similar to that
+in the south.
+
+The tongue of land upon which Constantinople has been built offers a
+remarkable example of the features which characterize the coast lands
+of this portion of Europe. Geologically the whole of this peninsula
+belongs to Asia. Its hollow hills are separated from the granitic
+mountains of Europe by a wide plain covered with recent formations,
+and the wall of Athanasius, now in ruins, which was built as a defence
+to the city, approximately marks the true boundary between Europe and
+Asia. The rocks on both sides of the Bosphorus belong to the Devonian
+formation. They contain the same fossils, exhibit the same outward
+aspects, and date from the same epoch. A patch of volcanic rocks at
+the northern entrance to the Bosphorus likewise exhibits the same
+characteristics on both sides of the strait, and there cannot be the
+least doubt that this European peninsula at a former epoch constituted
+a portion of Asia Minor, but was severed from it by an irruption of the
+waters.
+
+[Illustration: THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND THE THRACIAN BOSPHORUS.]
+
+[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE GOLDEN HORN, FROM THE HEIGHTS OF
+EYUB.]
+
+Apollo himself, it is said, pointed out the site where to build the
+city which is now known as Constantinople, and no better could have
+been found. In fact, the city occupies the most favoured spot on the
+Bosphorus. It stands on a peninsula of gently undulating hills, bounded
+by the Sea of Marmara and by the curved inlet called, from its shape,
+its beauty, and the valuable cargoes floating upon its waters, the
+“Golden Horn.” The swift current of the Bosphorus penetrates into
+this inlet, and sweeps it clean of all the refuse of the city. It
+then passes into the open sea at the extreme angle of the peninsula,
+and sailing vessels are thus able to reach their anchorage without
+having to struggle against a contrary current. This haven not only
+affords a secure anchorage to a multitude of vessels, but it likewise
+abounds in fish; for, in spite of the constant agitation of its waters
+by the oars of caiques and the paddles or screws of steamers, it is
+visited annually by shoals of tunnies and other fish. The haven of
+Constantinople, though easy of access to peaceable merchantmen, can
+readily be {99} closed in case of war. The surrounding heights
+command every approach to it, and a chain has more than once been drawn
+across the narrow entrance to its roadstead when the city was besieged.
+The latter, too, can be defended easily, for it is built upon hills,
+bounded on the land side by an extensive plain. An assailant, to insure
+success, must dispose not only of an army, but also of a powerful navy.
+In addition to all these natural advantages of its site, Constantinople
+is in the enjoyment of a climate far superior to that of the cities of
+the Black Sea, for it is screened by hills from cold northerly winds.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 31.—GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE PENINSULA OF
+CONSTANTINOPLE.
+
+According to F. von Hochstetter. Scale 1 : 1,370,000.]
+
+In the dawn of history, when migration and commerce marched only at a
+slow pace, a site as favoured as that of Byzantium was capable only
+of attracting the dwellers in its immediate neighbourhood. But after
+commerce had become developed, the blind alone—so said the oracle of
+Apollo—could fail to appreciate the great advantages held out by the
+Golden Horn. Indeed, Constantinople lies not only on the ocean highway
+which connects the world of the Mediterranean with the Black Sea, but
+also on the high-road which leads from Asia into Europe. Geographically
+it may be described as occupying a position at {100} the mouths of the
+Danube, Dniester, Dnieper, Don, Rion, and Kizil Irmak, whose common
+outlet is the Bosphorus. When Constantine the Great constituted it
+the metropolis of the Roman empire, it grew rapidly in population and
+wealth; it soon became the city of cities; and its Turkish appellation,
+Stamboul, is nothing but a corruption of the expression _es tam polin_,
+used by the inhabitants to denote their going _into the city_. Amongst
+the distant tribes of Asia it represents Rome. They know it by no other
+name than that of “Rum,” and the country of which it is the capital
+they call “Rumelia.”
+
+Constantinople is one of the most beautiful cities in the world: it
+is the “paradisiacal city” of Eastern nations. It may compare with
+Naples or Rio de Janeiro, and many travellers accord it the palm. As
+we approach the entrance of the Golden Horn, seated in a caique more
+graceful than the gondolas of Venice, the vast and varied panorama
+around us changes with every stroke of the oars. Beyond the white walls
+of the Seraglio and its masses of verdure rise here, amphitheatrically
+on the seven hills of the peninsula, the houses of Stamboul—its towers,
+the vast domes of its mosques, with their circlets of smaller domes,
+and its elegant minarets, with their balconies. On the other side of
+the haven, which is crossed by bridges of boats, there are more mosques
+and towers, seen through a forest of masts and rigging, and covering
+the slope of a hill whose summit is crowned by regularly built houses
+and the palatial residences of Pera. On the north vast villa-cities
+extend along both shores of the Bosphorus. Towards the east, on a
+promontory of Asia, there is still another city, cradled amidst gardens
+and trees. This is Scutari, the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople, with
+its pink houses and vast cemetery shaded by beautiful cypress groves.
+Farther in the distance we perceive Kadi-koei, the ancient Chalcedon,
+and the small town of Prinkipo, on one of the Princes’ Islands, whose
+yellow rocks and verdant groves are reflected in the blue waters of the
+Sea of Marmara. The sheet of water connecting these various portions of
+the huge city is alive with vessels and boats, whose movements impart
+animation to the magnificent picture. The prospect from the heights
+above the town is still more magnificent. The coasts of Europe and
+Asia are beneath our feet, the eye can trace the sinuosities of the
+Bosphorus, and far away in the distance looms the snow-capped pyramidal
+summit of Mount Olympus, in Bithynia.
+
+But this enchantment vanishes as soon as we penetrate into the streets
+of Constantinople. There are many parts of the town with narrow and
+filthy streets, which a stranger hesitates to enter. It is, perhaps,
+a blessing, from a sanitary point of view, that conflagrations so
+frequently lay waste and scour large portions of the city. Scarcely a
+night passes without the watchman on the tower of the Seraskieriate
+giving the alarm of fire, and thousands of houses are devoured by that
+element every year. The city thus renews itself by degrees. It rises
+from its ashes purified by the flames. But formerly, before the Turks
+had built their city of stone on the heights of Pera, the quarters
+destroyed by fire were rebuilt as wretchedly as they were before. It
+is different now. The use of stone has become more general; wooden
+structures are being replaced by houses built {101} of a fossiliferous
+white limestone, which is quarried at the very gates of the city; and
+free use is made of the blue and grey marbles of Marmara, and of the
+flesh-coloured ones of the Gulf of Cyzica, in Asia Minor, in decorating
+the palaces of the great.
+
+Nearly every vestige of the monuments of ancient Byzantium has been
+swept away by fires or sieges. There only exists now the precious
+tripod of bronze, with its three serpents, which the Platæans had
+placed in the temple of Delphi in commemoration of their victory over
+the Persians. The relics of the epoch of the Byzantine emperors are
+limited to columns, obelisks, arches of aqueducts, the breached walls
+of the city, the remains of the palace of Justinian, only discovered
+recently, and the two churches of Santa Sophia, which have been
+converted into mosques. The grand church of Santa Sophia, close to the
+Seraglio, is no longer the most magnificent edifice in the universe,
+as it was in the time of Justinian, for even the neighbouring mosque
+of Sultan Ahmed far exceeds it in beauty and elegance. It is a clumsy
+building, supported by buttresses added at various times to keep it
+from falling. The character of the interior has been changed by the
+Turks, who have introduced additional pillars, and the once bright
+mosaics have been covered over; but the dome never fails to strike the
+beholder: it is a marvel of strength and lightness.
+
+The Seraglio, or Serai, near Garden Point, may boast of fine pavilions
+and shady walks, but the dark memories of crime will always cling to
+it. The spot from which sacks containing the bodies of living sultanas
+or odalisks were hurled into the dark waters of the Bosphorus is still
+pointed out to the traveller. Far more attractive than this ancient
+residence of the sultans are the marvellous structures in the Arab or
+Persian style which line the shores of the Bosphorus, and which impart
+to the suburbs of Constantinople an aspect of oriental splendour.
+
+The bazaars are amongst the most curious places in the city, not so
+much because of the rich merchandise which is displayed in them, but
+because they are frequented by a variety of nations such as cannot be
+met with in any other city of the world. The capital of the Ottoman
+empire is a centre of attraction not only to the inhabitants of the
+Balkan peninsula, but also to those of Anatolia, Syria, Arabia, Egypt,
+Tunis, and even of the oases. There are “Franks” from every country
+of Europe, drawn thither by a desire to share in the profits of the
+ever-increasing commerce of the Bosphorus. This mixture of races is
+rendered still greater by the surreptitious importation of slaves;
+for, whatever diplomatists may assert, there can be no doubt that the
+“honourable guild of slave-dealers” still does an excellent business in
+negresses, Circassians, and white and black eunuchs. Nor is anything
+else to be expected amongst a people who look upon a well-stocked
+harem as a sign of respectability. Dr. Millingen estimates the number
+of slaves at Constantinople at 30,000 souls, most of whom have been
+imported from Africa. From an anthropological point of view it is
+certainly very remarkable that the negro should not have taken root in
+Constantinople. In the course of the last four centuries a million of
+negroes at least have been imported, and yet, owing to difficulties
+of acclimation, ill-usage, and want, they would die out but for fresh
+importations. {102}
+
+Our statistics do not enable us to classify the 600,000 inhabitants
+of Constantinople and its suburbs according to race.[27] One of the
+principal sources of error in estimates of this kind consists in our
+confounding Mussulmans with Turks. In the provinces it is generally
+possible to avoid this error, for Bosnians, Bulgarians, and Albanians
+recognise each other as members of the same race, whatever religious
+differences may exist between them. But in the turmoil of a great
+city this distinction is no longer made, and, in the end, all those
+who frequent the mosques are lumped together as if they were members
+of the same race. Of the supposed Osmanli of Constantinople a third,
+perhaps, consists of Turks, whilst the remaining two-thirds are made
+up of Arnauts, Bulgarians, Asiatics, and Africans of various races.
+Amongst the boatmen there are many Lesghians from the Caucasus. The
+Mohammedans, if not in the minority already, will be so very soon,
+for they lose ground almost visibly. In old Stamboul, in which a
+Frank hardly dared to enter some twenty years ago, they still enjoy a
+numerical preponderance, but in the “agglomeration of cities” known
+as Constantinople, and extending from Prinkipo to Therapia, they are
+outnumbered by Greeks, Armenians, and Franks, and certain quarters of
+the town have been given up to the Christians altogether.
+
+The Greeks are the most influential, and perhaps most numerous, element
+amongst the rayas. Their head-quarters, like those of the Turks, are
+at Stamboul, where they occupy a quarter of the town called Phanar,
+from an old lighthouse. The Greek patriarch and the wealthiest Greek
+families reside there. These Phanariotes, in former times, almost
+monopolized the government of the Christian provinces of Turkey,
+but they fell into disfavour after the Greek war of liberation. The
+religious influence, too, which they exercised until quite recently,
+has been destroyed in consequence of the separation of the Servian,
+Rumanian, and Bulgarian Churches from the orthodox Greek Church—a
+separation brought about almost entirely through the rapacity of the
+Greek patriarch and his satellites. If the Greeks would continue to
+preserve their pre-eminence amongst the races of Constantinople, they
+must trust, in the future, to their superior intelligence, their
+commercial habits, education, patriotism, and unanimity. To the Turks
+the members of the orthodox Church are known as the “Roman nation,” and
+they enjoy a certain amount of self-government, exercised through their
+bishops, which extends to marriages, schools, hospitals, and a few
+other matters.
+
+The “nation” of the Armenians is likewise very strong at
+Constantinople, and, like that of the “Romans,” it governs itself
+through an elective Executive Council. Much of the commerce of
+Constantinople passes through the hands of Armenians, who, though they
+came to that city almost simultaneously with the Turks, have down to
+the present day preserved their peculiar manners. They are cold and
+reserved, and full of self-respect, differing widely from their rivals
+in trade, the Jews, who slink furtively to their poor suburb of Balata,
+at the upper {103} extremity of the Golden Horn. The Armenians are
+clannish in the extreme, they readily assist each other, and, like
+the Parsees of Bombay, delight in acts of munificence. But, unlike
+the Greeks, they are not sustained in their undertakings by an ardent
+belief in the destinies of their race. Most of them are not even able
+to speak their native language freely, and prefer to converse in
+Turkish or Greek.
+
+The Franks are much inferior in number to either of the races named,
+but their influence is nevertheless far more decisive. It is through
+them that Constantinople is attached to the civilisation of Western
+Europe, and their institutions are by degrees getting the better of the
+fatalism of the East. It is they who built the manufacturing suburbs
+to the west of Constantinople and near Scutari, and who introduced
+railways. Every civilised nation of the world is represented amongst
+them—Italians and French most numerously; and to the Americans is due
+the credit of having established the first geological museum in Turkey,
+in connection with Robert Colleg.
+
+Constantinople, owing to the influx of strangers, is steadily
+increasing in population, and one by one the villages in its vicinity
+are being swallowed up by the city. The whole of the Golden Horn is
+surrounded by houses now, and they extend far up the valleys of the
+Cydaris and Barbyzes, which fall into it. Industrial establishments
+extend along the shores of the Sea of Marmara, from the ancient fort of
+the Seven Towers far to the west, and from Chalcedon to the south-east,
+in the direction of the Gulf of Nicomedia. Both banks of the Bosphorus
+are lined with villas, palaces, kiosks, cafés, and hotels. This
+remarkable channel extends for nineteen miles between the shores of
+Europe and of Asia.[28] Like a huge mountain valley it winds between
+steep promontories, now contracting and then expanding, until it
+finally opens out into the vast expanse of the Black Sea. When northern
+winds hurl the agitated waters of the latter against the sombre cliffs
+which guard the entrance to the Bosphorus, the contrast between this
+savage sea and the placid waters of the strait and its charming scenery
+is striking indeed. At every turn we are arrested by unexpected charms.
+Rocks, palaces, woods, vessels of every description, and the curious
+scaffoldings of Bulgarian fishermen succeed each other in infinite
+variety.
+
+Amongst the innumerable country residences which nestle on the shores
+of the Bosphorus, those of Balta-Liman, Therapia, and Buyukdere are the
+best known, for they have been the scenes of historical events; but
+there is no spot throughout this marine valley which does not excite
+admiration. These marvels of nature will, before long, have added to
+them a marvel of human ingenuity. The width of the channel between the
+castles of Rumili and Anadoli is only 600 yards. It was here Mandroclus
+of Samos constructed the bridge of boats across which Darius marched
+his army of 700,000 men when he made war upon the Scythians, and on
+this identical spot it is proposed now to construct a railway bridge
+which will join the railways of Europe to those of Asia. A current
+runs through the Bosphorus, from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara,
+at a rate of from two to six miles an hour; and although several
+geographers conclude from this that the level {104} of the former is
+higher than that of the latter, this must by no means be looked upon as
+an established fact. We have already noticed the exchange between the
+waters of the Mediterranean and of the open Atlantic, which takes place
+through the Strait of Gibraltar. A similar exchange is going on here,
+and the outflowing surface current is compensated for by an inflowing
+under-current.
+
+The outlying houses and villas of Constantinople extend northwards
+along the Bosphorus as far as the two Genoese castles of Rumili-kavak
+and Anadoli-kavak. This extension coincides with the geological
+features of the ground, for no sooner have we turned our backs upon the
+houses than we find ourselves shut in between cliffs of dolerite and
+porphyry, which extend as far as the Black Sea, where they terminate in
+the precipices of the Cyaneæ, or Symplegades, the famous rocks which
+opened and shut, crushing the vessels that ventured to pass through the
+strait, until Minerva fixed them for ever. These volcanic rocks are
+barren, but the Devonian strata to the south of them are beautifully
+wooded. The Turks, unlike the Spaniards and other Southern nations,
+love and respect nature; plane-trees, cypresses, and pines still shade
+the shores of the Bosphorus; and the vast forest of Belgrade covers
+the hills to the east of Constantinople, from which the city draws
+its supply of water. Birds, too, are better protected than in many a
+Christian land. The plaintive cooing of doves is heard wherever we
+turn, flights of swallows and aquatic birds skim over the surface of
+the Bosphorus, and now and then we encounter a grave stork perched upon
+the top of a tree or of a minaret.
+
+The whole aspect of the place is southerly, yet the climate of
+Constantinople has its rigour. The cold winds of the steppes of Russia
+freely penetrate through the strait, and the thermometer has been known
+to fall four degrees below zero in the winter. The neighbouring sea
+renders the climate more equable than it would otherwise be; but as
+the winds, from whatever direction they blow, meet with no obstacle,
+sudden changes of temperature are frequent. The average temperature
+varies very considerably in different years. Sometimes it sinks to the
+level of that of Pekin or Baltimore, at others it is as high as that
+of Toulon or of Nice. In exceptional cases the Bosphorus has become
+covered with ice, but thaws always set in rapidly, and then may be
+witnessed the magnificent spectacle of masses of ice striking against
+the walls of the Seraglio, and floating away across the Sea of Marmara.
+In A.D. 762 these masses of ice were so stupendous that they became
+wedged in the Dardanelles, and the tepid waters of the Ægean Sea then
+assumed the aspect of a bay of the Arctic Ocean.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The geological features of the coast region of the Sea of Marmara
+differ essentially from those of the rest of Turkey. Low ranges of
+hills rise close to the coast, increasing in height towards the west,
+until they attain an elevation of 2,930 feet in the Tekir Dagh, or
+“holy mountains,” the grey slopes of which, covered here and there with
+patches of shrubs or pasturage, are visible from afar.
+
+A narrow neck of land joins the peninsula of Gallipoli—the Thracian
+{105} Chersonesus of the ancients—to this coast range. This peninsula
+is composed of quaternary rocks, which differ in no respect from
+those met with on the shore of Asia opposite. Anciently a huge
+fresh-water lake covered a portion of Thracia and more than half
+the area now occupied by the Ægean Sea. When the land first emerged
+above the waters, the Chersonesus formed an integral portion of Asia.
+Subsequently the waters of the Black Sea, which had forced themselves
+a passage through the Bosphorus, likewise found their way through the
+Hellespont into the Ægean Sea. The geological formation of the country
+and the configuration of the sea-bottom prove this to have been the
+case, and this irruption of the waters was attended, probably, by
+volcanic eruptions, traces of which still exist on the islands of the
+Sea of Marmara and near the mouth of the Maritza, the former to the
+east, the latter to the west of the peninsula.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 32.—THE HELLESPONT, OR DARDANELLES, AND THE GULF OF
+SAROS.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,220,000.
+
+The dark shading expresses a depth exceeding 55 fathoms.]
+
+If the statements of Pliny and Strabo may be relied upon, the
+Hellespont must have been much narrower in former times than it is
+now. At Abydos—the modern Naghara—the width is said to have amounted
+to seven stadia, or less than a mile, anciently, whilst at the present
+time it is 6,500 feet. It was here Xerxes constructed his double bridge
+of boats. The strait is deep at that spot, and its current strong, but
+no wooden ship could hope to force a passage if covered by the guns
+in the batteries on both coasts. The Hellespont, like the Bosphorus,
+has two {106} currents flowing through it. In winter, when the rivers
+which flow into the Black Sea are frozen up, and the Sea of Marmara
+is no longer fed by the waters of the Bosphorus, a highly saline
+under-current penetrates from the Ægean Sea into the Dardanelles,
+whilst a feebler current of comparatively fresh water flows in a
+contrary direction on the surface.[29]
+
+Gallipoli, the Constantinople of the Hellespont, stands near the
+western extremity of the Sea of Marmara. It is the first city which the
+Turks captured upon the soil of Europe; but though they settled down
+there nearly a hundred years earlier than they did at Constantinople,
+they are no more in the majority here than they are in the capital.
+Gallipoli, like Rodosto and other towns on the Sea of Marmara, is
+inhabited by Mohammedans of various races, by Greeks, Armenians, and
+Jews, forming separate communities dwelling within the walls of the
+same town. The country population consists almost exclusively of
+Greeks, who are the proprietors and cultivators of the land; and in
+sight of the coasts of Asia, and within that portion of the Balkan
+peninsula which has been longest under the rule of the Turk, the Greek
+is stronger numerically than anywhere else to the north of Mount
+Pindus. He does not there confine himself to the coast, and, if we
+except a few Bulgarian villages and the larger towns, the whole of
+Eastern Thracia belongs to him.
+
+The lowlands of this region form a vast triangular plain, bounded by
+the Tekir Dagh and the coast range on the south, by offshoots from the
+Rhodope on the west, and by the granitic mountains of Stranja on the
+east. This is one of the dreariest districts of all Turkey. Swampy
+depressions and untilled land recall the steppes of Russia; and in
+summer, when the wind raises clouds of dust, we can imagine ourselves
+in the midst of a desert. The dreary monotony of this plain is relieved
+only by the pale contours of distant mountains, and by innumerable
+artificial mounds of unknown origin. So numerous are these tumuli that
+they form an essential feature of the landscape, and no artist could
+convey a just idea of it without introducing into his picture one or
+more of them.
+
+Near the northern extremity of this unattractive plain, at the
+confluence of Maritza and Tunja, lies the city of Adrianople, enveloped
+in trees, whose sight delights the eye of the weary traveller.
+Adrianople, in reality, consists of a number of villages, separated
+from each other by orchards, poplars, and cypresses, above which peep
+out the minarets of some hundred and fifty mosques. The sparkling
+waters of the Maritza and Tunja, of rivulets and of aqueducts, lend
+animation to the picture, and render Adrianople one of the most
+delightful places. But it is more than this. It is the great centre of
+population in the interior of Turkey, and its favourable geographical
+position has always secured to the city a certain amount of importance.
+The ancient city of Orestis, the capital of the Kings of Thracia,
+stood on this site, and was succeeded by the Hadrianopolis of the
+Romans, which the Turks changed into Edirneh, and made their capital
+until Constantinople fell into their power. The old palace of the
+Sultan, built in the {107} Persian style towards the close of the
+fourteenth century, still remains, though in a dilapidated condition.
+But here, likewise, the Osmanli are in the minority. The Greeks are
+their equals in numbers, and far surpass them in intelligence, whilst
+the Bulgarians, too, muster strongly, and, as in other towns of the
+East, we meet with a strange mixture of races, from Persian merchants
+down to gipsy musicians. The Jews are proportionately more numerous in
+Adrianople than in any other town of Turkey, and, strange to relate,
+they differ from their co-religionists in every other part of the world
+by a lack of smartness in business transactions. A local proverb says
+that “it requires _ten_ Jews to hold their own against _one_ Greek;”
+and not Greeks alone, for Wallachians, and even Bulgarians, are able to
+impose upon the poor Israelite at Adrianople.
+
+The communications between Adrianople and Midea, the ancient Greek
+colony, famous for its subterranean temples, and with other cities
+on the Black Sea, are difficult. Its natural outlets are towards the
+south—on the one hand to Rodosto, on the Sea of Marmara; on the other,
+down the Maritza valley to the Gulf of Saros. The railway follows the
+latter, and the Rumelian Railway Company has constructed an artificial
+harbour at Dede Aghach, enabling merchantmen to lie alongside a pier.
+The allurements of commerce, however, have not hitherto induced the
+inhabitants of Enos to exchange their walled and turreted acropolis for
+the marshy tract on the Lower Maritza, with its deadly atmosphere.
+
+The zone occupied by the Greeks grows narrower as we go west of the
+Maritza, where the Rhodope Mountains form a kind of international
+barrier. Only the coast is occupied there by Greek mariners and
+fishermen, whilst the hills in sight of it are held almost exclusively
+by Turkish and Bulgarian peasants and herdsmen. The marshy littoral
+districts, the small valleys on the southern slopes of the mountains,
+and a few isolated hills of volcanic or crystalline formation
+constitute a narrow band which connects the Greeks of Thracia
+with their compatriots of Chalcidice and Thessaly. The Yuruks, or
+“Wanderers,” a Turkish tribe which has retained its nomadic habits
+down to the present day, sometimes even extend their excursions to the
+sea-coast. Their principal seat is in the Pilav Tepe, a mountain mass
+to the north-west of Thasos, famous in the time of the Macedonian kings
+for its mines of gold and silver. A wide plain extends immediately to
+the west of these mountains, watered by the Strymon, or Karasu, and
+is of marvellous fertility. Seres, a considerable city, occupies its
+centre, and hundreds of villages, surrounded by orchards, rice, and
+cotton fields are scattered over it. Looked at from the heights of
+the Rhodope, this plain assumes the appearance of a huge garden-city.
+Unfortunately many parts of it are very insalubrious.
+
+The triple peninsula of Chalcidice has no connection whatever with
+the Rhodope, and is attached to the mainland by an isthmus covered
+with lakes, swamps, and alluvial plains. It extends far into the sea
+like a huge hand spread out upon the waters. Chalcidice is a Greece
+in miniature, with coasts of fantastic contours, deep bays, bold
+promontories, and mountains rising in the midst of plains, like islands
+in an archipelago. One of these mountain masses rises in the trunk of
+the peninsula, and culminates in Mount Kortach, whilst each of its
+three {108} ramifications possesses its own system of scarped hills.
+Greek in aspect, this curious appendage to the continent is Greek, too,
+in its population; and, a rare thing in Turkey, all its inhabitants are
+of the same race, if we except the Turks in the town of Nisvoro and the
+Slav monks of Mount Athos.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 33.—THE PENINSULA OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,020,000.]
+
+The easternmost of the three tongues of land of Chalcidice, which jut
+out far into the waters of the Ægean, is almost entirely detached. Only
+a low and narrow neck of land connects it with the mainland, and it
+was across this isthmus that Xerxes dug a canal, 3,950 feet in length,
+either to enable his fleet to avoid the dangerous promontory of Mount
+Athos, or to give the awe-struck inhabitants a proof of his power. This
+is the peninsula of Hagion Oros, the Monte Santo of the Italians. At
+its extremity rises a limestone mountain, one of the most beautiful
+in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is the famous Mount Athos, which
+an ancient sculptor proposed to convert into a statue of Alexander,
+holding a city in one hand and a spring in the other, and which Eastern
+legends point out as the “exceeding high mountain” to which the devil
+took Jesus, to show him “all the kingdoms of the world.” But whatever
+old legends may say, the panorama is not as vast as this, though the
+shores of Chalcidice, Macedonia, and Thracia lie spread out beneath our
+feet, and the eye can range across the blue waters of the Ægean Sea
+from Mount Olympus, in Thessaly, to Mount Ida, in Asia Minor. The bold
+outlines of the fortified monasteries which appear here and there, in
+the midst of chestnuts, oaks, or pines, on the slope of the mountain,
+contrast most happily with the faint outline of the coasts on the
+distant horizon.[30]
+
+This peninsula, which a traveller has compared to a sphinx crouching
+upon the bosom of the sea, is the property of a republic of monks,
+who govern {109} themselves according to their own fancy. In return
+for a tribute, which they pay to the Porte, they alone have the right
+to live there, and strangers require their permission before they are
+allowed to enter. A company of Christian soldiers is stationed at the
+neck of the peninsula to prevent the sacred soil being desecrated
+by the footsteps of a woman. Even the Turkish governor cannot gain
+admittance without leaving his harem behind him. For fourteen hundred
+years, we are told in the chronicles of Mount Athos, no female has
+set foot upon this sacred soil, and this prohibition extends to
+animals as well as to human beings. Even the presence of poultry would
+profane the monasteries, and the eggs eaten by the monks are imported
+from Lemnos. With the exception of a few purveyors, who reside at
+the village of Karyes, the 6,000 inhabitants of the peninsula are
+monks, or their servants, and they live in the monasteries, or in the
+hermitages attached to the 935 churches and chapels. Nearly all the
+monks are Greeks, but amongst the twenty large monasteries there are
+two which were built by the ancient sovereigns of Servia, and one which
+was founded by Russia. Most of these edifices occupy promontories,
+and, with their high walls and strong towers, they are exceedingly
+picturesque. One amongst them, that of Simopetra, appears to be almost
+inaccessible. It is in these retreats the good fathers of the order of
+St. Basil spend their lives in contemplative inaction. They are bound
+to pray eight hours in the day and two in the night, and during the
+whole of that time they are not allowed to sit. They have, therefore,
+neither time nor strength for study or manual labour. The books in
+their libraries are incomprehensible mysteries to them, and, in spite
+of their sobriety, they might die of starvation if there were not
+lay-brothers to work for them, and numerous farms on the mainland which
+are their property. A few shiploads of hazel nuts is all this fertile
+peninsula produces.
+
+The ancient cities of Olynthus and Potidæa, on the neck of the western
+peninsula of Chalcidice, have dwindled down into insignificant
+villages; but the city of Therma, called afterwards Thessalonica, and
+now known as Saloniki, still exists, for its geographical position is
+most favourable, and after every siege and every conflagration it again
+rose from its ashes. Vestiges of every epoch of history may still be
+seen there: Cyclopean and Hellenic walls, triumphal arches, and remains
+of Roman temples, Byzantine structures, and Venetian castles. Its
+harbour is excellent, its roadstead well sheltered; and the high-roads
+into Upper Macedonia and Epirus lead from it along the valleys of
+the Vardar and Inje Karasu. These favourable circumstances have not
+been without their influence, and Saloniki, next to Constantinople
+and Adrianople, is the most important city of European Turkey. Its
+population is mixed, like that of other cities in the East, and Jews
+are exceptionally numerous. Most of them are the descendants of Spanish
+Jews, expelled by the Inquisition, and they still talk Spanish. Many
+have outwardly embraced Mohammedanism to escape persecution, but the
+true Mussulman spurns these converts with disdain. They are generally
+known as “Mamins.”
+
+The commerce of Saloniki is important even now, but greater things
+are {110} expected of the future. Like Marseilles, Trieste, and
+Brindisi, Saloniki aspires to become a connecting link in the trade
+between England and the East. It actually lies on the most direct
+road between the Channel and the Suez Canal, and once connected by
+railways with the rest of Europe, it is sure to take a large share
+in the world’s commerce. This emporium of Macedonia is interesting,
+too, from an ethnological point of view, for, with the exception of
+Burgaz, on the Black Sea, it is the only place where the Bulgarians,
+the most numerous race of European Turkey, have reached the sea-coast.
+Everywhere else they are cut off from it by alien races, but Saloniki
+brings them into direct contact with the remainder of Europe. Saloniki,
+however, not only suffers from bad government, but also from the
+marshes which surround it, and in summer many of its inhabitants flock
+to the healthier town of Kalameria, to the west. Miasmatic swamps
+unfortunately occupy a large portion of the northern coast of the
+Ægean, and they separate the interior of Macedonia more effectively
+from the coast than do its mountains. There is hardly any commerce
+except at Saloniki.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 34.—MOUNT OLYMPUS.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On the western shores of the Gulf of Saloniki, beyond the ever-changing
+mouths of the Vardar and the briny waters of the Inje Karasu, or
+Haliacmon, the land gradually rises. Hills are succeeded by mountains,
+until bold precipices {111} approach close to the coast, and summit
+rises beyond summit, up to the triple peak of Mount Olympus. Amongst
+the many mountains which have borne this name, this is the highest and
+the most beautiful, and the Greeks placed upon it the court of Jupiter
+and the residence of the gods. It was in the plains of Thessaly, in the
+shadow of this famous mountain, that the Greeks lived in the springtide
+of their history, and their most cherished traditions attach themselves
+to this beautiful country. The mountains which had sheltered the cradle
+of their race remained to them for ever afterwards the seat of their
+protecting deities. But Jupiter, Bacchus, and the other great gods of
+antiquity have disappeared now, and monasteries have been built in the
+woods which witnessed the revels of the Bacchantes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 35.—MOUNT OLYMPUS AND THE VALLEY OF TEMPE.]
+
+Until recently the upper valleys of Mount Olympus were inhabited only
+by monks, and by klephtes, or bandits, who sought shelter there from
+the Arnaut soldiers sent in their pursuit. The mountain, in fact,
+constitutes a world apart, surrounded on all sides by formidable
+declivities. Forty-two peaks form the battlements of this mountain
+citadel, fifty-two springs rise within it, and the bold klepht is
+secure within its fastnesses from the abhorred Turk. Magnificent
+forests of laurel-trees, planes, and oaks cover its lower maritime
+slopes, and in times of trouble they have served as a refuge to entire
+populations. But Italian {112} speculators have purchased these
+forests, and the time is not, perhaps, very distant when Mount Olympus,
+deprived of its verdure, will be reduced to a barren mass of rock,
+like most of the mountains of the Archipelago. Wild cats abound on the
+lower slopes of Olympus, chamois still climb its rugged pinnacles, but
+bears are no longer met with: St. Denys, who dwelt upon the mountain,
+required beasts to ride upon, and changed them into horses !
+
+Xenagoras, an ancient geometrician, was the first to measure the height
+of Mount Olympus, but his result, 6,200 feet, is far from the truth,
+for the highest summit attains an elevation of 9,750 feet.[31] It
+may possibly be the culminating point of the Balkan peninsula. Snow
+remains in some of its crevices throughout the year, and no human
+being hitherto appears to have succeeded in ascending its highest
+pinnacle. According to the Greek legend, even Pelion heaped upon Ossa
+did not enable the Titans to reach the abode of the gods, and, in
+reality, the combined height of these two mountains hardly exceeds
+that of Olympus. But, in spite of this inferior height, “pointed”
+Ossa and “long-stretched” Pelion, known to us moderns as Kisovo and
+Zagora, impress the beholder, because of their savage valleys, their
+precipitous walls of rock, and cliffy promontories.
+
+These mountains continue southward through the hook-shaped peninsula
+of Magnesia, and terminate opposite the island of Eubœa. They formed
+a strong bulwark of defence in the time of ancient Greece. The hordes
+of the barbarians stopped in front of this insurmountable barrier.
+They were compelled to seek a practicable road to the west of it,
+through the valley of the Peneus, which is rightly looked upon as the
+natural frontier of Hellas. Hence the great strategical importance
+of Pharsalus, in Southern Thessaly, which protects the gorges of the
+Othrys and the only access to the plains of the Sperchius. The pass of
+Petra, at the northern extremity of Olympus, was carefully guarded for
+similar reasons.
+
+A large portion of the area bounded by the crystalline rocks of
+Olympus and Ossa, and by the cretaceous range of the Pindus, running
+parallel with the former, consists of plains originally covered by
+vast lakes. The Gulf of Volo approaches close to the shrunken remains
+of one of these lakes—that of Karla, or Bœbeis—into which the waters
+of the swampy plain of Larissa discharge themselves. The dwellers on
+the shores of this lake say that a dull rumbling noise may now and
+then be heard at its bottom, which they ascribe to the bellowing of
+some invisible animal, but which is more probably the gurgling sound
+of the water penetrating into a sink-hole. Other lake basins are met
+with at the foot of Olympus towards the west and north-west, and some
+of the valleys of the upper tributaries of the Peneus are covered with
+alluvium left behind by the receding waters. Hercules, according to
+some—Neptune, according to others—drained all these lakes of Thessaly
+into the Ægean, by opening the narrow gorge between Olympus and Ossa,
+known to the ancients as the Valley of Tempe. This narrow valley is
+due, no doubt, to the slow erosive action of water. To the Hellenes it
+realised their ideals of refreshing coolness and beauty, and once every
+nine years an embassy arrived from Delphi to pluck the laurel-leaves
+destined for the victors in the Pythian games. The {113} Valley of
+Tempe is indeed most beautiful; the transparent and rapid waters of the
+Peneus, the foliage of the planes, the shrubberies of laurel-roses, and
+the red-hued cliffs—these combine frequently, and form pictures which
+delight the senses and impress the mind. But, taken as a whole, this
+narrow and sombre valley fairly deserves its modern name of Lykostomo,
+or “wolf’s gorge.” Even in Thessaly, and, above all, in the Pindus,
+there are localities more smiling and more beautiful than this famous
+Valley of Tempe.
+
+The upper valleys of the Peneus, or Salembria, abound in natural
+curiosities, such as defiles, sinks, and caverns. To the north-west of
+Mount Olympus, the turbid Titaresius flows through the narrow gorge of
+Saranta Poros, or of the Four Fords, which was looked upon in former
+times as one of the gates of hell.
+
+To the west, on the Upper Peneus, are the limestone hills of Khassia,
+rising to a height of 5,000 feet, and the elevated spurs of Mount
+Pindus, which have become celebrated through the “works of the gods,”
+or _theoktista_, which surmount them. These “works” consist of isolated
+towers, crags, and pillars, the most famous amongst them being those
+on the banks of the Peneus, not far from Trikala. Zealous followers of
+Simeon the Stylite conceived the idea of building their monasteries on
+the tops of some of the larger of these natural columns or pedestals.
+Perched on these heights, and condemned never to leave them, they
+receive their provisions and visitors in a basket attached to the end
+of a long rope, and hoisted aloft by means of a windlass. An aërial
+voyage of no less than 220 feet has to be performed in order to reach
+in this manner the monastery of Barlaam, and visitors are at liberty
+to effect this ascent by means of ladders fastened against the rocky
+precipices. The religious zeal, however, which led monks to select
+these eyries for their habitations is gradually dying out. Out of
+twenty monasteries which existed formerly, there remain now but seven,
+and only one of these, that of Meteora, is inhabited by as many as
+twenty monks.
+
+Of all the Greek countries which still remain under the dominion of
+the Turks, there is none which has so frequently sought to regain its
+independence, none which is claimed by the Hellenes with equal ardour
+as a portion of their common fatherland and the cradle of their race.
+Thessaly is, in truth, a portion of Greece, as far as the traditions
+of the past, a common language, and the general aspects of the country
+can make it so. But it is a more fertile country, its vegetation is
+more luxuriant, its landscapes are more smiling and delightful. We
+may not frequently meet with the deep blue sky which calls forth our
+admiration in Southern Greece, for the vapours rising from the Ægean
+Sea are attracted by Olympus and other mountains; but this moisture
+imparts a charm to distant views, and, by protecting the earth against
+the scorching rays of the sun in summer, it contributes largely towards
+the fertility of the soil.
+
+The Greek population of Thessaly is strongly mixed with foreign
+elements, which it has gradually assimilated. Neither Serbs nor
+Bulgarians remain now in the country, although the Upper Titaresius
+is known as Vurgari, or “river of the Bulgarians.” The Zinzares, or
+Macedo-Walakhs, who were so numerous in the Middle Ages, now only
+occupy a few villages. Though proud of their Roman {114} descent, they
+gradually become Hellenized. Most of the words by which they designate
+objects of civilised life are Greek, their priests and schoolmasters
+preach or teach in Greek, and they themselves speak Greek in addition
+to their native language. They lose ground, moreover, through an
+excessive emigration. Even the cultivators of the soil amongst them
+have not quite given up their nomadic habits, and the roving life of
+a herdsman or of a pedlar exercises an irresistible attraction upon
+them. The Turks inhabit in compact masses the lowlands around Larissa,
+and that town itself is Mussulman to a large extent. The hilly tracts
+to the north, between the Inje Karasu and the Lakes of Kastoria and
+Ostrovo, are likewise inhabited by Turks, who differ from the Osmanli
+of the rest of the empire, and are known as Koniarides. Turks also
+occupy a portion of Mount Ossa. It is easy to tell from a distance
+whether a village is inhabited by Turks or by Greeks. M. Mézières
+has observed that “the Turks plant trees for the sake of shade, the
+Greeks for the sake of profit.” Near the villages of the former we
+find cypresses and plane-trees, near those of the latter orchards
+and vineyards. The Koniarides are believed by some authors to have
+come to Thessaly and Macedonia as colonists in the eleventh century,
+by invitation of the Eastern emperor. They govern themselves through
+democratic representative bodies, and are respected by all, because of
+their probity, their hospitality, and their rustic virtues.
+
+The Greeks are morally inferior to the Turkish peasantry, but they
+surpass them in intelligence and industry. In the seventeenth century
+there took place amongst them even a sort of revival similar to the
+Renaissance of Western Europe, and the love of art was developed
+sufficiently far to give rise to a school of painters in the villages
+of Olympus. Faithful to their national traditions and the instincts
+of their race, the Greeks of Thessaly have sought to organize
+themselves into self-governing commonwealths. In their free towns,
+or _kephalokhori_, they are permitted to elect their town councils,
+establish schools, and appoint what teachers they like. They know how
+to get the Turkish pasha not to meddle in their local affairs. They pay
+the taxes demanded by the Turks, as their ancestors paid them to Athens
+or some other Greek city, but in every other respect they are free
+citizens governing themselves. The contrast between these independent
+commonwealths and the _chifliks_ of Mussulman proprietors cultivated by
+Greek farmers is most striking. The land of the free proprietors is, as
+a rule, far less fertile than that included within these chifliks; yet
+it produces more, and its cultivators live in comparative ease.
+
+The Greeks of Thessaly bestow much care upon the education of growing
+generations. Even the most miserable Greek village in the Pindus can
+boast of a school, which is visited by the young people up to the age
+of fifteen. As an instance of the commercial spirit of the Thessalians
+we may mention the Weavers’ Co-operative Association, formed in the
+last century in the town of Ambelakia, delightfully situated amongst
+orchards and vineyards on the southern slopes of the Valley of Tempe.
+This powerful association wisely limited its dividends to six per
+cent., and expended the surplus profits upon an extension of its
+business. For {115} many years it enjoyed the greatest prosperity, but
+the wars of the empire, which closed the markets of Germany against
+it, brought about its ruin. Co-operation likewise partly accounts for
+the flourishing cloth manufacture of the twenty-four wealthy Greek
+villages on the peninsula of Magnesia, to the north of the Gulf of
+Volo. This district, together with that of Verria, to the north of the
+Inje Karasu, is probably the most prosperous in all the Greek provinces
+of Turkey, and it is at least partly indebted for this prosperity to
+its happy geographical position, being far away from great strategical
+high-roads.[32]
+
+
+IV.—ALBANIA AND EPIRUS.
+
+The name of SHKIPERI, which the Albanians give to the country they
+inhabit, is supposed to mean “land of rocks,” and no designation
+could be more appropriate. Stony mountains occupy the whole of the
+country, from the frontiers of Montenegro to those of Greece. The only
+plain of any extent is that of Scutari (Shkodra), to the south of
+the Montenegrin plateau, which forms the natural frontier of Albania
+towards the north. The bottom of this depression is occupied by the
+Lake of Scutari; and the Drin, the only river of the Balkan peninsula
+which is navigable for a considerable distance from the sea, debouches
+upon it. The Drin is formed by the junction of the White and the Black
+Drin, and in former times it only discharged a portion of its waters
+temporarily into the Boyana River, which drains the Lake of Scutari.
+But in 1858 it opened itself a new channel opposite to the village
+of Miet, about twenty miles above its mouth, and since that time
+the greater volume of its waters flows in the direction of Scutari,
+frequently inundating the lower quarters of that town. The marshy
+tracts on the Lower Drin are dangerous to cross during the heat of
+summer, and the fevers of the Boyana are the most dreaded along the
+whole of that coast.
+
+Most of the southern ramifications of the Bosnian Alps are inhabited
+by Albanians, but they are separated from their kinsmen in Albania
+proper by the deep valley of the Drin, a kind of _cañon_ similar to
+those of the Rocky Mountains, enclosed between precipitous walls
+several thousand feet in height, and hardly ever trodden by the foot
+of a wanderer. The mountain systems of Bosnia and Albania are only
+indirectly connected by a series of ranges and plateaux stretching
+from the mountain of Glieb in a south-easterly direction as far as
+the Skhar, or Scardus of the ancients. The crest of this latter runs
+at right angles to most of the ranges of Western Turkey, and although
+its culminating point is inferior in height to those of Slav Turkey,
+it is the point of junction between the Balkan and the {116} mountain
+systems of Bosnia and Albania. The Skhar is of great importance, too,
+in the hydrography of Turkey; for two great rivers, the Bulgarian
+Morava and the Vardar, descend from its flanks, one flowing to the
+Danube, the other to the Gulf of Saloniki. Chamois and wild goats are
+still met with in the Skhar, as in the Pindus and Rhodope, and M. Wiet
+mentions an animal known to the Mirdits as a _lucerbal_, which appears
+to be a species of leopard.
+
+A mountain region, hardly 3,000 feet in elevation, but exceedingly
+difficult of access, rises to the west of the Skhar, on the other
+side of the Black Drin: this is the citadel of Upper Albania, the
+country of the Mirdits and Dukajins. Enormous masses of serpentine have
+erupted there through the chalk, the valleys are hemmed in by bold
+precipices, and the torrents rapidly run down the hollowed-out beds on
+the exterior slopes. As a rule, the direction of the tortuous ranges
+of this mountain country is the same as that of the southern spurs of
+the Skhar. They gradually decrease in height, enclosing fine upland
+valleys, where the waters are able to accumulate. The Lake of Okhrida,
+the largest sheet of water in Upper Albania, has not inaptly been
+likened to the Lake of Geneva. Its waters are bluer even than those of
+its Swiss rival, and more transparent, and fish may be seen chasing
+each other at a depth of sixty feet beneath its surface: hence its
+ancient Greek name of Lychnidos. The delightful little town of Okhrida
+and Mount Pieria, with its old Roman castle, guard its shores, and the
+white houses of numerous villages peep out amongst the chestnut forests
+which cover the slopes of the surrounding hills. This lake is drained
+towards the north through the narrow valley of the Black Drin. If the
+statements of the inhabitants may be credited, the waters of the double
+basin of Lake Presba reach Lake Okhrida through subterranean channels.
+
+The isolated peak of Tomor commands this lake region on the west. To
+the south of it commences the chain of the Pindus, locally known as
+Grammos. At first of moderate height, and crossed by numerous mountain
+roads affording easy communication between Albania and Macedonia, these
+mountains gradually increase in height as we proceed south, and exactly
+to the east of Yanina they form the mountain mass of Metzovo, with
+which the Pindus, properly so called, takes its rise. This mountain
+mass is inferior in altitude to the peaks of Bosnia or Northern
+Albania, but it is far more picturesque than either, its slopes being
+covered with forests of conifers and beech-trees, and the plains
+extending along its foot having a more southern aspect. Mount Zygos,
+or Lachmon, which rises in the centre of this mountain mass, does not
+afford a very extended panorama, but if we climb the craggy peaks of
+the Peristera-Vuna, or Smolika, near it, we are able to look at the
+same time upon the waters of the Ægean and Ionian Seas, and even the
+shore of Greece may be descried beyond the Gulf of Arta.
+
+A famous lake occupies the bottom of the limestone basin at the western
+foot of the mountain mass of Metzovo. This is the Lake of Yanina,
+and nowhere else throughout Epirus do we meet with an equal number
+of natural curiosities as on the shores of this lake. Its depth is
+inconsiderable, nowhere exceeding forty feet, and it is fed only by
+numerous springs rising at the foot of the rocks. There is no {117}
+visible outlet; but Colonel Leake assures us that each of the two
+basins into which it is divided is drained by a subterranean channel.
+The northern lake pours its waters into a sink, or _voinikova_, and
+reappears towards the south-west as a considerable river, which flows
+into the Ionian Sea. This is the Thyamis of the ancients, our modern
+Kalamas. Farther to the south the ancient Acheron bursts from the
+rocks, and having received the nauseous waters of the equally famous
+Cocytus, throws itself into the “bay of sweet waters,” thus called on
+account of the large volume of water discharged into it by rivers.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 36.—SOUTHERN EPIRUS.
+
+According to Kiepert. Scale 1 : 1,400,000.
+
+K. Katavothra.]
+
+When the waters of the southern and larger basin of Lake Yanina are
+low, there is but a single effluent, which plunges down into an abyss,
+and in doing so turns the wheels of a mill. The Cyclopean ruins of
+the Pelasgic city of Hellas command this huge chasm with its roaring
+waters. The subterranean river reappears far to the south, and flows
+into the Gulf of Arta. But when the level of the lake is high, four
+other sinks swallow up its superabundant waters, and convey them into
+the main channel, the direction of which is indicated by a few small
+lakes. The important part played in the mythology of ancient Greece by
+these subterranean effluents, and particularly by the infernal Acheron
+and the Cocytus, amply proves the influence exercised by the Pelasgians
+upon the civilisation of the Hellenes. The myths of the Hellopians
+became the common property of all Greece, and {118} there was no
+temple in all Hellas more venerated than their sanctuary at Dodona,
+where the future might be foretold by listening to the rustling of the
+leaves of sacred oaks. This sacred grove existed, probably, near one of
+the Cyclopean towns so numerous in the country, if not on the shore of
+the lake itself. Some, erroneously no doubt, have looked for it near
+the castle inhabited in the beginning of this century by Ali Tepeleni,
+the terrible Pasha of Epirus, who boasted of being a “lighted torch,
+devouring man.”
+
+The mountains of Suli, to the west of the basin of Yanina, attain an
+altitude of 3,500 feet, but the neighbouring hills are of moderate
+height, though abrupt and difficult of access, and near the coast they
+sink down into small rocky promontories, scantily clothed with shrubs
+and overrun by jackals. Swamps abound near the shore, and during summer
+their miasmatic air spreads over the neighbouring villages. To the
+north of the swamps of Butrinto and of the channel of Corfu, and to the
+west of the isolated peak of Kundusi, however, the coast rises again,
+and the austere chain of the Chimæra Mala, or Acroceraunii, extends
+along it. It was dreaded by the ancients on account of its tempests,
+and the torrents which poured down its sides. Squalls and changes of
+wind are frequent near the “Tongue (Linguetta) of Rocks,” the most
+advanced promontory of this coast, at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.
+These are the “infamous rocks” referred to by the Roman poet, upon
+which many a vessel suffered shipwreck. The channel which separates
+Turkey at that place from Italy has a width of only 45 miles; it is
+less than 100 fathoms in depth, and at some former period an isthmus
+may have united the two countries.[33]
+
+The Shkipetars, or Albanians, are subdivided into two leading tribes or
+nations, the Tosks and the Gheges, both of whom are no doubt descended
+from the ancient Pelasgians, but have in many places become mixed with
+Slavs, Bulgarians, and Rumanians, and perhaps even with other nations;
+for whilst in some tribes we meet with the purest Hellenic types,
+there are others the members of which are repulsively ugly. The Gheges
+are the purest of their race, and they occupy, under various tribal
+names, the whole of Northern Albania as far as the river Shkumbi.
+The territory of the Tosks extends from that river southward. The
+dialects of these two nations differ much, and it is not easy for an
+Acroceraunian to understand a Mirdit or other Albanian from the north.
+Gheges and Tosks detest each other. In the Turkish army they are kept
+separated for fear of their coming to blows, and, when an insurrection
+has to be suppressed amongst them, the Turkish Government always avails
+itself of these tribal jealousies, and is certain of being served with
+the zeal and fury which hatred inspires.
+
+[Illustration: ALBANIANS.]
+
+Up to the period of the migration of the barbarians, the whole of
+Western Turkey, as far as the Danube, was held by Albanians. But they
+were then pushed back, and Albania was entirely occupied by Servians
+and Bulgarians. {119} The names of numerous localities throughout
+the country recall that period of obscuration, during which the name
+of an indigenous race was not even mentioned by the historian. But
+when the Osmanli had broken the power of the Serb, the Albanians again
+raised their heads, and ever since they have kept encroaching upon
+their Slav neighbours. In the north they have gradually descended into
+the valley of the Bulgarian Morava, and one of their colonies has
+even penetrated into independent Servia. Like the waters of a rising
+ocean, they overwhelm the detached tracts of territory still occupied
+by Servians. This progress of the Albanians is explained, to a great
+extent, by the voluntary expatriation of the Servians. Thousands of
+them, headed by their patriarchs, fled to Hungary, in order to escape
+the dominion of the Turks, and the Albanians occupied the wastes they
+left behind. The Servians still hold their ground near Acroceraunia,
+on the shores of Lake Okhrida, and in the hills looking down upon the
+fatal plain of Kosovo, where their ancestors were massacred; but they
+gradually become Albanians in language, religion, and customs. They
+speak of themselves as Turks, as do the Arnauts, and apply the name of
+Servian only to the Christians dwelling beyond the frontier. On the
+other hand, many of the customs of the Gheges agree in a remarkable
+manner with those of their Slav neighbours, and this proves that there
+has taken place a thorough blending of the two races.
+
+But whilst the Albanians are gaining ground in the north, they are
+losing it in the south. A large portion of the inhabitants of Southern
+Albania, though undoubtedly of Pelasgic origin, are Greek by language.
+Arta, Yanina, and Prevesa are Hellenized towns, and only a few
+Mohammedan families there still speak Albanian. Nearly the whole of the
+tract between the Pindus and the Adriatic coast ranges has become Greek
+as far as language goes, and throughout the mountain region extending
+westward to the sea the inhabitants are “bilingual;” that is to say,
+they speak two languages. The famous Suliotes, for instance, who talk
+Tosk within the bosom of their family, make use of Greek in their
+intercourse with strangers. Wherever the two races come into contact,
+it is always the Albanian who takes the trouble to learn Greek.
+
+This influence of the Hellenes is all the more powerful as it meets
+with support amongst the Zinzares, known also as Macedo-Walakhs,
+“Limping” Walakhs, or Southern Rumanians, who are met with throughout
+the country. These Zinzares are the kinsmen of the Rumanians of
+Wallachia and Moldavia, and live in a compact body only on the two
+slopes of the Pindus, to the south and east of the Lake of Yanina. Like
+the Rumanians of the Danube, they are most probably Latinised Dacians.
+They resemble the Walakhs in features, character, and disposition,
+and speak a neo-Latin tongue much mixed with Greek. The Zinzares
+in the valleys of the Pindus are, for the most part, herdsmen, and
+wander away from their villages sometimes for months. Others carry on
+trades, exhibiting much manual skill and intelligence. Nearly all the
+bricklayers of Turkey, those of the large towns excepted, are Zinzares;
+and the same individual sometimes erects an entire house, doing in turn
+the work of architect, carpenter, joiner, {120} and locksmith. The
+Rumanians of the Pindus are likewise esteemed as clever goldsmiths.
+
+Their capacity for business is great, and the commerce of the interior
+of Turkey is almost entirely in their hands, as is that of the maritime
+districts in those of the Greeks. The Walakhs of Metzovo are said to
+have stood formerly under the direct protection of the Porte, and
+every traveller, whether Mussulman or Christian, was bound to unshoe
+his horses before he left their territory, for fear “of his carrying
+away a clod of earth which did not belong to him.” Commercial houses
+conducted by Walakhs of the Pindus are met with in every town of the
+Orient, and even at Vienna one of the most influential banks has been
+founded by one of them. Abroad they are generally taken for Greeks,
+and the wealthier amongst them send their children to Athens to be
+educated. Surrounded by Mussulmans, the Zinzares of the Pindus feel the
+necessity of attaching themselves to some country through which they
+might obtain their freedom, and they hope for a union with Greece. It
+is only quite recently that they have learnt to look upon the Rumanians
+of the North and the Italians as their kinsmen. They do not, however,
+set much store upon their nationality, and have no aspirations as a
+distinct race. There can be no doubt that in the course of ages many
+of these Macedo-Walakhs have become Hellenized. Nearly all Thessaly
+was inhabited by Zinzares in the Middle Ages, and Byzantine authors
+speak of that country as “Great Wallachia.” Whether these Zinzares have
+emigrated to Rumania, as some think, or have become assimilated with
+the Greeks, the fact remains that at the present day they are not very
+numerous on the eastern slopes of the Pindus. Thousands of Rumanian
+families have settled in the coast towns, at Avlona, Berat, and Tirana,
+embracing Mohammedanism, but still retaining their native idiom.
+
+If we exclude these Zinzares, the Greeks of Epirus, the Servians, and
+the few Osmanli dwelling in the large towns, there remain only the
+semi-barbarous Gheges and Tosks, whose social condition has hardly
+undergone any change in the course of three thousand years. In their
+manners and modes of thought these modern Albanians are the true
+successors of the ancient Pelasgians, and many a scene that a traveller
+may witness amongst them carries him back to the days of the Odyssey.
+G. von Hahn, who has most thoroughly studied the Shkipetars, looks upon
+them as veritable Dorians, whose ancestors, led by the Heraclidæ, burst
+forth from the forests of Epirus to conquer the Peloponnesus. They
+are as courageous, as warlike, as fond of dominion, and as clannish
+as were their ancestors. Their dress, likewise, is nearly the same,
+and the white tunic (_fustanelle_) neatly fastened round the waist
+fairly represents the ancient _chlamys_. The Gheges, like the Dorians
+of old, are addicted to that mysterious passion which the historians
+of antiquity have confounded, unfortunately, with a nameless vice, and
+which links men to children by a pure and ideal love, in which the
+senses have no part.
+
+There is no modern people respecting whom more astounding acts of
+bravery are recorded than of the Albanians. In the fifteenth century
+they had their Scanderbeg, who, though the theatre of his glory
+was more circumscribed than that of his namesake of Macedonia, was
+hardly inferior to him in genius, and {121} certainly surpassed him
+in justness and goodness of heart. Or what nation has ever exceeded
+in courage the Suliote mountaineers, amongst whom not an aged man,
+a woman, or a child was found to beg for mercy from Ali Pasha’s
+executioners? The heroism of these Suliote women, who set fire to the
+ammunition waggons, and then hand in hand precipitated themselves from
+the rocks, or sought death in the mountain torrents, chanting their own
+funeral song, will at all times stand forth in history as an astounding
+fact.
+
+This valour, unfortunately, is associated amongst many tribes with a
+fearful amount of savageness. Human life is held cheap amongst these
+warlike populations; blood calls for blood, and victim for victim.
+They believe in vampires and phantoms, and occasionally an old man has
+been burnt alive, on suspicion of his being able to kill by the breath
+of his mouth. Slavery does not exist, but woman is held in a state of
+servitude; she is looked upon as an inferior being, having no rights
+or mind of her own. Custom raises a more formidable barrier between
+the sexes than do walls and locked doors elsewhere. A young girl is
+not permitted to speak to a young man; such an act is looked upon as a
+crime, which her father or brother may feel called upon to punish by a
+deed of blood. The parents sometimes consult the wishes of their son
+when about to marry him, but never those of their daughter. The latter
+is frequently affianced in her cradle, and, when twelve years of age,
+she is handed over to a young man on his presenting a wedding outfit
+and a sum of money fixed by custom, and averaging twenty shillings.
+From that moment he becomes the absolute master of his bride, though
+not without first going through the farce of an abduction, as is
+customary amongst nearly all ancient nations. The poor woman, thus sold
+like a slave, is bound to work for her husband. She is his housekeeper
+as well as his labourer, and the national poets compare her to the
+“ever-active shuttle,” whilst the father of the family is likened
+to the “majestic ram marching at the head of the flock.” Yet woman,
+scorned though she be, and brutalised by heavy work, may traverse
+the whole country without fear of being insulted, and the life of an
+unfortunate who places himself under her protection is held sacred.
+
+Family ties are very powerful amongst the Albanians. The father retains
+the rights of sovereign lord up to an advanced age, and as long as
+he lives the earnings of his children and grandchildren are his own.
+Frequently this communism continues after his death, the eldest son
+taking his place. The loss of a member of the family, and particularly
+of a young man, gives rise to fearful lamentations amongst the women,
+who frequently swoon away, and even lose their senses. But the death
+of persons who have reached the natural limits of human life is hardly
+mourned at all. The descendants of the same ancestor never lose sight
+of their parentage. They form clans, called _phis_ or _pharas_, which
+are bound firmly together for purposes of defence or attack, or in
+the pursuit of their common interests. Brotherhood by election is
+known amongst the Albanians, as well as amongst the Servians and other
+ancient nations, and its ties are as strong as those of blood. Young
+men desirous of becoming brothers bind themselves by solemn vows in
+the presence of their families, and, having opened a vein, they {122}
+drink each other’s blood. The need of these family bonds is felt so
+strongly in Albania, that young people brought up together frequently
+remain united during the remainder of their lives, forming a regular
+community, having its days of meetings, its festivals, and a common
+purse.
+
+But in spite of these family associations and clans, in spite of the
+enthusiastic love which the Albanian bears his native land, there
+exists no political cohesion amongst the various tribes. The physical
+conditions of the country, no less than an unhappy passion for war,
+have scattered their forces, and rendered them unable, consequently,
+to maintain their independence. The religious animosities between
+Mussulman and Christian, Greek and Roman Catholic, have contributed to
+the like result.
+
+It is generally supposed that the majority of the Albanians are
+Mohammedans. When the Turks became masters of the country the most
+valiant amongst them fled to Italy, and the greater part of the tribes
+that remained behind were compelled to embrace Islamism. Many of the
+chiefs, moreover, turned Mussulmans, in order that they might continue
+their life of brigandage, on pretence of carrying on a holy war. This
+accounts for the fact of the aristocracy of the country being for the
+most part Mohammedan, and in possession of the land. The Christian
+peasant who tills it is nominally a free man, but in reality he is
+at the mercy of his lord, who keeps him at the point of starvation.
+These Albanian Mussulmans, however, are fanatic warriors rather than
+religious zealots, and many of their ceremonies, particularly those
+connected with their native land, differ in nothing from those of their
+Christian compatriots. They have been converted, but not convinced, and
+cynically they say of themselves that their “sword is wherever their
+faith is.”
+
+In many districts the conversion has been nominal only, and zealous
+Christians have continued to conduct their worship in secret. Many
+Mohammedans of this class returned to the faith of their fathers as
+soon as the tolerance of Government permitted them to do so. As to the
+warlike mountain clans, the Mirdits, Suliotes, and Acroceraunians,
+they had no need to bend to the will of the Turks, and remained Greek
+or Roman Christians. The boundary between Gheges and Tosks coincides
+approximately with the boundary between these two denominations, the
+Roman Catholics living to the north of the Shkumbi, the orthodox Greeks
+to the south of the river. The Hellenes and Zinzares in Southern
+Albania are orthodox Greeks. The hatred between these two denominations
+of Christians is intense, and this is the principal reason why the
+Albanians have not succeeded in regaining their independence, as have
+the Servians.
+
+Southern Albania and Epirus had feudal institutions up to the close
+of last century. The chiefs of the clans and the semi-independent
+Turkish pashas lived in strong castles perched upon the rocks, from
+which they descended from time to time, followed by bands of servitors.
+War existed in permanence, and property changed hands continuously,
+according to the fortunes of the sword. Ali the Terrible, of Yanina,
+put a stop to this state of affairs. He reduced high and low to the
+same level of servitude, and the central Government now wields the
+power formerly exercised by lords and heads of families. {123}
+
+If we would become acquainted with a social condition recalling the
+Middle Ages, we must go amongst the independent tribes of Northern
+Albania. On crossing the Matis we at once perceive a change. Every one
+goes armed; shepherds and labourers carry a carbine on the shoulder;
+and even women and children place a pistol in their belts. Families,
+clans, and tribes have a military organization, and at a moment’s
+notice are ready to take the field. A sheep missing in a flock, an
+insult offered in the heat of passion, may lead to war. Not long since
+the Montenegrin was the most frequent disturber of the peace, for, shut
+up in his sterile mountains, he was often obliged to turn brigand in
+order to sustain life, and laid under contribution the fields of his
+neighbours. The Turks have at all times nourished this hatred between
+Albanians and Montenegrins. They recompense the warlike services of
+the tribes of the border clans by exempting them from taxation, and
+allowing them to govern themselves according to their own laws. Let
+these immunities be touched, and they will make common cause with their
+hereditary foes of the Black Mountains.
+
+The Mirdits are typical of the independent tribes of Northern Albania.
+They inhabit the high valleys to the south of the gorge of the
+Drin, and, though hardly numbering 12,000 souls, they exercise, in
+consequence of their warlike valour, a most important influence in
+all Western Turkey. Their country is accessible only through three
+difficult defiles, and they hold command of the roads which the Turkish
+troops must follow when operating against the Montenegrins. The Sublime
+Porte, well aware how difficult it would be to subdue these redoubtable
+mountaineers, has endeavoured to attach them, showering honours upon
+them, and granting them the most complete self-government. The Mirdits,
+on their side, though Christians, have at all times fought most
+valiantly in the ranks of the Turkish army, in Greece and the Morea, as
+well as against their fellow-Christians of Montenegro. They are formed
+into three “banners” of the mountains and two of the plains, and in
+time of war are joined by the five banners of Lesh, or Alessio. The
+banner of the renowned clan of Orosh takes precedence of all others.
+
+The country of the Mirdits is governed by an oligarchy, of which the
+Prince or Pasha of Orosh is the hereditary head. His power, however,
+is merely nominal, for in reality the country is governed by a council
+consisting of the elders (_vecchiardi_) of the villages, the delegates
+of the banners, and the heads of clans. The proceedings of this
+council are regulated by ancient traditions. Wives are taken by force
+from the enemy, for the members of the five banners look upon each
+other as relatives, and the Mohammedan girls in the lowland villages
+look forward with little fear to their being carried off by Mirdit
+warriors. The _vendetta_ is exercised in an inexorable manner, and
+blood cries for blood. A violation of hospitality is punished with
+death. The adulteress is buried beneath a heap of stones, and her
+nearest relative is bound to deliver the head of her accomplice to the
+injured husband. It need hardly be said that education is at a very low
+ebb amongst these savages. There are no schools, and in 1860 hardly
+fifty Christians of the Mirdit country and of the district of Lesh were
+able to {124} read. Agriculture, nevertheless, is in a relatively
+advanced state. The valleys of the sterile mountains are cultivated
+with a certain amount of care, and they produce finer crops than do the
+fertile plains, inhabited by an indolent population.
+
+By a strange contrast, these direct descendants of the ancient
+Pelasgians, to whom we are indebted for the beginning of civilisation
+in Europe, still number amongst the most savage populations of our
+continent. But they, too, must yield in time to the influence of their
+surroundings. Until recently the Epirotes and southern Shkipetars left
+their country only in order to lead the easy but degrading life of
+mercenaries. In the last century the young men of Acroceraunia sold
+themselves to the King of Naples, to be embodied in his regiment of
+“Royal Macedonians;” and even in our own days not only Mohammedans,
+but also Christian Tosks, enter the service of pashas and beys. These
+men, known as Arnauts, may be met with in the most remote parts of
+the empire—in Armenia, at Bagdad, and in Arabia. On the expiration of
+their term of service, the majority of these veterans retire to estates
+granted them by Government, and this accounts for the large number of
+Arnaut villages met with in all parts of the empire.
+
+But wars are less frequent now, the life of a mercenary offers fewer
+advantages, and increasing numbers of Albanians leave their country
+annually in order to gain a living abroad by honest labour. Like the
+Swiss of the canton of Grisons, many Shkipetars descend from their
+mountains at the commencement of winter in order to work for wages in
+the plains. Most of these return to their mountain homes in spring,
+enriched by their earnings; but there are others who remain abroad for
+years, or who never return. The advantages of a division of labour
+appear to be well understood by these mountaineers of Epirus and
+Southern Albania, and each mountain valley is noted for the exercise of
+some special craft. One valley sends forth butchers, another bakers, a
+third gardeners. A village near Argyrokastro supplies Constantinople
+with most of its well-sinkers. The district of Zagori, perhaps the home
+of the ancient Asclepiads, sends its doctors, or rather “bone-setters,”
+into every town of Turkey. Many of these emigrants, when they become
+wealthy, return to their native land, where they build themselves fine
+houses in the midst of sterile mountains, and these take the places of
+the old seigneurial towers, which were erected only for purposes of
+defence.
+
+[Illustration: WEALTHY ARNAUTS.]
+
+The Albanians are thus being carried along by a general movement of
+progress, and if once they enter into the common life of Europe, we may
+expect them to play a prominent part, for they possess a penetrating
+mind and much strength of character. The Albanians enjoy the advantage
+of having ready access to the sea, but hitherto they have derived only
+small benefit from it, not only owing to the disturbed state of the
+country and the absence of roads, but also because of the alluvial
+deposits formed by the rivers and the malaria of the marshes. Still,
+making every allowance for these disadvantages, they hardly account
+for the almost entire absence of maritime enterprise. One would
+scarcely fancy these Epirotes and Gheges to be of the same race as
+those Hydriote corsairs who launched whole fleets upon the waters of
+the Archipelago at the time of the war for Hellenic independence, and
+who still maintain the foremost place amongst the mariners of {125}
+Greece. The ports of Albania—Antivari, Porto Medua (one of the
+safest on the Adriatic), Durazzo, Avlona, Parga (lost in a forest of
+citron-trees), and even strong Prevesa, surrounded by more than a
+hundred thousand olive-trees—can boast but of a trifling commerce, and
+two-thirds of that are carried on in Austrian vessels from Trieste.
+With the exception of the Acroceraunians and the inhabitants of
+Dulcigno, which is the port of Scutari, no Mohammedan Albanian ventures
+upon the sea, not even as a fisherman. In spite of the fertility of the
+soil, there are hardly any articles to export. The mines of the country
+are unexplored, agriculture is in a most backward state, and in Epirus
+hardly any industry is known except the rearing of sheep and goats.
+
+At the time of the Romans these countries were equally forsaken. There
+was one magnificent city, Nicopolis, built by Augustus on a promontory
+to the north of the modern Prevesa to commemorate his victory at
+Actium. The only other town of importance was Dyrrhachium, called
+Durazzo by the Italians. It formed the terminus of the Via Egnatia,
+which traversed the whole of the Balkan peninsula from west to east,
+and constituted the great highway between Italy and the Orient. Avlona
+may aspire one day to take the place of ancient Dyrrhachium. Its
+geographical position is superior to that of Durazzo, for it is nearer
+to Italy, and its deep and secure harbour enjoys the shelter of the
+island of Suseno and of the Linguetta of Acroceraunia.
+
+In the meantime all the commerce of the country is concentrated in
+Scutari and Yanina, and in some other towns of the interior. The most
+considerable amongst the latter are Prisrend, at the foot of the Skhar,
+whose nobles boast of their magnificent dresses and fine weapons; Ipek
+(Pech), Prishtina, Jakovitza (Yakova), in the north-eastern portion
+of the country, and on roads which lead from Macedonia into Bosnia.
+Nearer the coast are Tirana, Berat, and Elbasan, the ancient Albanon,
+whose name recalls that of the entire country. Gyorcha (Koritza), to
+the south of the Lake of Okhrida, is likewise a place of much trade,
+thanks to its position on a road joining the Adriatic to the Ægean Sea.
+Scutari and Yanina occupy sites at the foot of the mountains, whose
+natural advantages could not fail to attract a numerous population.
+Yanina, the capital of Epirus, is the more picturesque of these two
+cities. It is situated on the shore of a fine lake, opposite the
+somewhat heavy masses of the Pindus, but in sight of the mountains
+of Greece, which are of a “luminous grey, glittering like a tissue
+of silk.” At the time of Ali Pasha, Yanina became the capital of an
+empire, and its population then exceeded that of Scutari. But the
+latter has now regained its pre-eminence. It is admirably situated, and
+the roads from the Danube and the Ægean, from the Lower Drin and the
+Adriatic, converge upon it. Scutari, or Shkodra, is the first oriental
+city which a traveller coming from Italy meets with, and the first
+impression made by its numerous gardens enclosed by high walls, its
+deserted streets and irregular buildings, is sufficiently curious. Long
+after he has entered the town, the traveller will remain uncertain as
+to its whereabouts. But let him climb to the summit of the limestone
+rock surmounted by the old Venetian castle of Rosapha, and the most
+magnificent panorama will {126} unfold itself before his eyes. The
+domes of Scutari, its twenty minarets, the emerald verdure of the
+plain, the surrounding amphitheatre of fantastically shaped mountains,
+the winding waters of the Boyana and Drin, and the placid surface of
+the lake glittering in the sun—these all combine to produce a spectacle
+of rare magnificence. The sea alone is wanting to render this picture
+perfect, but, though near, it is not within sight.[34]
+
+
+V.—THE ILLYRIAN ALPS, BOSNIA, AND HERZEGOVINA.
+
+Bosnia, in the north-western corner of Turkey, is the Switzerland of
+the European Orient, but it is a Switzerland whose mountains do not
+reach the zone of perennial snow and ice. In many respects the mountain
+ranges of Bosnia, and of its southern province, the Herzegovina,
+resemble those of the Jura. They, too, are composed principally of
+limestone, and rise in parallel ridges, surmounted here and there
+by sharp crests. Like the successive ridges of the Jura, they are
+of unequal height, and, taken as a whole, assume the appearance of
+a plateau traversed by parallel furrows, and gently sloping in one
+direction. The most elevated chain of Northern Bosnia is that which
+separates it from the coast of Dalmatia, and the less elevated ridges
+running parallel with it gradually decrease in height towards the
+north-east, in the direction of the plains of the Save.
+
+Rocks not belonging to the Jurassic system, such as crystalline slates,
+dolomites, tertiary deposits, and serpentine, are met with in various
+localities, and impart some variety to the orographical features of
+Bosnia. Several crater-shaped depressions in the east and south-east
+separate the mountains of Bosnia from the mountain masses of Servia.
+The most remarkable amongst these plains is that of Novibazar, into
+which numerous torrents discharge themselves, and which commands roads
+diverging in various directions. This is the strategical key of the
+country, and is destined on this account to become an important railway
+junction.
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH MULETEERS IN THE HERZEGOVINA.]
+
+Nearly all the mountain ranges which pass from Carniola and Austrian
+Croatia into Bosnia increase in height as we advance towards the
+centre of the peninsula. The bleached pyramid of the Durmitor, close
+to the northern frontier of Montenegro, attains an elevation of nearly
+8,000 feet, and the plateau surrounding it is cut up by deep cavities,
+some of which, like the troughs of the Herzegovina, open out in one
+direction, whilst others are completely shut in by declivities. The
+Prokletya, or “cursed” mountain, still farther to the south-east, rises
+to a height even more considerable, and constitutes one of the most
+formidable mountain masses of all Turkey. A huge depression occupies
+its centre, the bottom of which is covered by the Lake of Plava. Even
+in summer patches of snow may be seen on some of the mountains which
+surround this abyss. But Mount Kom, the {127} highest of all, never
+retains its cap of snow during the whole of the year, for it melts away
+before the hot African winds to which it is exposed. Mount Kom may
+possibly turn out to be the culminating point of the Balkan peninsula.
+It is certainly one of the highest summits, and its double peak, rising
+above the plateau of Montenegro, is descried from afar by the mariner
+navigating the Adriatic. It has been ascended by several travellers,
+for its slopes are gentle.[35]
+
+The rivers of Bosnia, like those of the Jura, flow between parallel
+mountain ranges towards the north-east, along the furrows traced out
+for them by nature. But these calcareous mountain ramparts of Bosnia,
+like those of the Jura, are broken up by narrow gorges, or _cluses_,
+through which the pent up waters find a way from furrow to furrow.
+Instead of taking a serpentine course, as do most rivers flowing
+through a plain, these rivers of Bosnia change from valley to valley
+by abrupt bends. Gentle and furious in turns, they gradually reach
+the lower regions, and are finally swallowed up by the Save. Only one
+river, the Narenta, finds its way into the Adriatic; all others, in
+accordance with the general slope of the country, flow in the direction
+of the Danube. These river valleys, with their sudden turnings, would
+be available as natural roads for reaching the plateau, if most of the
+gorges were not exceedingly difficult of access; and until regular
+roads have been constructed, as in the cluses of the Jura, travellers
+are obliged to scale steep heights in order to pass from valley to
+valley. It is this want of practicable roads which renders military
+operations in Bosnia so difficult and perilous.
+
+Great armies have at all times remained to the east of the mountain
+masses referred to, passing from the valley of the Vardar into that
+of the Morava, whose springs almost intermingle their waters. In that
+locality we meet with the bed of an ancient lake, through which flows
+the Sitnitza, one of the upper tributaries of the Servian Morava: this
+is the plain of Kosovo, the “field of black birds,” which reminds
+all southern Slavs of painful events. It was there the power of the
+Servians succumbed in 1389, and, if we may credit ancient heroic songs,
+more than 100,000 men perished in a single day. Five hundred years have
+passed away since this great disaster, but the Slavs have never ceased
+to hope for a day of vengeance, and they look forward to the time when
+on this very field they may reconquer the independence they have lost.
+
+The similarity between the mountains of Bosnia and of the Jura is
+rendered complete by the existence of grottoes, sink-holes, and
+subterranean rivers. Sink-holes from 60 to 100 feet in diameter, and
+shaped like funnels, are met with in many localities. Several rivers
+appear suddenly at the foot of a hill, and, after flowing on for a few
+miles, disappear again beneath some portal in the rocks. The table-land
+of the Herzegovina especially abounds in phenomena of this kind. The
+ground there is pierced by “sinks,” or _ponors_, which swallow up the
+water derived from precipitation. “Blind valleys” and “troughs” present
+everywhere the traces of currents of water and of temporary lakes,
+and after heavy rains the subterranean basins sometimes rise to the
+surface, and a river then flows for a time along the valley. As a rule,
+however, the inhabitants are compelled to {128} collect the water they
+require in cisterns, or to fetch it from long distances. Elsewhere the
+hydrography of the country is subject to annual changes. Lakes which
+still figure upon our maps are drained through subterranean passages
+only recently opened; other lakes are formed in consequence of some
+passage, which formerly carried off the surface water, having become
+choked with alluvium. No more curious river probably exists in the
+world than the Trebinishtitza, in the Western Herzegovina. It appears
+and disappears many times. One of its branches, flowing at one time
+on the surface, at others underground, crosses the plains of Kotesi,
+in turns a parched champaign country or a lake abounding in fish, and
+enters the Narenta. Other branches pass beneath the mountains, and
+gush out near the shores of the Adriatic. One of the most famous of
+these springs is that of Ombra, which pours its waters into the Bay of
+Gravosa, to the north of Ragusa.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 37.—SUBTERRANEAN BEDS OF THE AFFLUENTS OF THE
+NARENTA.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,925,000.]
+
+“Where the rocks finish and the trees appear, there begins Bosnia.”
+So said the Dalmatians formerly. But many parts of Bosnia have now
+lost their clothing of verdure. The table-lands of the Herzegovina
+and Montenegro, no less than Dalmatia, have been despoiled of their
+forests, but Bosnia proper still remains a country of woods. Nearly
+one-half its area is covered with forests. In the valleys trees have
+almost disappeared, for the peasant is allowed to wield his axe {129}
+without hindrance, but in the virgin forests of the mountains trees
+still abound. The principal trees of Europe are met with in these
+magnificent woods: walnut-trees, chestnut-trees, limes, maples, oaks,
+beeches, ash-trees, birches, pines, firs, and larches. Austrian
+speculators, unfortunately, avail themselves of the roads which begin
+to open up the interior of the country to devastate these forests,
+which ought to be preserved with the greatest care. The song of birds
+is but rarely heard in these sombre woods, but wild animals abound
+in them. They shelter bears, wild boars, and deer, and the number of
+wolves is so large that their skins form one of the most important
+articles of Bosnian commerce. Taken as a whole, Bosnia ranks among
+the most fertile countries of Europe, and few regions surpass it in
+the beauty of its rural scenery. In some parts of the country, and
+particularly near the Save, large herds of hogs, almost wild, roam
+through the oak forests. Hence the epithet of “country of hogs” which
+the Turks have derisively given to Bosnia.
+
+With the exception of the Jews, the gipsies, and the few Osmanli
+officials, soldiers, and merchants in the principal towns, the entire
+population of the country is of Slav race. The inhabitants of Kraina,
+near the Austrian frontier, call themselves Croats, but they scarcely
+differ from the Bosnian Servians and Raitzes of ancient Rascia, now
+known as the sandjak of Novibazar. On the classical soil of Rascia
+originated most of those cherished _piesmas_, or popular songs, in
+which the Southern Slavs have deposited their national traditions. The
+Herzegovinians, in some respects, differ from their Bosnian kinsmen.
+They are the descendants of immigrants who came from the banks of the
+Vistula in the seventh century. Like their neighbours the Montenegrins,
+they are more voluble in their speech than the Servians proper, and
+make use of numerous peculiar turns of expression and a few words of
+Italian which have glided into their language.
+
+Although most of the Bosnians are of the same race, they are divided by
+religious animosities, and these account for their state of political
+servitude. At the first glance it may cause surprise that the Slavs
+of Bosnia should not have succeeded in throwing off the Turkish yoke,
+like their kinsmen of Servia. Their country is more remote from the
+capital, and far less accessible than Servia. A conquering army coming
+from the south has not only to force numerous defiles, but has to
+contend, too, with the climate, which is far more severe than that of
+the remainder of the Balkan peninsula. But, in spite of these great
+natural advantages from a defensive point of view, every revolt has
+hitherto failed lamentably. We need not seek far for the cause of this:
+Christian and Mohammedan Bosnians are at enmity, and the Christians
+themselves are split up into Greeks, who are led by their _popes_, and
+Romans, who follow blindly their Franciscan priests. In their divided
+state they fall an easy prey to their oppressors, and servitude has
+degraded their character.
+
+The Mussulmans of Bosnia call themselves Turks, but they are Slavs
+nevertheless, like their Christian compatriots, and, like them,
+speak Servian with a large admixture of Turkish words. They are the
+descendants of the nobles who, in {130} the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, embraced Islamism in order to save their feudal privileges.
+They also number amongst their ranks the descendants of brigands, who
+changed their religion in order to be able to continue their trade
+without fear of punishment. This apostacy gave to the lords even
+greater power over their wretched dependants than they had formerly
+possessed. The hatred of caste was augmented by religious animosity,
+and they soon surpassed in fanaticism the Mohammedan Turks, and reduced
+the Christian peasantry to a condition of veritable slavery. A wild
+pear-tree is still pointed out near one of the gates of Sarayevo, upon
+which the notables occasionally suspended some unfortunate raya for
+their amusement. Whether beys or spahis, these Mohammedan Bosnians are
+the most retrograde element of old Turkey, and on several occasions,
+as in 1851, they even rose up in rebellion in order to maintain intact
+their ancient feudal privileges. Sarayevo, as a Mussulman city, stood
+under the special protection of the Sultan’s mother, and possessed most
+extravagant privileges, which converted it into a state in the state
+more hostile to Christianity than the Sublime Porte itself.
+
+Even in our own days the Bosnian Mussulmans possess far more than their
+proper share of the land. The country is divided into _spahiliks_,
+or Mussulman fiefs, which are transmitted, in accordance with the
+custom of the Slavs, indivisibly to all the members of the family.
+The latter choose the most aged or most valorous of their members as
+their head. The Christian peasants are compelled to work for these
+Mussulman communities; and, although no longer serfs, they are called
+upon to bear the chief burden of taxation and of other expenses. It
+is natural, under these circumstances, that the Christians of Bosnia
+should shun agriculture in order to devote themselves to trade, and
+nearly the whole of the commerce is in the hands of the Christians of
+the Herzegovina and of their co-religionists from Slavonian Austria.
+The Spanish Jews form communities in the principal towns, where they
+carry on their usual commercial pursuits and money-lending on tangible
+securities. They still talk Spanish amongst themselves, and never
+mention without emotion the name of the country which sent them into
+exile.
+
+The number of Mussulmans hardly exceeds one-third of the total
+population of Bosnia, and they are said to remain stationary, or even
+to diminish, whilst the more fecund Christians increase in numbers.[36]
+
+For the rest, the Bosnians, in spite of the differences in their
+religious belief, possess the same natural gifts as their Servian
+kinsmen, and, whatever destinies may be in store for them, they will
+in the end rise to the same level of intelligence. They are frank and
+hospitable, brave in battle, industrious, thrifty, of a poetical turn,
+fast as friends, and true as lovers. The marital ties are respected,
+{131} and even the Mussulmans reject the polygamy permitted by the
+Koran. In the Herzegovina the women enjoy much liberty, and in many
+villages there are even back doors to the houses, in order that they
+may be able to gossip with their neighbours without going into the
+street. In Northern Bosnia, however, the Mussulman women are wrapped
+up closely in white linen sheets, and are hardly able to see a few
+steps before them. But, in spite of these good qualities, there exists
+an amount of barbarity, ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism,
+amongst Christians and Mohammedans alike, which is truly astounding.
+Incessant wars, tyranny on the one side, and servitude on the other,
+have brutalised their manners. The want of roads, the extensive
+forests, and the precipitous mountains have placed them beyond the
+reach of civilising influences. There are hardly any schools, and the
+few monasteries which supply their places are of little use, for the
+monks themselves are steeped in ignorance, and their pupils at most
+learn to chant a few hymns. Besides this, the immense consumption
+of _slibovitza_ undermines the health of the people and demoralises
+them, and it has been estimated that every Bosnian—man, woman, or
+child—drinks annually no less than thirty-four pints of this detestable
+plum-brandy.
+
+It may be matter for surprise that bustling towns should exist in
+so rude a country, but the natural resources of Bosnia are so great
+that a certain amount of local trade was sure to spring up. Isolated
+as they are, the Bosnians are thrown upon their own resources. They
+grind their own flour, manufacture their arms, stuffs, and iron
+implements, and the exchange of these commodities has given rise to
+commerce in the cities most favourably situated as entrepôts, the
+principal amongst which are Sarayevo, or Bosna Serai, and Travnik, the
+ancient capital of the country, picturesquely situated at the foot
+of an ancient castle. Banyaluka, which is connected with Austria by
+a railway, has some trade with Croatia; Tuzla extracts salt from its
+abundant brine springs; Zvornik, which guards the frontier of Servia,
+also carries on some trade with that country; Novibazar has commercial
+relations with Albania; Mostar and Trebinye import a few articles from
+Dalmatia. The populations of these towns have not, however, been solely
+attracted by trade and industry, for the insecurity of the country
+has also contributed to that result. There is no part of Europe, the
+neighbouring Albania and the polar regions of Scandinavia and Russia
+excepted, which is so rarely visited by strangers, and this isolation
+will only cease when the proposed international railway shall have
+joined it to Saloniki and Constantinople.[37]
+
+
+VI.—BULGARIA.
+
+The centre plateau of Turkey is still amongst the least-known countries
+of the Balkan peninsula, although it is intersected by the great
+highways which connect Thracia with Bosnia, and Macedonia with the
+Danube. This plateau, {132} known to the ancients as Upper Mœsia,
+consists of a vast granitic table-land, rising to an average height
+of 2,000 feet. Its surface is diversified by several _planinas_, or
+mountain chains, of small relative height, and by domes of trachyte,
+the remains of ancient volcanoes. Its numerous depressions were
+formerly filled with water, and the contours of the ancient lakes can
+still be traced. They have been gradually filled up by alluvium, or
+drained by rivers. The most remarkable amongst these ancient lacustrine
+basins are now represented by the fertile plains of Nish, Sofia, and
+Ikhtiman.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 38.—MOUNT VITOSH AND ITS ENVIRONS.
+
+According to F. von Hochstetter. Scale 1 : 1,058,000]
+
+The superb syenitic and porphyritic mountain group of Vitosh forms the
+eastern bastion of the Mœsian plateau. Immediately to the east of it
+the deep valley of the Isker pierces the whole of the Balkan Mountains,
+and, crossing the plain of Sofia, takes its course in the direction of
+the Danube. The upper valley of this river and the plain mentioned form
+the true geographical centre of European Turkey. From Sofia diverge
+some of the most important roads of the peninsula, one leading through
+the valley of the Isker to the Lower Danube, another along the Morava
+valley into Servia, a third by way of the Maritza into Thracia, and
+a fourth down the Struma into Macedonia. It is said that Constantine
+the Great, struck by these important natural advantages of Sofia, then
+called Sardica, thought of making it the capital of his empire. {133}
+
+[Illustration: TIRNOVA.]
+
+The Turks apply the name of Balkans to all the mountain ranges of
+the peninsula, but geographers restrict that term to the Hæmus of
+the ancients. This mountain rampart begins to the east of the basin
+of Sofia. It does not form a regular chain, but rather an elevated
+terrace sloping down gently in the direction of the Danube, whilst
+towards the south it presents an abrupt slope, it appearing almost
+as if the plateau on that side had suddenly sunk to a lower level.
+The Balkan consequently presents the appearance of a chain only when
+looked at from the south. But its contours even there are only slightly
+undulating; there are neither abrupt projections nor rocky pyramids,
+and the prevailing character is that of long-stretched mountain ridges.
+The porphyritic mountain group of Chatal, which rises to the south of
+the principal chain, constitutes the only exception to this gentleness
+of contour. Though inferior in height to the summits of the Balkan, its
+steep precipices, slashed crests, and chaotic rock masses strike the
+beholder, and the contrast between this mass of erupted rock and the
+gentle slopes of the calcareous hills which surround it is very great.
+
+The uniformity of the northern slopes of the Balkan is such that, in
+many places, a traveller is able to reach the crest without having come
+in sight of mountains. When the woods have disappeared from the Balkan,
+these undulating slopes will be deprived of their greatest charm; but,
+as long as the forests ornament them as now, the country will remain
+one of the most delightful in Turkey. Running streams flow through each
+valley, bordered by pastures as brilliantly green as are those of the
+Alps; the villages are built in the shade of beech-trees and oaks; and
+nature everywhere wears a smiling aspect. But the plains which extend
+to the Danube are barren, and sometimes not a single tree is visible.
+The inhabitants, deprived of wood, are dependent upon cow-dung dried
+in the sun for their fuel, and they dig for themselves holes in the
+ground, where they seek protection from the cold of winter.
+
+The core of the Balkan, between the basin of Sofia and that of Slivno,
+consists of granite, but the terraces which descend towards the Danube
+present every geological formation, from the metamorphic to the most
+recent rocks. The cretaceous formation occupies the largest area in
+Bulgaria, and the rivers rising in the mountains, in traversing it,
+form picturesque valleys and defiles. Ancient fortresses defend each
+of these valleys, and the towns have been built where they debouch
+upon the plain. Tirnova, the ancient capital of the tsars of Bulgaria,
+is the most remarkable of these old bulwarks of defence. The Yantra,
+on debouching there from the mountains, winds about curiously;
+steep cliffs form an amphitheatre, in the centre of which rise two
+precipitous isolated rocks, crowned formerly by walls and towers. The
+houses of the town are built on the slopes, and its suburbs extend
+along the foot of the cliffs.
+
+A singular parallelism has been noticed on the northern slopes of
+Balkan. The elevated mountain saddles, crests of secondary chains,
+geological formations, the faults which give rise to the meandering
+of the rivers, and even the Danube itself, all follow the same
+direction, from west to east. As a consequence, each of the parallel
+valleys descending from the Balkans offers similar features; the {134}
+population is distributed in the same manner; and the towns occupy
+analogous positions. The valley of the Lom offers the only exception
+to the rule, for its direction is towards the north-west. It debouches
+upon the Danube at Rustchuk, and its green orchards and gardens are
+hemmed in by dazzling white cliffs of chalk rising to a height of about
+100 feet.
+
+The symmetry would be almost complete in Northern Turkey if it were
+not for the detached arid hills of the Dobruja, which force the Danube
+to make a wide détour to the north. Rising in the low and swampy delta
+of the Danube, these hills appear to be much higher than they are. In
+reality they do not exceed 1,650 feet in height. It is possible that
+during some very remote geological epoch the Danube took its course
+to the south of these hills, through the depression which has been
+utilised for the construction of the first Turkish railway. Trajan,
+who feared that the Goths might obtain a footing in this remote corner
+of the Roman empire, constructed one of those lines of fortifications
+here which are known throughout the countries of the Lower Danube as
+Trajan’s Walls. Remains of walls, ditches, and forts may still be
+traced along the banks of the marshes, and on the heights commanding
+them. This country of the Dobruja is the “savage hyperborean region”
+where Ovid, exiled from Rome, wept for the splendours of the capital.
+The port of Tomi, the place of his banishment, is the modern Kustenje.
+
+To the north of the Gulf of Burgas, which is the westernmost extremity
+of the Black Sea, rise the fine porphyry mountains which terminate in
+the superb Cape of Emineh. They are sometimes described as an eastern
+prolongation of the Balkan, but erroneously, for the ancient lacustrine
+basin of Karnabat, now traversed by a railway, separates them from the
+system of the Hæmus. The granitic plateaux and mountains of Tunja and
+Stranja, which command the wide plain of Thracia on the north, are
+likewise separate mountain ranges. The Southern Balkan is, in reality,
+without ramifications or spurs, except in the west, where the mountains
+of Ikhtiman and of Samakov, so rich in iron ore and thermal springs,
+and other transverse chains, connect it with the mountain mass of
+the Rhodope. The upper basin of the Maritza River, enclosed between
+the Balkan and the Rhodope, has the shape of an elongated triangle,
+whose apex, directed towards the plain of Sofia, indicates the point
+of junction between the two systems. The whole of this triangular
+depression, with its lateral ramifications, was formerly occupied by
+lakes, now converted into bottom-lands of marvellous fertility. The
+passes near the apex of this triangle are naturally points of the
+highest strategical and commercial importance. Through one of them,
+still marked by ancient fortifications, and known as Trajan’s Gate,
+passed the old Roman highway, and there, too, the railway now in course
+of construction will cross the summit between the two slopes of the
+peninsula. This is the true “gateway of Constantinople,” and from the
+most remote times nations have fought for its possession. The numerous
+tumuli scattered over the neighbouring plains bear witness to many a
+bloody struggle.
+
+The spurs of the Rhodope intermingle with those of the Balkan, and
+the lowest {135} pass which separates the two still exceeds 3,000
+feet in elevation. The Rilo Dagh, the most elevated mountain mass
+of the Rhodope, boldly rises at its northern extremity, and, to use
+the expression of Barth, forms the shoulder-blade of junction. Its
+height is 9,580 feet. It rises far beyond the region of forests, and
+its jagged summits, pyramids, and platforms contrast strikingly with
+the rounded outlines of the Balkan. But the lower heights, surrounded
+by this imposing amphitheatre of grand summits, are covered with
+vegetation. Forests of pines, larches, and beech-trees, the haunts
+of bears and chamois, alternate with clumps of trees and cultivated
+fields, and the villages in the valleys are surrounded by meadows,
+vineyards, and oaks. Picturesque cupolas of numerous monasteries
+peep out amongst the verdure: to their existence the mountain owes
+its Turkish name of Despoto Dagh, _i.e._ “mountain of the parsons.”
+The Rilo Dagh, likewise famous on account of its monasteries, has
+altogether the aspect of the Swiss Alps. The moist winds of the
+Mediterranean convey to it much snow in winter and spring, but in
+summer the clouds discharge only torrents of rain, and the snow rapidly
+disappears from the flanks of the mountains. These sudden rain-storms
+are amongst the most remarkable spectacles to be witnessed. In the
+forenoon the mist which hides the tops of the mountains grows dense by
+degrees, and heavy copper-coloured clouds collect on the slopes. About
+three in the afternoon the rain begins to pour down, the clouds grow
+visibly smaller, first one, then another summit is seen through a rent
+in the watery vapours, until at last the air has become purified, and
+the mountains are lit up in the sunset.
+
+To the south of the Rilo Dagh rises the mountain mass of Perim, hardly
+inferior to it in height. This is the Orbelos of the ancient Greeks,
+and the rings to which Noah made fast his ark when the waters subsided
+after the deluge are still shown there, and even Mussulman pilgrims pay
+their devotions at this venerated spot. It is the last high summit of
+the Rhodope. The mountains to the south rapidly decrease in elevation,
+though the granitic formation to which they belong is spread over a
+vast extent of country from the plains of Thracia to Albania. The
+extent of the hilly region connected with the Rhodope is still further
+increased by numerous groups of extinct volcanoes, which have poured
+forth vast sheets of trachytic lava. The rivers which flow from the
+central plateau of Turkey into the Ægean Sea have cut for themselves
+deep passages through these granites and lavas, the most famous amongst
+which is the “Iron Gate” of the Vardar, or Demir Kapu, which formerly
+figured on our maps of Turkey as a large town.
+
+The aspect of the crystalline mountain masses to the west of the Vardar
+is altogether of an Alpine character, for the peaks not only attain a
+high elevation, but snow remains upon them during the greater portion
+of the year. The Gornichova, or Nije, to the north of Thessaly, rises
+to a height of 6,560 feet; and the Peristeri, whose triple summit
+and snow-clad shoulders have been likened to the spread-out wings of
+a bird, and which rises close to the city of Bitolia, or Monastir,
+is more elevated still. The mountains of ancient Dardania enclose
+extensive circular or elliptical plains, and the most remarkable
+amongst these, {136} namely, that of Monastir, has been compared by
+Grisebach, the geologist, to one of those huge crater lakes which the
+telescope has revealed to us on the surface of the moon. In most of
+these plains we meet with swamps or small lakes, the only remains of
+the sheets of water which at one time covered them. The most extensive
+of these lakes is that of Ostrovo. The Lake of Kastoria resembles the
+filled-up crater of a volcano. In its centre rises a limestone hill
+joined to the shore by an isthmus, upon which is built a picturesque
+Greek town.
+
+According to Viquesnel and Hochstetter, traces of glaciers do not
+exist in any of these ancient lacustrine basins, or on the flanks
+of the mountains. It is certainly remarkable that whilst other
+European mountains—as, for instance, the Vosges and the mountains of
+Auvergne—have passed through a glacial epoch, the far more elevated
+Peristeri, Rilo Dagh, and Balkan, under about the same latitude as the
+Pyrenees, should never have had their valleys filled by moving rivers
+of ice.[38]
+
+All the large rivers of European Turkey belong to the Bulgarian regions
+of the Balkan or Hæmus. In Bosnia there are merely small parallel
+rivers flowing to the Save; Albania has only turbulent torrents forcing
+their way through wild gorges, like the Drin; but the Maritza, the
+Strymon or Karasu, the Vardar, and the Inje Karasu, which descend from
+the southern flanks of the Balkans, or originate in the crystalline
+mountain masses of the Rhodope, are large rivers, which bear comparison
+with the tranquil streams of Western Europe. As yet we know but little
+about their mode of action. The volume of water discharged by them has
+never been measured, and they are hardly made use of for purposes of
+navigation or irrigation. They all traverse ancient lake basins, which
+they have filled up gradually with alluvium, and converted into fertile
+plains. This work of filling up still goes on in the lower portions
+of these fluvial valleys, where extensive marshes, and even gradually
+shrinking lakes, abound. One of these lakes, the Takhino, through which
+the Strymon flows before it enters the Ægean Sea, is said to be the
+Prasias of Herodotus, and its aquatic villages were no doubt similar to
+the pile dwellings discovered in nearly all the lakes of Central Europe.
+
+The Danube, to the north of the Dobruja, performs an amount of
+geological work, in comparison with which that of the Maritza, the
+Strymon, and Vardar sinks into insignificance. That mighty river
+annually conveys to the Black Sea a volume of water far in excess of
+that which is carried down the rivers of all France, and the solids
+which it holds in suspension are sufficient to cover an area of ten
+square miles to a depth of nine feet. This enormous mass of sand and
+clay is annually deposited in the swamps and on the banks of the delta,
+and the slow but steady growth of the latter is thus sufficiently
+explained. Even the ancients {137} anticipated a time when the Black
+Sea would be converted into a shallow pond abounding in sand-banks, and
+it must, therefore, afford some consolation to our mariners to be told
+that six million years must pass before the alluvium carried down the
+river will fill the whole of the Black Sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 39.—THE DELTA OF THE DANUBE.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,500,000.]
+
+The large triangular plain which the Danube has conquered from the
+sea has not yet fully emerged from the waters. Lakes, and the remains
+of ancient bays, half-obliterated branches of the Danube, and the
+ever-changing beds of rivulets, have converted this delta into a
+domain, half land, half sea. More elevated tracts, consolidated by the
+attack of the waves, rise here and there above the melancholy mire
+and reeds, and bear a dense vegetation of oaks, olives, and beeches.
+Willows fringe most of the branches of the river which take their
+winding course through the delta. Twenty years ago the Danube had six
+mouths; it has now only three.
+
+After the Crimean war the Western powers determined that the Kilia
+branch, which conveys to the Black Sea more than half the volume of
+the Danube, should thenceforth form the boundary between Rumania and
+Turkey. The Sultan thus possesses not only the whole of the delta,
+which has an area of about 4,000 square miles, but also the only mouth
+of the river which makes the possession of that territory of any value
+to him. The mouth of the Kilia is closed by a bar of sand, which does
+not even permit small vessels to enter it. {138}
+
+The southern mouth, that of Khidrillis, or St. George, is likewise
+inaccessible. The centre branch, that of the Sulina, which has served
+the purposes of commerce from time immemorial, can alone be entered by
+vessels. But even this channel would not be practicable, in the case
+of large vessels, if our engineers had not improved its facilities of
+access. Formerly the depth of water on the bar hardly exceeded a fathom
+during April, June, and July; and even at times of flood was at most
+two or three fathoms. But by building convergent jetties, which guide
+the waters of the river into the deep sea, the depth of water has been
+increased to the extent of ten feet, and vessels drawing twenty feet
+can enter. Sulina is now one of the most important commercial ports
+of Europe, and a highly prized harbour of refuge on the Black Sea,
+which is so much dreaded by mariners on account of its squalls. We are
+indebted for this great public work to an international commission,
+which enjoys almost sovereign rights over the Danube as high up as
+Isakcha.[39]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 40.—COMPARATIVE DISCHARGE OF THE MOUTHS OF THE
+DANUBE.
+
+ Kilia Mouth. Sulina Mouth. St. George’s Mouth.]
+
+The Bulgarians inhabit the country to the south of the Danube as far as
+the slopes of Mount Pindus, excepting only certain detached territories
+in the occupation of Turks, Wallachians, Zinzares, or Greeks. In the
+Middle Ages their kingdom was even more extensive, for it included the
+whole of Albania, and had Okhrida for its capital.
+
+The origin of the Bulgarians has been a theme of frequent discussion.
+The Bulgarians of the Byzantines, who laid waste the plains of Thracia
+about the close of the fifth century, and whose name became a term
+of opprobrium, probably were a Ugrian race, like the Huns, and spoke
+a language akin to that of the Samoyeds. The name of these savage
+conquerors is sometimes derived from the Volga, on the banks of which
+they formerly dwelt; but their manners and appearance have undergone
+a singular change, and nothing now indicates their origin. Originally
+Turanians, they have been converted into Slavs, like their neighbours
+the Servians and Russians.
+
+[Illustration: BULGARIANS.
+
+ Christian from Christian Ladies Mohammedans A native of
+ Viddin. from Skodra. from Viddin. Koyutepe.]
+
+This rapid conversion of the Bulgarians into Slavs is one of the most
+remarkable ethnological phenomena of the Middle Ages. Even in the
+ninth century the Bulgarians had adopted the Servian language, and
+soon afterwards they ceased to speak their own. Their idiom is less
+polished than that of the Servians, and, possessing no literature,
+has not become fixed. The purest Bulgarian, it is said, may be heard
+in the district of Kalofer, to the south of the Balkan. The gradual
+transformation of the Bulgarians into Slavs is ascribed by some authors
+to the {139} prodigious facility for imitation possessed by that
+people; but it is simpler to assume that, in course of time, the
+conquering Bulgarians and the conquered Servians became amalgamated,
+and that, whilst the former gave a name to the new nation, the latter
+contributed their language, their manners, and physical features. Thus
+much is certain, that the inhabitants of Bulgaria must now be looked
+upon as members of the Slavonian family of nations. Together with the
+Servians, Croats, and Herzegovinians, they are the most numerous people
+of European Turkey; and, if the succession to the dominion of the Turks
+is to be decided by numbers alone, it belongs to the Servo-Bulgarians,
+and not to the Greeks.
+
+The Bulgarians, as a rule, are not so tall as their neighbours the
+Servians; they are squat, strongly built, with a large head on broad
+shoulders. Lejean, himself a Breton, and others, consider that they
+bear a striking resemblance to the peasants of Brittany. In several
+districts, and notably in the environs of Philippopoli, they shave
+the head, a tuft of hair alone excepted, which they cultivate and
+dress into a tail as carefully as the Chinese. Greeks and Wallachians
+ridicule them, and many proverbial expressions refer to their want of
+intelligence and polish. This ridicule, however, they hardly deserve.
+Less vivacious than the Wallachian, or less supple than the Greek, the
+Bulgarian is certainly not deficient in intelligence. But bondage has
+borne heavily upon him; and in the south, where he is oppressed by the
+Turk and fleeced by the Greek, he looks unhappy and sad; but in the
+plains of the north and the secluded mountain villages, where he has
+been exposed to less suffering, he is jovial, fond of pleasure, fluent
+of speech, and quick at repartee. The inhabitants of the northern
+slopes of the Balkan, perhaps owing to a greater infusion of Servian
+blood, are better-looking, too, than other Bulgarians, and dress in
+better taste. A still finer race of men are the Pomakis, in the high
+valleys of the Rhodope, to the south of Philippopoli. Their speech is
+Bulgarian, but in no other respect do they resemble their compatriots.
+They are a fine race of men, with auburn hair, full of energy, and of a
+poetical temperament. We almost feel tempted to look upon them as the
+lineal descendants of the ancient Thracians, especially if it should
+turn out to be true that in their songs they celebrate Orpheus, the
+divine musician.
+
+The Bulgarians, and especially those of the plains, are a peaceable
+people, recalling in no respect the fierce hordes who devastated the
+Byzantine empire. They are not warlike, like their neighbours the
+Servians, and do not keep alive in their national poetry the memory of
+former struggles. Their songs relate to the events of every-day life,
+or to the sufferings of the oppressed; and the “gentle _zaptieh_,”
+as the representative of authority, is one of the characters most
+frequently represented in them. The average Bulgarian is a quiet,
+hard-working peasant, a good husband and father; he is fond of
+home comforts, and practises every domestic virtue. Nearly all the
+agricultural produce exported from Turkey results from the labour of
+Bulgarian husbandmen. It is they who have converted certain portions of
+the plain to the south of the Danube into huge fields of {140} maize
+and corn, rivalling those of Rumania. It is they, likewise, who, at
+Eski-Za’ara, at the south of the Balkan, produce the best silk and
+the best wheat in all Turkey, from which latter alone the bread and
+cakes placed upon the Sultan’s table are prepared. Other Bulgarians
+have converted the noble plain of Kezanlik, at the foot of the Balkan,
+into the finest agricultural district of Turkey, the town itself being
+surrounded by magnificent walnut-trees and by rosaries, which furnish
+the famous attar of roses, constituting so important an article of
+commerce throughout the East. Amongst the Bulgarians between Pirot and
+Turnov (Tirnova), on the northern slope of the Balkan, there exist
+flourishing manufactures. Each village there is noted for a particular
+branch of industry. Knives are made at one, metal ornaments at another,
+earthenware at a third, stuffs or carpets elsewhere; and even common
+workmen exhibit much manual dexterity and purity of taste. An equally
+remarkable spirit of enterprise is manifested amongst the Bulgarians
+and Zinzares of the district of Bitolia, or Monastir. The town
+itself, as well as Kurshova, Florina, and others in its vicinity, are
+manufacturing centres.
+
+The Bulgarians, peaceable, patient, and industrious as they are, are
+beginning to grow tired of the subjection in which they are held.
+They certainly do not as yet dream of a national rising, for the
+isolated revolts which have taken place amongst them were confined to
+a few mountaineers, or brought about by young men whom a residence
+in Servia or Rumania had imbued with an enthusiasm for liberty. But
+though docile subjects still, the Bulgarians begin to raise their
+heads. They have learnt to look upon each other as members of the
+same nation, and are organizing themselves for the defence of their
+nationality. The first step in this direction was taken on a question
+of religion. When the Turks conquered the country a certain number
+amongst them turned Mohammedan to escape oppression; but though they
+visit the mosques, they nevertheless still cling to the faith of their
+forefathers, venerate the same springs, and put their trust in the same
+talismans. A few joined the Roman Church, but a great majority remained
+Greek Catholics. Greek monks and priests, not long since, enjoyed
+the greatest influence, for during centuries of oppression they had
+upheld the ancient faith. Their presence vaguely recalled the times of
+independence, and their churches were the only sanctuaries open to the
+persecuted peasant. But the Bulgarians, in the end, grew discontented
+with a priesthood who did not even take the trouble to acquire the
+language of its congregations, and openly sought to subject them to an
+alien nation like the Greeks. Nothing was further from their thoughts
+than a religious schism. They merely desired to withdraw from the
+authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and to found a National
+Church of their own, as had been done by the Servians, and even by
+the Greeks of the new Hellenic kingdom. The Vatican of Constantinople
+protested, the Turkish Government proved anything but favourable to
+this movement of emancipation, but in the end the Greek priests were
+forced to retire—precipitately in some instances—and the new National
+Church was established. {141}
+
+This pacific revolution, though directed against the Greeks, cannot
+fail to influence the relations between Bulgarians and Turks. The
+former have combined, for the first time since many centuries, for the
+accomplishment of a common national object, and this reawakening of a
+feeling of nationality cannot but prove detrimental to the rule of the
+Osmanli. The latter are not very numerous in the country districts of
+Western Bulgaria, where they are met with chiefly in the towns, and
+particularly in those which are of strategical importance. Eastern
+Bulgaria, however, is for the most part peopled by Turks, or at all
+events by Bulgarians who have adopted the language, dress, manners, and
+modes of thought of their conquerors. No Christian monastery exists in
+this stronghold of Turkish power, though there are several Mohammedan
+places of pilgrimage held in high repute for their sanctity.
+
+The Greeks, next to the Turks, are the most important element of the
+population of Bulgaria. They are not very numerous to the north of
+the Balkan, where their influence hardly exceeds that of the Germans
+and Armenians established in the towns. To the south of the Balkan,
+though not numerous relatively, they are much more widely distributed.
+One or two Greeks are met with in every village, carrying on trade
+or exercising some handicraft. They make themselves indispensable
+to the locality, their advice is sought for by all, and they impart
+their own spirit to the whole of the population. Where two or three
+of these Greeks meet they at once constitute themselves into a sort
+of community, and throughout the country they form a kind of masonic
+brotherhood. Their influence is thus far greater than could be expected
+from their numbers. There are a few important Greek colonies amongst
+the Bulgarians, as at Philippopoli and Bazarjik, and in a valley of the
+Rhodope they occupy the populous town of Stanimako, to the exclusion of
+Turks and Bulgarians. The ruins of ancient buildings, as well as the
+dialect of the inhabitants, which contains over two hundred Greek words
+not known to modern Greek, prove that Stanimako has existed as a Greek
+town for upwards of twenty centuries, and M. Dumont thinks that it is
+one of the old colonies of Eubœa.
+
+The initiatory part played by the Greeks in Southern Bulgaria is
+played in the north by the Rumanians. The right bank of the Danube,
+from Chernavoda to the Black Sea, is for the most part inhabited by
+Wallachians, who are gradually gaining upon the Turks. Other colonists
+are attracted by the fertility of the plains at the northern foot
+of the Balkan. The Bulgarians are careful cultivators of the soil
+themselves, but the Rumanians nevertheless gain a footing amongst them,
+as they do with the Servians, the Magyars, and the Germans. They are
+more active and intelligent than the Bulgarians, their families are
+more numerous, and in the course of a generation they generally succeed
+in “Rumanising” a village in which they have settled.
+
+Bulgarians and Turks, Greeks and Wallachians, isolated colonies of
+Servians and Albanians, communities of Armenians and of Spanish Jews,
+colonies of Zinzares and wandering tribes of Mohammedan Tsigani,
+have converted the {142} countries of the Balkan into a veritable
+ethnological chaos; but the confusion is greater still in the small
+district of Dobruja, between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea. In
+addition to the races enumerated, we there meet with Nogai Tartars,
+who are of purer blood than their kinsmen the Osmanli, and exhibit the
+Asiatic type in greater purity. Although they cultivate the soil, they
+have not altogether abandoned their nomad habits, for they wander with
+their herds over hill and dale. They are governed by an hereditary
+khan, as at the time when they dwelt in tents.
+
+After the Crimean war several thousand Nogai Tartars, compromised by
+the aid which they had rendered the Allies, joined their compatriots
+in the Dobruja. On the other hand, about 10,000 Bulgarians, terrified
+at the approach of these much-maligned immigrants, fled the Dobruja,
+and sought an asylum in Russia, where they were assigned the lands
+abandoned by the Crimean Tartars. This exchange proved disastrous to
+both nations, for sickness and grief carried off many victims. More
+deplorable still was the lot of the Circassians and other Caucasian
+tribes, who, to the number of 400,000, sought a refuge in Turkey in
+1864. It was by no means easy to provide accommodation for so large a
+host. The pasha intrusted with the installation of these immigrants
+sent many of them to Western Bulgaria, in the vain hope that they
+would cut off all contact between Servians and Bulgarians. The rayas
+were compelled to surrender to them their best lands, to build
+houses for them, and to supply them with cattle and seed-corn. This
+hospitable reception, compulsory though it was, would have enabled
+these immigrants to start in their adopted country with a fair chance
+of success, had they but deigned to work. This, however, they declined.
+Hunger, sickness, and a climate very different from that of their
+mountains, caused them to perish in thousands, and in less than a
+year about one-third of these refugees had perished. Young girls and
+children were sold to procure bread, and this infamous traffic became
+a source of wealth to certain pashas. The harems became filled with
+young Circassians, who were a drug in the market at that time, and the
+human merchandise not saleable at Constantinople was exported to Syria
+and Egypt. These Circassians, after thus suffering from sickness and
+their own improvident laziness, have now accommodated themselves to
+the conditions of their new homes. Though of the same religion as the
+Osmanli, they readily assimilate with the Bulgarians amongst whom they
+dwell, and adopt their language.
+
+Other refugees, more kindly treated by fate, have found an asylum in
+the Dobruja. They are Russian Cossacks, Ruthenians, and Muscovites
+of the “Old Faith,” who left their steppes towards the close of last
+century in order to escape persecution. The Padisha, more tolerant than
+the Christian Empress of Russia, generously received them, and granted
+them land in various parts of his dominions. The Russian colonies in
+the Dobruja and in the delta of the Danube have prospered, and one of
+their settlements on the St. George’s branch of the river is known
+as the “Cossacks’ Paradise.” Most of these Russians are engaged in
+the sturgeon fishery and the preparation of caviare. They have {143}
+proved grateful for the hospitality extended to them, and have always
+fought valiantly in defence of their adopted country. They retain their
+national dress, their language, and their religion, and do not mix with
+the surrounding populations.
+
+In addition to the above, we meet in the Dobruja with colonies of
+Germans, Arabs, and Poles, and, in the new port of the Sulina, with
+representatives of many nations of Europe and Asia.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+There are few countries where the great international high-roads are
+as plainly traced by nature as in Bulgaria. The first of these roads
+is formed by the Danube. The Turkish towns along its banks—Viddin,
+Shishtova, Rustchuk, and Silistria—are taking an increasing share
+in European commerce. This highway is continued along the shores of
+the Black Sea, where there are several commercial harbours, the most
+important being Burgas, a great grain port. This natural highway,
+however, has become too circuitous for purposes of commerce. A railway
+has therefore been built across the isthmus of the Dobruja, from
+Chernavoda to Kustenje, and a second line connects Rustchuk, on the
+Danube, with Varna, on the Black Sea, the latter line crossing the
+whole of Eastern Bulgaria, and touching the towns of Razgrad and
+Shumna. A third line, now in course of construction, will cross the
+Balkans by a depression to the south of Shumna, and traversing the
+plain in which the towns of Yamboly and Adrianople are built, will
+connect the Lower Danube with the Ægean Sea. A third route, still
+farther to the west, passes Turnov, or Tirnova—the ancient capital of
+the tsars of Bulgaria—Kezanlik, and Eski-Za’ara.
+
+These railways, already opened for traffic or approaching
+completion, certainly shorten the journey between Western Europe
+and Constantinople; but it is proposed now to avoid the circuitous
+navigation of the Lower Danube altogether, by joining the railway
+system of Europe to that of Turkey. One of these proposed railways will
+pass through Bosnia, and down the valley of the Vardar to Saloniki;
+another will follow the ancient Roman road, which connected Pannonia
+with Byzantium, and which was paved in the sixteenth century as far as
+Belgrad. The principal cities along this great highway are Nish, on a
+tributary of the Morava, close to the frontier of Servia; Sofia, the
+ancient Sardica, on the Isker, a tributary of the Danube; Bazarjik,
+or “the market;” and the fine town of Philippopoli, with its triple
+mountain commanding the passage of the Maritza. These towns, on the
+completion of the railway, cannot fail to become of great commercial
+importance. A hideous monument near Nish will, perhaps, be pointed out
+to tourists attracted thither on the opening of the railway. It was
+erected to remind future generations of a deed of “glory.” This trophy
+of Kele-kalesi consists of a tower built of the skulls of Servians,
+who, rather than fall alive into the hands of their enemies, blew
+themselves up together with the redoubt which they defended. A governor
+of Nish, more humane than his predecessors, desired to remove this
+abominable piece of masonry, which no raya passes without a shudder,
+but Mussulman fanaticism forbade it. {144}
+
+The influence of commerce cannot fail to modify largely the manners
+and customs of a nation as supple and pliable as are the Bulgarians.
+War has brutalised the Albanians, and slavery degraded the Bulgarians.
+In the towns, more particularly, they have sunk very low. The insults
+heaped upon them by Mussulmans, and the contemptuous manner in which
+they were treated, rendered them abject and despicable in their own
+eyes. Demoralised by servitude and misery, given up to the mercy of
+their rich compatriots, the _chorbajis_, or “givers of soup,” they
+became shameless and low-minded helots. The Bulgarian women, in the
+towns more particularly, presented a spectacle of the most shameful
+corruption, and their want of modesty, their coarseness, and ignorance
+fully justified the contempt in which they were held by their
+Mohammedan sisters. Even as regards education the Turks were in advance
+of them: not long ago their schools relatively were more numerous,
+and the instruction given in them was of a superior order. Christian
+villages, moreover, were never so clean or pleasant as those of the
+Turks.
+
+But, whatever may have been the case in the past, things have already
+begun to mend. The Turks, as a body, may still be the superiors of
+the Bulgarians, as regards probity and a respect for truth, but they
+work less, and become impoverished by degrees. In the country the land
+gradually passes into the hands of the rayas, in the towns the latter
+monopolize nearly all the trade. The Bulgarians, moreover, have learnt
+to appreciate the importance of education; they have founded schools
+and colleges, have set up printing presses, and send their young men to
+be educated at the universities of Europe. The young Bulgarians in the
+mixed colleges of Constantinople invariably make the most satisfactory
+progress in their studies. This revival of learning is a most hopeful
+sign of vitality. If persevered in, the Bulgarian race, which has been
+dead, as it were, for so many centuries, may again play its part in the
+world’s history. The atrocities of which Bulgaria has recently been
+the scene may retard this regeneration, but they certainly cannot stop
+it.[40] {145}
+
+
+VII.—PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF TURKEY.
+
+The prophecies respecting the “sick man” have not yet been fulfilled,
+and his heritage divided amongst the surrounding powers. To a great
+extent he is indebted for this continued existence to the jealousies
+of the European powers, and to the fact of Russia having her hands
+full in Central Asia. Still, Turkey has recently exhibited a wonderful
+amount of vitality. Fresh provinces have been incorporated with the
+empire in Arabia, at a distance of 1,800 miles from the capital; and a
+rebellion in the north-western portion of European Turkey, originating
+in the misgovernment of the country, but aided and abetted by Russia,
+has been suppressed with a strong hand. The Turkish empire remains not
+only intact, but will actually be found to have considerably increased
+in extent, if we include within it the territories of the Khedive of
+Egypt, whose arms have been carried to the Upper Nile and into Dar Fur.
+
+We must guard ourselves, at the same time, against the assumption that
+Turkey has entered upon a path of normal progress. On the contrary,
+Turkey is a mediæval country still, and will have to pass through many
+intestine revolutions before it can rank with the civilised states of
+Europe or America. The country is in the occupation of hostile races,
+who would fall upon each other were they not restrained by force.
+The Servian would take up arms against the Albanian, the Bulgarian
+against the Greek, and all the subject races would combine against
+the Turk. National jealousies are augmented by religious animosities.
+The Catholic Bosnians hate other Slavs, and the Tosks detest the
+Gheges, although they speak the same language. The Osmanli oppress
+these various populations without compunction, their art of government
+consisting in playing them off against each other.
+
+Nor can better things be expected in an empire in which caprice
+reigns supreme. The Padishah is lord of the souls and bodies of his
+subjects; he is commander-in-chief of the army, supreme judge, and
+sovereign pontiff. In former times his power was practically limited
+by semi-independent feudatories, but since the fall of Ali Pasha and
+the massacre of the janissaries he is restrained only by customs,
+traditions, and the demands of the Governments of Europe. He is the
+most despotic sovereign of Europe, and his civil list the heaviest in
+proportion to the revenues of the country. The household of the late
+Sultan and of the members of his family was exceedingly numerous. There
+lived in the Seraglio an army of 6,000 servants and slaves of both
+sexes, of whom 600 were cooks. These servants, in turn, were surrounded
+by an army of hangers-on, who were fed from the imperial kitchens, to
+which no less than 1,200 sheep were supplied daily by the contractors.
+
+Current expenses were sufficiently heavy, but more considerable
+still was the extraordinary expenditure incurred in the construction
+of palaces and kiosks, the purchase of articles _de luxe_ and of
+curiosities, and for all kinds of prodigalities. The present Sultan,
+driven thereto by the precarious position of his empire, has limited
+his expenditure. But will this last? {146}
+
+Ministers, valis, and other high officials of the empire faithfully
+follow in the footsteps of their sovereign, and their expenditure
+always exceeds their salary, though the latter is fixed on a most
+liberal scale. As to the lower officials, their salaries are small and
+irregularly paid; but it is understood that they may recoup themselves
+at the expense of the ratepayers. Everything can be purchased in
+Turkey, and, above all, justice. The state of the finances is most
+lamentable; loans are raised at usurious interest; and so badly is the
+country governed that it has been seriously proposed to intrust the
+management of its finances to a syndicate of the European powers ! [41]
+
+Agriculture and industry progress but slowly under such misgovernment.
+Vast tracts of the most fertile land are allowed to lie fallow; they
+appear to be no one’s property, and any one may settle upon and
+cultivate them. But woe to him if he conducts his operations with
+profit to himself; for no sooner is he observed to become wealthy
+than his land is laid claim to on behalf of the clergy or of some
+pasha, and he may consider himself lucky if he escapes a bastinado.
+The peasants, in many districts, are careful not to produce more than
+they absolutely require to live upon, for an abundant harvest would
+impoverish them—would merely lead to a permanent increase of taxation.
+The tradesmen in the smaller towns are equally careful to conceal their
+wealth, if they possess any.
+
+Many Mussulman families have ceded to the mosques their proprietary
+rights. They thus enjoy merely the usufruct of their lands, but are
+freed, on the other hand, from the payment of taxes, and the land
+remains in the possession of their families until they become extinct.
+These lands are known as _vakufs_, and they form about one-third of
+the area of the whole empire. They contribute actually nothing towards
+the revenues of the State. In the end they aggrandise the vast estates
+of the Mohammedan clergy. Taxation weighs almost exclusively upon the
+lands cultivated by the unfortunate Christians; and in proportion as
+the vakufs increase, so does the produce of taxation diminish. This
+must in the end necessarily lead to a secularisation of the estates of
+the clergy; and even now, to the great horror of the old Turks, the
+Ottoman Government is timidly extending its hands towards the estates
+belonging to the mosques of Constantinople.
+
+[Illustration: MUSSULMAN OF ADRIANOPLE, AND MUSSULMAN LADY OF PRISREND.]
+
+The Servian, Albanian, and Bulgarian peasants actually cultivate
+their land in spite of their masters. A single fact will show this.
+Certain collectors of tithes, in order to prevent fraud, insist upon
+the peasants leaving the whole of the harvest upon the fields until
+they have withdrawn their tenth part. Maize, rice, and corn are
+exposed there to the inclemencies of the weather and other destructive
+agencies; and it frequently happens that the harvest has deteriorated
+to the extent of one-half in value before the Government impost is
+levied. Sometimes the peasants allow their grapes or fruit to rot
+rather than pay the tithes. But it is not the tax-gatherer alone of
+whose conduct the peasant may complain; for he is exposed likewise to
+exactions by the middlemen with whom he comes into contact when selling
+his produce. “The Bulgarian works, but the Greek holds the plough.” So
+says an ancient proverb; and this is still true at least of the {147}
+countries to the south of the Balkan, where the Bulgarian peasant is
+not always the proprietor of the land he tills. But where he does not
+directly work for a Greek or Mussulman proprietor, his harvest, even
+before it is cut, is frequently the property of a usurer; but he works
+on from day to day, a wretched slave, in the vain hope of becoming one
+day a free man.
+
+The fertility of the soil on both slopes of the Balkans, in Macedonia,
+and in Thessaly is, however, such that in spite of mosques and
+tax-collectors, in spite of usurers and thieves, agriculture supplies
+commerce with a large quantity of produce. Maize, or “Turkish corn,”
+and all cereals are grown in abundance. The valleys of the Karasu and
+Vardar produce cotton, tobacco, and dye stuffs; the coast districts
+and islands yield wine and oil, whose quality would leave nought to be
+desired, were a little more care bestowed upon their cultivation; and
+forests of mulberry-trees are met with in certain parts of Thracia and
+Rumelia, and the export of cocoons to Italy and France is increasing
+from year to year. Turkey, with its fertile soil, is sure to take
+a prominent part amongst the European states for the variety and
+superiority of its products. As to its manufactures, they will no doubt
+be gradually displaced on the opening of new roads of commerce. The
+manufacturers of arms, stuffs, carpets, and jewellery in the cities
+of the interior will suffer considerably from foreign competition,
+and many amongst them will succumb to it, unless they pass into the
+hands of foreigners. The great fairs, too, which are now held annually
+at Slivno and other places, and at which merchants from the whole of
+the empire meet to transact business—as many as a hundred thousand
+strangers being attracted occasionally to a single spot—will gradually
+give place to a regular commercial intercourse.
+
+It is certain that the commerce of Turkey has increased of late years,
+thanks to the efforts of Greeks, Armenians, and Franks of all nations.
+The annual value of the exports and imports of the whole of the Ottoman
+empire in Europe and Asia is estimated at £40,000,000—a very small
+sum, if we bear in mind the resources of these countries, their many
+excellent harbours, and their favourable geographical position.
+
+The Turks themselves perform but a very small share of the work that is
+done in their empire. Various causes combine to render them less active
+than the other races. They are the governing class, and their ambition
+naturally aspires to the honours and the luxury of _kief_; that is
+to say, of sweet idleness. Despising everything not Mohammedan, and
+being, besides, heedless and of a sluggish mind, they but rarely learn
+foreign languages, and are thus in a certain measure at the mercy of
+the other races, most of whom speak two or more idioms. Moreover, the
+fatalism taught in the Koran has deprived the Turk of all enterprise,
+and once thrown out of his ordinary routine, he is helpless. Polygamy
+and slavery are likewise two causes of demoralisation. It is true that
+the rich alone can permit themselves the luxury of a harem, but the
+poor learn from their superiors to despise women, they become debased,
+and take a share in that traffic in human flesh which is a necessary
+sequence of polygamy. Yet, in spite of the innumerable slaves imported
+in the course of four centuries from all the regions bordering upon
+{148} the Turkish empire; in spite of the millions of Circassian,
+Greek, and other girls transplanted into the harems, the Osmanli
+are numerically inferior to the other races of the peninsula. This
+dominant race—if the term race be applicable to the product of so many
+crossings—hardly numbers ten per cent. of the population of European
+Turkey. And this numerical inferiority is on the increase, for, owing
+to polygamy, the number of children surviving in Mohammedan families is
+less than in Christian families. We are not in possession of precise
+figures, but there can be no doubt that the Turks are on the decrease.
+The conscription, to which they alone are subject, has contributed
+towards this result, and becomes more difficult from year to year.
+
+It has often been repeated since Chateaubriand that the Turks have
+but camped in Europe, and expect to return to the steppes whence they
+came. It would thus be a feeling of presentiment which induces the
+Turks of Stambul to seek burial in the cemetery of Scutari, hoping
+thus to save their bones from the profanation of the Giaour’s tread on
+his return, as master, to Constantinople. In many places the living
+follow the examples of the dead, and a feeble current of emigration
+sets from the Archipelago and the coast districts of Thracia in the
+direction of Asia, carrying along many an old Turk discontented with
+the stir of European life. This migration, however, is but of very
+small importance, and does not affect the Osmanli of the interior.
+Nothing is further from the minds of the Turks of Bulgaria, the Yuruks
+of Macedonia, or the Koniarides, who have inhabited the mountains of
+Rumelia since the eleventh century, than to quit the land which has
+become their second home. The Turkish element in the Balkan peninsula
+can be got rid of only by exterminating it; that is, by treating the
+Turks more ferociously than they treated the native populations at
+the time of the conquest. We ought not to forget, at the same time,
+that the Turks, though far inferior in numbers to the other races, are
+nevertheless able to reckon upon the support of millions of Mohammedan
+Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Circassians, and Nogai Tartars. The
+Mussulmans constitute more than a third of the population of European
+Turkey, and, in spite of differences of race, they hold firmly
+together. Nor must it be forgotten that they are backed up by a hundred
+and fifty millions of co-religionists in other parts of the world.[42]
+
+[Illustration: ETHNOGRAPHICAL MAP OF TURKEY in EUROPE
+
+By E.G. Ravenstein F.R.G.S.]
+
+{149}
+
+Let us hope that the future may not give birth to a struggle of
+extermination between the races of the peninsula, but rather to
+institutions enabling these diverse and partially hostile elements to
+develop themselves in peace and liberty. The Turks themselves begin
+to see the necessity of such institutions, and, in theory at least,
+have abandoned their policy of violence and oppression. All the
+nationalities of the empire, without reference to race or religion, are
+supposed to be equal before the law, and Christians are admitted to
+Government offices on the same terms as Mussulmans. No doubt these fine
+laws have for the most part hitherto remained a dead letter, but it
+would nevertheless be unjust if we denied that much progress towards an
+equalisation of the various races has been made.
+
+Fortunately the despotism of the Turks is not the despotism of
+learning, based upon a knowledge of human nature, and directed to its
+debasement. The Osmanli ignore the art of “oppressing wisely,” which
+the Dutch governors of the Sunda Islands were required to practise
+in former times, and which is not quite unknown in other countries.
+The pashas allow things to take their course as long as they are
+able to enrich themselves and their favourites, to sell justice and
+their favours at a fair price, and to bastinade now and then some
+unlucky wight. They do not inquire into the private concerns of their
+subjects, and do not call for confidential reports on families and
+individuals. Their Government, no doubt, is frequently violent and
+oppressive; but all this only touches externals. Such a government may
+not be favourable to the development of public spirit, but it does not
+interfere with individuals, and powerful national institutions, such
+as the Greek commune, the Mirdit tribe, and the Slav community, have
+been able to survive under it. Self-government is, in fact, more widely
+practised in Turkey than in the most advanced countries of Western
+Europe. It would have been difficult to force these various national
+elements under a uniform discipline, and the lazy Turkish functionaries
+generally leave things alone. The Frankish officials in the pay of
+the Turkish Government, in fact, more frequently interfere with the
+prejudices and privileges of the governed than do the Mussulman pashas
+of the old school.
+
+It cannot be doubted for a moment that, in a time not very far distant,
+the non-Mohammedan races of Turkey will take the lead in politics, as
+they do already in commerce, industry, and education. The Osmanli of
+the olden school, who still wear the green turban of their ancestors,
+look forward towards this inevitable result with despair. They struggle
+against every measure calculated to accelerate the emancipation of the
+despised raya, and European inventions, in their eyes, are working a
+great social transformation to their injury; and, indeed, it is the
+raya who profits most from roads, railways, harbours, agricultural and
+other machines. Bosnians, Bulgarians, and Servians have learnt to look
+upon each other as brothers; Albanians and Rumanians are drawn towards
+the Greeks; all alike feel themselves as Europeans; and thus the way is
+being paved for the Danubian Confederation of the future.
+
+The approaching completion of the railway from Vienna to Constantinople
+cannot fail to work a commercial revolution as far as the trade of
+a considerable portion of Eastern Europe is concerned. It will form
+a link in the direct line {150} between England and India, and to
+travellers and merchandise will afford the shortest route from the
+centre of Europe to the Bosporus. On its opening, Constantinople will
+be enabled to avail itself to the fullest extent of the highways of
+commerce which converge upon it. Still greater must be the political
+consequences of opening this line, for it will bring the populations of
+the Balkan peninsula into more direct and active contact with those of
+Austro-Hungary and the rest of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 41.—COMMERCIAL HIGHWAYS CONVERGING UPON
+CONSTANTINOPLE.
+
+Scale 1 : 17,100,000.]
+
+
+VIII.—GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
+
+The Turkish empire occupies a vast area, the greater portion of which
+is governed by vassals, almost independent of the Sultan at Stambul.
+The vast territories of Egypt and Tunis are in that position. The
+interior of Arabia is in possession of the Wahabites; the coast of
+Hadramaut is inhabited partly by tribes acknowledging the suzerainty
+of England; and even between Syria and the Euphrates there {151} are
+numerous districts only nominally under the government of Turkish
+pashas, but in reality in the possession of predatory Bedwins. The
+Ottoman empire, properly so called, includes the European provinces,
+Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, the basins of Tigris and Euphrates,
+Hejaz and Yemen in Arabia, and Tripoli, with Fezzan, in Africa. These
+territories, with their dependent islands, cover an area of no less
+than 210,156 square miles; but their population, being far less dense
+than that of Western Europe, hardly numbers 47,000,000 souls.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 42.—THE TURKISH EMPIRE.
+
+Scale 1 : 55,000,000.]
+
+The area of Turkey in Europe, exclusive of Rumania, Servia,
+and Montenegro, is about equal to that of the British Islands.
+Constantinople, with the surrounding country, forms a district under
+the immediate supervision of the Ministry of Police. The remainder
+of the country is divided into eight _vilayets_, or provinces; the
+vilayets are subdivided into _mutesarifliks_, or _sanjaks_; these
+latter into _kazas_, or cantons; and the kazas into _rahiés_, or
+parishes. Lemnos, Imbros, Samothrace, and Astypalæa, with Rhodes
+and the islands along the coast of Anatolia, form a {152} separate
+vilayet. These political divisions, however, are subject to frequent
+changes.[43]
+
+The Sultan, or _Padishah_, concentrates all powers within his person.
+He is _Emir el mumenin_, or head of the faithful, and his conduct is
+guided solely by the prescriptions of the Koran and the traditions of
+his ancestors. The two most influential persons in the empire, next
+to him, are the _Sheik-el-Islam_, or Great Mufti, who superintends
+public worship and the administration of justice, and the _Sadrazam_,
+or Grand Vizier, who is at the head of the general administration,
+and is assisted by a council of ten ministers, or _mushirs_. The
+_Kislar Agasi_, or chief of the black eunuchs, to whom is confided
+the management of the imperial harem, is likewise one of the great
+dignitaries of the empire, and frequently enjoys the very highest
+influence. The legal advisers of the various ministries are known as
+_mufti_. _Efendi_, _bey_, and _aga_ are honorary titles bestowed upon
+certain Government officials and persons of consideration. The title of
+_pasha_, which signifies “grand chief,” is given to certain high civil
+or military functionaries. This title is symbolized by one, two, or
+three horse-tails attached to the top of a lance, a usage recalling the
+time when the nomad Turks roamed over the steppes of Central Asia.
+
+The work of the various ministries is done by councils, and there thus
+exist a council of state, or _shuraï devlet_, councils of accounts, of
+war, of the navy, of public education, of police, &c. These various
+councils, in their totality, constitute the _divan_, or government
+chancery. There is also a supreme court of justice, with sections
+for civil and criminal cases. The members of these various official
+bodies are appointed by Government. Each of the subject “nations” is
+represented on the Council of State by two members, carefully selected
+by the _Sadrazam_.
+
+The vilayet is governed by a _vali_, the sanjak by a _mutesarif_, the
+kaza by a {153} _kaimakan_, the parish by a _mudir_. Each of these
+is supposed to act by advice of a council composed of the leading
+religious and civilian functionaries, Mohammedan and non-Mohammedan. In
+reality, however, the vali appoints all these councils, and they are
+popularly known as the “Councils of the Ayes.”
+
+The rules laid down by the supreme Government for its own guidance are
+embodied in the _hatti-sherif_ of Gulhane, promulgated in 1839, and
+in the _hatti-humayum_ of 1856. These hatts promise equal rights to
+all the inhabitants of the empire, but have been carried out hitherto
+only very partially. A “constitution” was promulgated in December,
+1876, on the assembling of the European Conference at Constantinople.
+It provides representative institutions, local self-government, and
+various improvements, but is likely to remain a dead letter.
+
+The religious and judicial organization of the country is jealously
+watched over by the Sheik-el-Islam and the priests, and cannot possibly
+be changed. The _imans_ are specially charged with the conduct of
+public worship. They include _sheiks_, or preachers; _khatibs_, who
+recite the official prayers; and the _imans_ properly so called, who
+celebrate marriages and conduct interments. Judges and imans form a
+body known as _ulemas_, at whose head is placed a _kazi-asker_, or
+chief judge, and who are divided hierarchically into _mollahs_, _kazis_
+(kadis), and _naibs_.
+
+The Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, as head of the Church in Turkey
+and civil director of the Greek communities, wields a considerable
+influence. He is elected by a synod of eighteen members, which
+administers the religious budget, and whose decisions in matters
+of faith are final. The heads of the Latin rite are a patriarch at
+Constantinople and the two Archbishops of Antivari and Durazzo. The two
+Armenian Churches have each a patriarch at Constantinople.
+
+
+TREATIES OF SAN STEFANO AND BERLIN.
+
+It will be noticed that the preceding description of Turkey in Europe,
+and the succeeding accounts of Rumania, Servia, and Montenegro, present
+the conditions existing immediately prior to the late war with Russia,
+in which the Turks were completely overpowered in a few months. The
+Congress of European powers sitting at Berlin in the summer of 1878, to
+consider the preliminary treaty of San Stefano (March 2) between Russia
+and Turkey, materially modified its provisions in the joint treaty
+signed July 13, disposing of European Turkey in the following manner:
+1. The tributary principality of Bulgaria is created (with less than
+half the dimensions assigned to it by the treaty of San Stefano), to be
+governed by a prince (who shall not be a member of any ruling dynasty)
+chosen by the people within nine months, and confirmed by the Porte
+and the other powers, and in the mean time by Russian commissioners
+assisted by delegated European consuls. 2. South of the Balkans is
+formed the autonomous province of Eastern Roumelia, under a Christian
+governor-general, appointed for five years by the Porte with the
+assent of the powers, which are to determine within three months the
+administrative requirements of the province. 3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
+to be occupied and {154} administered by Austria-Hungary, excepting
+Novi-Bazar and a small surrounding district. This provision, unlimited
+as to time, practically annexes those provinces to the Austro-Hungarian
+Empire, and has already (October, 1878) been executed, after serious
+armed resistance by their Moslem inhabitants. 4. Rumania, Servia, and
+Montenegro are made independent, with the enlarged boundaries shown by
+the annexed map. Rumania receives the Dobruja from Russia, to which it
+was ceded by the treaty of San Stefano, with the understanding that it
+was to be exchanged for the strip of Bessarabia transferred from Russia
+to Rumania by the treaty of Paris of 1856, which has accordingly been
+restored. The additions to Montenegro include the port of Antivari,
+which is closed to war-ships of all nations; and Montenegro is to have
+no national flag nor ships of war, its merchant flag to be protected
+by Austrian consuls. 5. Austrian Dalmatia receives from Albania the
+small port of Spitza. 6. The services of the powers are offered for the
+rectification of the northern frontier of Greece. 7. Entire religious
+liberty and political equality are provided for in all the territories
+affected by the treaty.
+
+[Illustration: MAP SHOWING CHANGES IN EUROPEAN TURKEY AND ARMENIA, AS
+PROPOSED BY THE TREATY OF SAN STEFANO, AND AS DETERMINED BY THE TREATY
+OF BERLIN.]
+
+{155}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+RUMANIA.[44]
+
+
+The Rumanians are certainly one of the most curious amongst European
+nations. The descendants of the conquerors of the ancient world, they
+live detached from, and far to the north-east of, the other nations
+of the Greco-Latin family, and not many years ago they were hardly
+known by name. The grave events of which the Lower Danube has been the
+scene since the middle of this century have brought these Rumanians
+prominently to the fore, and we know now that they differ essentially
+from their neighbours, be they Slav, Turk, or Magyar. They constitute,
+in fact, one of the most important elements amongst the populations of
+Eastern Europe, and numerically they are the strongest nation on the
+Lower Danube, the Bulgarians alone excepted.
+
+The ethnological boundaries of Rumania are far wider than are the
+political ones, for they embrace not only Wallachia and Moldavia
+beyond the Carpathians, but also Russian Bessarabia, a portion of the
+Bukovina, the greater portion of Transylvania, as well as extensive
+tracts in the Banat and Eastern Hungary. The Rumanians have likewise
+crossed the Danube, and established themselves in portions of Servia
+and Bulgaria; and the settlements of their kinsmen, the Zinzares,
+sporadically extend far south to the hills of Thessaly and Greece.
+Rumania proper has an area of only 46,709 square miles, but the
+countries of the Rumanians occupy at least twice that extent, and their
+numbers exceed 8,000,000, most of whom dwell in a compact mass on the
+Lower Danube and the adjoining portions of Hungary and Russia.[45]
+
+The Roman territories on the Lower Danube almost encircle the mountain
+{156} masses of the Eastern Carpathians, as will be seen by a glance
+at our map, but only about one-half of this territory has been formed
+into an autonomous state, the remainder belonging to Hungary and
+Russia. If the national ambition of the Rumanians were to be realised,
+the natural centre of their country would not lie within the actual
+limits of the territory, but at Hermannstadt (called Sibiu by the
+Wallachians), or elsewhere on the northern slope of the Carpathians.
+Thrust beyond the Carpathians, and extending from the Iron Gate to
+the upper affluents of the Pruth, the independent Rumanians occupy
+a country of most irregular shape, and separated into two distinct
+portions by the river Sereth and one of its tributaries, which join
+the most advanced spur of the Eastern Carpathians to the great bend of
+the Lower Danube. To the north of this boundary lies Moldavia, thus
+named after a tributary of the Sereth; to the south-west and west is
+Wallachia, or the “Plain of the Welsh,” _i.e._ of the Latins. This
+plain, the _tzara Rumaneasca_, or Roman-land proper, is intersected by
+numerous parallel water-courses, forming as many secondary boundaries,
+and the river Olto separates it into Great Wallachia to the east, and
+Little Wallachia to the west. The Danube forms the political boundary
+down to its mouth. It is a wide and sinuous river; below the Iron
+Gate, lakes, forests, and swamps render access to its banks almost
+impossible in many places; and migratory nations and conquerors,
+instead of crossing it, as they could easily have done in Austria and
+Bavaria, rather sought to avoid it by seeking for a passage through the
+mountains to the north. The abrupt bend of the Lower Danube and its
+extensive swampy delta still further shielded the plains of Wallachia,
+and invaders not provided with vessels were thus turned to the north,
+in the direction of the Carpathians. The lowlands of Moldavia were
+protected, though in a less degree, by the rivers Dnieper, Bug,
+Dniester, and Pruth running parallel with each other. {157}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 43.—THE RUMANIANS.]
+
+But, in spite of these natural bulwarks, it remains matter for
+surprise, and proves the singular tenacity of the Rumanians, that
+they preserved their traditions, their language, and nationality, in
+spite of the numerous onslaughts from invaders of every race to which
+they were exposed. Ever since the retreat of the Roman legions, the
+peaceable cultivators of these plains were preyed upon so frequently
+by Goths, Huns, and Pecheneges, by Slavs, Bulgars, and Turks, that
+their extinction as a race appeared to be inevitable. But they have
+emerged from every deluge which threatened to destroy them, thanks,
+no doubt, to the superior culture for which they were indebted to
+their ancestors, and again claim a place amongst independent nations.
+They have fully justified their old proverb, which says, _Romun no
+pere !_—“the Roman perishes not.”
+
+The Transylvanian Alps lie within the territory of the Rumanians,
+who occupy both slopes. Their upper valleys, however, are but
+thinly inhabited, and we may travel for days without meeting with
+any habitations excepting the rude huts of shepherds. The political
+boundary traced along the crest of the mountains is merely an imaginary
+line, passing through the forest solitudes of vast extent. Excepting
+near the only high-road, and the paths which join Transylvania to the
+plains of Wallachia, these mountains remain in a state of nature. The
+chamois is still hunted there, and not long since even bisons were met
+with. The Tsigani penetrates these mountains in search of the brown or
+black bears which he exhibits in the villages. He places a jar filled
+with brandy and honey near the beast’s haunt, and, as soon as the bear
+and his family have become helplessly intoxicated, they are seized and
+placed in chains.
+
+The physical configuration of Rumania is extremely simple. In Moldavia
+low ridges running parallel with the high mountain chain extend from
+the north-west to the south-east, being separated from each other by
+the valleys of the Bistritza, Moldava, and Sereth, and sinking down
+gradually into the plains of the Danube. In Wallachia the southern
+spurs of the Transylvanian Alps ramify with remarkable regularity, and
+the torrents which descend from them all run in the same direction.
+The rivers, whether they rise at the foot of the hills or traverse the
+entire width of the mountains, such as the Sil, Shil, or Jiul, the Olto
+or Aluta, and the Buseo, turn towards the east before their waters
+mingle with those of the Danube.
+
+The slope of the hills is pretty uniform from the crest of the
+mountains to the plain of the Danube, and the zones of temperature
+and vegetation succeed each other with singular regularity. Summits
+covered with forests of conifers and birch, and clad with snow during
+winter, rise near the frontiers of Transylvania. These are succeeded by
+mountains of inferior height, where beeches and chestnuts predominate,
+and all the picturesque beauties of European forest scenery are met
+with. Lower still we come upon gentle hills, with groves of oaks and
+maples, and their sunny sides covered with vines. Finally, we enter
+the wide plains of the Danube, with their fruit trees, poplars, and
+willows. The zone lying between the high mountains and the plain
+abounds in localities rendered delightful by picturesque rocks,
+luxuriant and varied verdure, and limpid streams. In this “happy
+{158} Arcadia” we meet with most of the large monasteries, magnificent
+castles with domes and towers, standing in the midst of parks and
+gardens. As to the plains, they are no doubt barren and monotonous
+in many places, but the villagers, though their habitations are half
+buried in the ground, enjoy the magnificent prospect of the blue
+mountains which bound the horizon. The most characteristic objects in
+these lowlands are the huge hay-ricks already figured upon Trajan’s
+column at Rome.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 44.—THE RIVERS SHIL AND OLTO.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,400,000.]
+
+{159}
+
+The Rumanian campagna is a second Lombardy, not because of the high
+state of its agriculture, but because of the fertility of its soil,
+the beauty of the sky, and of the distant views. Unfortunately there
+are no mountain barriers to protect it against the cold north-easterly
+winds which predominate throughout the year. Extremes of cold and heat
+have to be encountered.[46] The vines have to be covered with earth
+to protect them against the colds of winter; and in South-eastern
+Wallachia, which is most exposed to the violence of the winds, it
+happens sometimes that herds of cattle and horses, flying before a
+snow-storm, precipitate themselves into the floods of the Danube.
+Several districts suffer from want of rain, and are veritable steppes.
+Amongst these are the plains of the Baragan, between the Danube and
+Yalomitza, where bustards abound, and a tree is not met with for miles.
+
+Geologically we meet with a regular succession of formations, from the
+granite on the mountain summits to the alluvial deposits along the
+banks of the Danube. The rocks encountered on these southern slopes of
+the Carpathians are of the same kind as those found in Galicia on their
+northern slopes, and they yield the same mineral products, such as
+rock-salt, gypsum, lithographic stones, and petroleum. Tertiary strata
+predominate in the plains, but to the east of Ploiesti and Bucharest
+only quaternary deposits of clay and pebbles are met with, in which are
+found the bones of mammoths, elephants, and mastodons. The muddy rivers
+which traverse these plains have excavated themselves sinuous beds, and
+resemble large ditches.
+
+The plain of Rumania, like that of Lombardy, is an ancient gulf of
+the sea filled up by the débris washed down from the mountain sides.
+But though the sea has retired, the Danube remains, pouring out vast
+volumes of water, and offering great advantages to navigation. At the
+famous defile of the Iron Gate, where this river enters the plain,
+its bed has a depth of 155 feet, its surface lies 66 feet above the
+level of the Black Sea, and its volume exceeds that of the combined
+rivers of Western Europe, from the Rhone to the Rhine. The Romans, in
+spite of this, had thrown a bridge across the river, immediately below
+the Iron Gate, which was justly looked upon as one of the wonders of
+the world. This work of architecture, which Apollodorus of Damas had
+erected in honour of Trajan, was pulled down by order of the Emperor
+Hadrian, who was anxious to save the expenses of the garrison required
+for its protection. There only remain now the two abutments, and when
+the waters are low the foundations of sixteen out of the twenty piers
+which supported the bridge may still be seen. A Roman tower, which has
+given name to the little town of Turnu Severin, marks the spot where
+the Romans first placed their foot upon the soil of Dacia. The passage
+from Servia to Rumania is as important as it was of yore, but modern
+industry has not yet replaced Trajan’s bridge.
+
+The Danube, like most rivers of our northern hemisphere, presses upon
+its right bank, and this accounts for the difference between its
+Wallachian and Bulgarian banks. The latter, gnawed by the floods, rises
+steeply into little hills and {160} terraces, whilst the former rises
+gently, and merges almost imperceptibly in the plains of Wallachia.
+Swamps, lakes, creeks, and the remains of ancient river beds form a
+riverine network, enclosing numerous islands and sand-banks. These
+channels are subject to continual change, and to the south of the
+Yalomitza may still be seen a line of swamps and lagoons, which marks
+the course of an ancient river no longer existing. The lowlands on the
+Wallachian side of the Danube are constantly increasing in extent,
+whilst Bulgaria continuously suffers losses of territory. The latter,
+however, is amply compensated for this by the salubrity of its soil and
+the fine sites for commercial emporiums which it offers. It is said
+that the beaver, which has been exterminated almost in every other part
+of Europe, is still common in these half-drowned lands of Wallachia.
+
+At a distance of thirty-eight miles from the sea, in a straight line,
+the Danube strikes against the granitic heights of the Dobruja, and
+abruptly turns to the north, subsequently to spread out into a delta.
+In the course of this détour it receives its last tributaries of
+importance, viz. the Moldavian Sereth and the Pruth. Thirty miles below
+the mouth of the latter the Danube bifurcates. Its main branch, known
+as that of Kilia, conveys about two-thirds of the entire volume of
+its waters to the Black Sea, and forms the frontier between Rumania
+and Turkish Bulgaria. The southern branch, or that of Tulcha, flows
+entirely through Turkish territory. It separates into two branches, of
+which that of Sulina is the main artery of navigation.
+
+The main branch of the river is of the utmost importance when
+considering the changes wrought upon the surface of the earth through
+aqueous agencies. Below Ismail it ramifies into a multitude of
+channels, which change continuously, new channels being excavated,
+whilst others become choked with alluvial deposits carried down by
+the floods. Twice the waters of the river are reunited into a single
+channel before they finally spread out into a secondary delta jutting
+into the Black Sea. The exterior development of this new land amounts
+to about twelve miles, and supposing the sea to be of a uniform depth
+of thirty-three feet, it would advance annually at the rate of 660
+feet. Yet, in spite of this rapid increase, the coast, at the Kilia
+mouth, juts out far less to the east than it does in the southern
+portion of the delta, and we may conclude from this that the ancient
+gulf of the sea, now filled up by the alluvial deposits brought down
+by the Kilia branch, was far larger and deeper than those to the
+south.[47] On examining a map of the Danubian delta, it will be found
+that, by prolonging the coast-line of Bessarabia towards the south,
+it crosses the delta. This is the ancient coast. It rises above the
+half-drowned plains like an embankment, through which the branches of
+the river forced themselves a passage to the sea. The alluvium brought
+down by the Sulina and St. George’s mouths has been spread over a vast
+plain lying outside this embankment, whilst that carried down through
+what is at present the main branch forms only a small archipelago of
+ill-defined islands {161} beyond it. We may conclude from this that
+the latter is of more recent origin than the other arms.
+
+In the course of its gradual encroachment upon the sea, the river has
+cut off several lakes of considerable extent. On the coast between the
+mouth of the Dniester and the delta of the Danube there are several
+lagoons, or _limans_, of inconsiderable depth, the water of which
+evaporates during the heat of summer, depositing a thin crust of salt.
+In their general configuration, the nature of the surrounding land, and
+parallelism of the rivers which flow into them, these sheets of water
+are very much like the lakes met with more to the west, as far as the
+mouth of the Pruth. These latter, however, are filled with fresh water,
+and the sandy barriers at their lower ends separate them not from the
+Black Sea, but from the Danube. There can be no doubt that these lakes
+were anciently gulfs of the sea, similar in all respects to the lagoons
+still existing along the coast. The Danube, by converting its ancient
+gulf into a delta, separated them from the sea, and their saline water
+was replaced by fresh water carried down by the rivers. The existing
+saline lagoons will undergo the same metamorphosis, in proportion as
+the delta of the Danube gains upon the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 45.—THE DANUBE AND YALOMITZA.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,443,000.]
+
+The plains of Wallachia were defended formerly by an ancient line
+of fortifications passing to the north of these Danubian lakes and
+lagoons, and known as “Trajan’s Wall,” like the ditches, walls, and
+entrenched camps in the Southern Dobruja. The inhabitants ascribe
+their construction to Cæsar, although they are of {162} much later
+date, having been erected by Trajan as a protection against the
+Visigoths. This ancient barrier of defence coincided pretty nearly
+with the political boundary between Russian and Rumanian Bessarabia,
+and extended probably to the west of the Pruth, across the whole of
+Moldavia and Wallachia. Vestiges of it still met with there are known
+as the “Road of the Avares.” A second wall, still traceable between
+Leova and Bender, defended the approaches to the valley of the Danube.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In spite of the diverse races which have overrun, conquered, or
+devastated their territory, the inhabitants of Rumania, more fortunate
+than their neighbours, have preserved their unity of race and language.
+Wallachians and Moldavians form one people, and not only have they kept
+intact their national territory, but they have actually encroached
+upon the territories of their neighbours. Throughout Rumania, with the
+exception of that portion of Bessarabia ceded by the Western powers
+after the Crimean war, the inhabitants belonging to alien races are in
+the minority.
+
+The origin of this Latin-speaking nation is still shrouded in mystery.
+Are they the descendants of Getæ and Latinised Dacians, or does the
+blood of Italian colonists brought thither by Trajan, of legionaries
+and Roman soldiers, predominate amongst them? To what extent have they
+become amalgamated with their neighbours, the Slavs and Illyrians? What
+share had the Celts in the formation of their nationality? Are the
+“Little” Wallachians, the “men with the eighty teeth,”—so called on
+account of their bravery,—the descendants of Celts? We cannot say with
+certainty, for men of learning like Shafarik and Miklosich differ on
+all these points. The vast plains at present inhabited by the Rumanians
+became a wilderness in the third century, when the Emperor Aurelian
+compelled their inhabitants to migrate to the right bank of the Danube.
+If it is true that the descendants of these emigrants ever returned
+to the seats of their ancestors, in the meantime occupied by Slavs,
+Magyars, and Pecheneges, when did they do so? Miklosich presumes that
+they did so towards the close of the fifth century; Roesler thinks in
+the fourteenth, although ancient chroniclers of the eleventh century
+mention Rumanians as dwelling in the Carpathians. Other authorities
+deny that there was any re-immigration; they maintain that the
+residue of the Latinised population sufficed for reconstituting the
+nationality. Thus much is certain, that this small people has increased
+wonderfully, and has become now the preponderating race on the Lower
+Danube and in Transylvania.
+
+[Illustration: WALLACHIANS (VALAKHS).]
+
+Even in the seventeenth century the language spoken by the Rumanians
+was treated as a rural dialect, and Slavonian was used in churches
+and courts of justice. At the present day, on the contrary, Rumanian
+patriots are anxious to purge their language of all Servian words,
+and of Greek and Turkish expressions introduced during the dominion
+of the Osmanli. The “Romans” of the Danube are endeavouring to polish
+their tongue, so that it may rank with Italian and French. They have
+abandoned the Russian characters, and their vocabulary is being
+continually enriched by new words derived from the Latin. The idiom
+spoken in the towns, which was the most impure {163} formerly, in
+consequence of the influx of strangers, has now become more Latin than
+that spoken in the country. There are, however, about two hundred
+words not traceable to any known tongue, and these are supposed to
+be a remnant of the ancient Dacian spoken at the period of the Roman
+invasion. The Wallachian differs, moreover, from the Latin tongues of
+Western Europe by always placing the article and the demonstrative
+pronoun after the noun. The same rule obtains in Albanian and
+Bulgarian, and Miklosich is probably right when he looks upon this as a
+feature of the ancient language of the aborigines.
+
+These niceties, however, are altogether unnoticed by the mass of the
+people. The Rumanian peasant is proud of the ancient conquerors of his
+country, and looks upon himself as the descendant of the patricians of
+Rome. Several of his customs, at the birth of children, betrothals,
+or burials, recall those observed by the Romans, and the dance of the
+_Calushares_, it is said, may be traced back to the earliest Italian
+settlers. The Wallachian is fond of talking about Father Trajan,
+to whom he attributes all those feats which in other countries are
+associated with Hercules, Fingal, or Ossian. Many a mountain valley
+has been rent asunder by Trajan’s powerful hand; and the avalanches
+descending from the hills are spoken of as Trajan’s thunder. The
+Rumanian completely ignores Getæ, Dacians, or Goths, though in the
+hills we still meet with tall men having blue eyes and long flaxen
+hair, who are probably descended from the aboriginal inhabitants of the
+country.
+
+The Rumanians have generally fine sunburnt features, fair hair,
+expressive eyes, a mouth finely shaped, and beautiful teeth. They
+allow their hair to grow long, and sometimes even prefer to expatriate
+themselves to sacrificing it to the exigencies of military service.
+They exhibit grace in all their movements, are indefatigable on the
+march, and support the heaviest labour without complaining. Even the
+Wallachian herdsman, with his sheepskin cap, or _cashula_, his wide
+leather belt used as a pocket, a sheepskin thrown over his shoulders,
+and drawers which recall those of the Dacians sculptured on Trajan’s
+Column, is noble in his bearing. In the large towns, where much
+intermixture has taken place with Greeks, Southern Russians, and
+Magyars, the brown complexion predominates. The Rumanian women are
+grace itself. They always charm us by taste and neatness, whether
+they have adopted a modern dress or still patronise the national
+costume, consisting of an embroidered chemisette, a floating vest, a
+party-coloured apron, a golden net, and golden sequins placed in the
+hair. These external advantages are combined in the Rumanian with
+quickness of apprehension, a gay spirit, and the gift of repartee,
+which entitle them to be called the Parisians of the Orient.
+
+In the midst of this homogeneous Rumanian population we meet
+with Bulgarian colonists, whose number has increased recently in
+consequence of the persecutions of Turks and Greeks. The character
+of the Bulgarians born in the country has undergone considerable
+modifications. They are at present the most industrious tillers of
+the soil, and in the vicinity of large towns they occupy themselves
+principally with horticulture. Many of these Bulgarians live in that
+{164} portion of Bessarabia which was ceded by Russia in 1855. They
+settled there in 1829, more particularly in the _Budzak_, or southern
+“corner” of Bessarabia, and their fields are better tilled, their roads
+in better condition, than those of their Moldavian neighbours. Their
+villages still bear Tartar names, from the time when their country
+was occupied by Nogai Tartars, and they contrast favourably with the
+villages of the surrounding peoples. Bolgrad, the capital of this
+colony, is a small bustling town, the schools of which enjoy a high
+reputation. These Bulgarians, so distinguished for industry, sobriety,
+and thrift, have more or less amalgamated with Russians, Greeks, and
+gipsies, and they talk almost every language of the East.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 46.—ETHNOLOGICAL MAP OF MOLDAVIAN BESSARABIA.]
+
+The Russians of Moldavian Bessarabia have their settlements on the
+banks of the Danube, to the east of these Bulgarian colonies. They,
+too, are good agriculturists. The Russians met with in the towns
+are generally engaged in commerce, and enjoy a high reputation for
+honesty. Most of them belong to the old sect of the _Lipovani_, and
+fled from Russia about a century ago to escape religious persecution.
+They nearly all speak Rumanian. Vilkof, a village near the mouth of
+the Danube, is almost exclusively occupied by these Lipovani, who are
+expert fishermen, and share the produce of their labour in common.
+Others amongst the Russians belong to the sect of the _Skoptzi_, or
+“mutilated,” which is said to recruit itself by stealing children.
+These Skoptzi are recognised by their portliness and smooth faces, and
+at Bucharest they are reputed to be excellent coachmen.
+
+Magyar Szeklers from Transylvania, known in the country as _Changhei_,
+are the only other foreign element of the population occupying distinct
+settlements. These Changhei, who first came into the country when
+the Kings of Hungary were masters of the valley of the Sereth, are
+gradually becoming Rumanians {165} in dress and language, and would
+have become so long ago were they not Roman Catholics, whilst the
+people among whom they live are Greeks. They are joined annually by
+a few compatriots from Transylvania, attracted by the mild climate
+and the fertility of the soil. In spring and autumn large bands of
+Hungarian reapers and labourers descend into the plains of Moldavia.
+
+The Hellenic element was strongly represented last century, when
+the government of the country was farmed out by the Sultan to Greek
+merchants of Constantinople. At the present time the Greeks are not
+numerous—not exceeding, perhaps, 10,000 souls, even if we include
+amongst them Hellenized Zinzares—but they occupy influential positions
+as managers of estates or merchants, and the export of corn is almost
+exclusively in their hands. Traces of the ancient government of
+these Phanariotes still exist in the language of the country, and in
+the relationships resulting from intermarriages between seignorial
+families. Far more numerous than these Greeks, and of greater
+importance, are the members of those homeless nations—the Jews and
+Tsigani (or gipsies). A few Spanish Jews are met with in the large
+towns, but the majority are “German” Jews, who have come hither from
+Poland, Little Russia, Galicia, and Hungary. As publicans and middlemen
+they come into close contact with the poor people, and they are
+universally detested, not on account of their religion, but because of
+the wonderful skill with which they manage to secure the savings of the
+people. Imaginary crimes of all kinds are attributed to them, and they
+have repeatedly been exposed to maltreatment on the frivolous charge
+of having eaten little children at their Passover. The Rumanians,
+however, can hardly manage without these detested Jews, and their laws,
+by preventing the Jews from acquiring land, fortify their commercial
+monopoly. The Jews, if certain estimates may be credited, constitute
+one-fifth of the total population of Moldavia. The Armenians, the
+other great commercial people of the Orient, are represented by a few
+flourishing colonies, more especially in Moldavia. These Haikanes are
+the descendants of immigrants who settled in the country at various
+epochs between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. They live
+amongst themselves, and, though not exactly liked by the people, they
+have known how to avoid becoming objects of hatred. A few Armenians
+from Constantinople, and speaking Turkish, are met with on the Lower
+Danube.
+
+The Tsigani, or gipsies, so despised formerly, become merged by degrees
+in the rest of the population. Not long ago they were slaves, the
+property of the State, of boyards, or monasteries. They led a wandering
+life—working, trafficking, or stealing for the benefit of their
+masters. They were divided into castes, the principal of which were the
+_lingurari_, or spoon-makers; _ursari_, or bear-leaders; _ferrari_,
+or smiths; _aurari_, or collectors of gold dust; and _lautari_, or
+musicians. These latter were the most polished of all, and were
+employed to celebrate the glory and the virtues of the boyards. They
+are now the minstrels of the country and the musicians of the town.
+Very few in number are the _Netotzi_, a degraded caste who live in
+woods or tents, subsist upon the foulest food, and do not bury their
+dead. The Tsigani were assimilated in 1837 with the peasantry, and
+since {166} their emancipation nearly all of them lead a settled life,
+cultivating the soil with great care, or exercising some handicraft.
+The fusion between Tsigani and Rumanians is making rapid progress,
+for both races have the same religion and speak the same language.
+Intermarriages between the two are frequent, and in a time not far off
+the Tsigani of Rumania will be a thing of the past. They are supposed
+still to number between 100,000 and 300,000 souls.[48]
+
+The Rumanian nation is still in a state of transition from a feudal to
+a modern epoch. The revolution of 1848 shook the ancient system to its
+foundation, but did not destroy it. As recently as 1856 the peasants
+were attached to the soil. They had no rights, but were at the mercy of
+the boyards and monasteries whose soil they were doomed to till, and
+lived in miserable hovels. The whole of the country and its inhabitants
+belonged to five or six thousand boyards, who were either the
+descendants of the ancient “braves,” or had purchased their patents of
+nobility. Most of these boyards were only small proprietors, and nearly
+the whole of the land belonged to seventy feudatories in Wallachia, and
+three hundred in Moldavia.
+
+This state of affairs led to the most frightful demoralisation amongst
+masters and serfs, and even the good qualities of the Rumanian—his
+energy, his generosity, and friendliness—were turned into evil. The
+nobles lived far away from their estates, spending the income forwarded
+by their Greek bailiffs in debauchery and gambling. The peasants
+worked but little, for they had no share in the produce of the soil;
+they were mistrustful and full of deceit, as are all slaves; they were
+ignorant and superstitious, for they depended for their education upon
+illiterate and fanatical priests. Their _popes_ were magicians, and
+cured maladies by incantations and holy philtres. As to the monks, some
+of them were rich proprietors, as rapacious as the temporal lords;
+others lived on alms, having exchanged a life of slavery for mendicity.
+
+Not long ago the Rumanians, deprived of all education except that
+supplied by their _doinas_, or ancient songs, were lost almost in
+mediæval darkness. Even now some of the ancient customs of their
+ancestors survive in the rural districts. Funerals are attended by
+hired weeping women, whose shrieks accompany the farewell of relatives.
+Into the coffin they place a stick upon which to rest when crossing the
+Jordan, a piece of cloth to serve as a garment, and a coin as a bribe
+to St. Peter for opening the gate of heaven. Nor are wine and bread
+forgotten for the journey. Red-haired people are suspected of returning
+to earth in the guise of a dog, a frog, or a flea, and to penetrate
+into houses in order to suck the blood of good-looking young girls. In
+their case it is as well to close the coffin-lid tightly, or, still
+better, to pierce the throat of the defunct with a stick.
+
+The peasantry will doubtless no longer be haunted by these
+hallucinations, for the {167} moral and intellectual progress of the
+nation has kept pace with its material prosperity since the peasant
+has cultivated his own land. Officially made a freeman in 1856, but
+held for several years afterwards in a kind of limited bondage, the
+peasant now owns at least a portion of the land. By a law passed in
+1862, each head of a family is entitled to a plot of land from seven to
+sixty-seven acres in extent, and ever since that time the peasants have
+gained immensely in self-respect. His land, though still cultivated
+with the ancient Roman plough, and deprived of manure, produces immense
+quantities of cereals, the sale of which brings wealth into the country
+and encourages progress. Rumania is now one of the great corn-exporting
+countries of Europe, and in favourable years, when the crops are
+neither eaten up by locusts nor destroyed by frosts, its exports exceed
+those of Hungary. In less than ten years the export of wheat, maize,
+barley, and oats has doubled, and the sum annually realised varies
+between £4,000,000 and £8,000,000 sterling.
+
+Unfortunately the peasants eat but little of the corn they grow. They
+are content with the maize, from which they prepare their _mamaligo_
+and the detestable spirits which cheer their hearts on a hundred and
+ninety-four annual fête days. The cultivation of the vine, which was
+altogether neglected formerly, is likewise making progress, and the
+produce of the foot-hills of the Carpathians is justly esteemed.
+The time is past now when “Wallachian” and “herdsman” were synonyms
+throughout the East. Still, nearly one-fourth of the area of the
+country remains uncultivated, and the soil is allowed to lie fallow
+every third year. Moldavia is better cultivated, upon the whole, than
+Wallachia, and this is principally owing to the fact of the Moldavian
+boyards residing upon their estates, and taking a pride in their
+management. Progress, however, is apparent throughout the country, and
+there is hardly a large estate without its steam threshing-machine.
+Even the small proprietors are gradually introducing improved methods
+of cultivation, and in many villages they have formed co-operative
+associations for the cultivation of extensive tracts of country.[49]
+
+Rumania is essentially an agricultural country. The ores of the
+Carpathians are not utilised, for there are no roads which give access
+to them. The petroleum wells only supplied 3,810,000 gallons in 1873.
+Four of the principal salt-works are carried on by Government, partly
+with the aid of convict labour, and yield annually 80,000 tons of salt.
+The fisheries are of some importance. The inhabitants on the Lower
+Danube salt the fish which abound in the river and the neighbouring
+lakes, and prepare caviare from sturgeons. There are no manufactories
+excepting near the large towns, and the country is noted only for its
+carpets, embroidered cloth and leather, and pottery. The housewives are
+famed for their confectionery.
+
+Commerce is annually on the increase.[50] Its only outlet in former
+times was {168} the Danube. Nearly the whole produce of the country
+was carried to Galatz, at the bend of the river, upon which the
+principal routes of the country converge. For many years to come the
+Danube will remain the great commercial highway of the country; the
+Pruth, too, is navigable for small steamers as far as Sculeni, to
+the north of Yassy; whilst the numerous rivers descending from the
+Carpathians will always prove useful for the conveyance of timber. New
+outlets have been created by the construction of railways. Rumania
+is now joined to the railway systems of Austria and Hungary, and the
+proposed bridge across the Danube will place it in direct communication
+with Varna, on the Black Sea. The level nature of the country
+facilitates the construction of railways, but its inhabitants look upon
+their extension with a feeling of apprehension, for they fancy that a
+commercial invasion may bring in its train a military one.[51]
+
+The Rumanians complain much about the left bank of the Sulina branch
+of the Danube not having been ceded to them by the treaty of Paris. In
+former times the whole of the delta of the Danube belonged to Moldavia,
+as is proved by the ruins of a town built by the Rumanians on the
+southern bank of the river, opposite to Kilia. Up to the close of last
+century the jurisdiction of the Moldavian governor of Ismail extended
+to the port of Sulina, and he was charged with keeping the mouth of the
+river free from obstructions. The Western powers, in spite of this,
+allowed Turkey to occupy the whole of the delta, whilst they confined
+the Rumanians to the left bank of the Kilia branch. The country,
+consequently, has no direct access to the Black Sea, except by means
+of small vessels, for the mouth of the Kilia branch is obstructed by a
+bar. M. Desjardins and other engineers who have devoted some attention
+to the subject propose to construct a ship canal, about eight miles
+in length, which will connect the Danube with the Bay of Sibriani. In
+the meantime Rumania is at liberty to make use of the Sulina mouth,
+which is kept open at the expense of the Western powers, and a canal,
+therefore, hardly appears to be called for.
+
+Bucharest (or Bucuresci, pron. Bukureshti), the capital of Wallachia
+and of the whole of Rumania, already numbers amongst the great cities
+of Europe. Next to Constantinople and Buda-Pest, it is the most
+populous town of South-eastern Europe, and its inhabitants fondly
+speak of it as the “Paris of the Orient.” The town not very long
+since was hardly more than a collection of villages, very picturesque
+from a distance on account of numerous towers and glittering domes
+rising above the surrounding verdure, but very unpleasant within. But
+Bucharest has been transformed rapidly with the increasing wealth of
+its inhabitants. It may boast now of wide and clean streets, bounded
+by fine houses, of public squares full of animation, and of well-kept
+parks, and fully deserves now its sobriquet of the “joyful city.”
+
+Yassy (Jasi, or Yashi), which became the capital of Moldavia when
+Suchova was annexed by Austria, occupies a position far less central
+than does Bucharest, but the fertility of the surrounding country, the
+proximity of the navigable {169} Pruth and of Russia, with which it
+maintains a brisk commerce, and its position on the high-road joining
+the Baltic to the Black Sea, have caused it to increase rapidly
+in population. It is a flourishing town now, though no longer the
+seat of an independent government. Built upon the foot-hills of the
+Carpathians, the city presents itself magnificently from afar, and
+its exterior is not belied by its finer quarters. Jews, Armenians,
+Russians, Tsigani, Tartars, and Magyars are numerously represented
+amongst its population, which is semi-Oriental in type. We may almost
+fancy ourselves standing upon the threshold of Asia. The church of the
+Three Saints is distinguished for its originality, and is a masterpiece
+of ornamentation in the Moorish style.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 47.—VIEW OF BUCHAREST.]
+
+All the other towns of Rumania are indebted for their importance
+to their position on commercial high-roads. Botosani, in Northern
+Moldavia, lies on the road to Galicia and Poland, and the same may be
+said of Falticeni, whose international fairs are always well attended.
+Commerce causes the towns on the Danube to flourish. Vilkof is a
+great mart for fish and caviare; Kilia, the ancient Achillea, or city
+of Achilles; Ismail, where the Russian Lipovani are numerous; Reni;
+Galatz, said to be an ancient colony of the Galatians, now the {170}
+most important commercial emporium on the Lower Danube, and seat of
+the European commissioners for its regulation; Braila, a poor village
+as long as the Turks held it, but now important on account of its grain
+trade, and the literary centre of the Bulgarians. All these towns,
+though situated on the banks of the Danube, may be looked upon almost
+as ports of the Black Sea, through which the produce of the country,
+and especially its grain, finds an outlet to foreign markets. Giurgiu
+(Jurjevo) is the port of Bucharest on the Danube; Turnu-Severinu is the
+gateway of Wallachia, below the great narrows of the river; Craiova,
+Pitesci, Ploiesti, Buzeu, and Focsani form the terminal points of the
+roads descending from the high valleys of Transylvania. Alecsandria,
+a town recently built in the centre of the plain which extends from
+Bucharest to the Olto, has become a depôt for agricultural produce.
+
+Formerly, when incessant wars rendered a strong strategical position
+of greater importance than commercial advantages, the capital of the
+country was established in the very heart of the Carpathians. In
+the thirteenth century it was at Campu-Lungu, in the midst of the
+mountains, and subsequently it was transferred to Curtea d’Argesia,
+founded by Prince Negoze Bessaraba in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century. Of this ancient capital there remain now only a monastery and
+a wonderful church: the walls, cornices, and towers are covered with
+sculptures, like the work of a jeweller. Targu-Vestea, or Tirgovist,
+on the Yalomitza, was the third capital, but of the fine palace built
+there by the _domni_ there remain now only blackened walls.[52]
+
+Rumania includes the two ancient principalities of Wallachia and
+Moldavia, and forms a semi-independent state under the protection
+of the great powers, and paying an annual tribute of about £40,000
+to the Porte. The country has placed a member of the Hohenzollern
+family at the head of the State. The constitution of 1866 confers upon
+this prince the right of appointing all public functionaries and the
+officers of the army, of coining money, and of pardoning. All laws
+require his signature before they can be enforced. He enjoys a civil
+list of £48,000.
+
+The legislative powers are vested in two chambers, the members of which
+are elected by a process designed to favour the interests of the rich.
+All Rumanians above twenty-one years of age, except servants in receipt
+of wages, are inscribed in the electoral lists. They are divided into
+four “colleges,” or classes, having widely different privileges.
+The first college includes all those electors of a district whose
+income from landed property amounts to £132 a year; electors having
+an income of between £44 and £132 form a second college; merchants
+and {171} tradesmen of the towns paying a tax of 23_s._ annually,
+Government pensioners, half-pay officers, professors and graduates
+of universities, form the third college; and the remainder of the
+electors belong to the fourth college. The first two colleges elect a
+deputy each for their district; the third college elects from one to
+six deputies for each town, according to its size; the fourth college
+elects delegates by whom the representatives are chosen.
+
+The Senate represents more especially the large landed proprietors.
+Senators must have an income of £352, and are elected by the landed
+proprietors whose income amounts to at least £132 a year. The
+universities of Bucharest and Yassy are represented by a senator each,
+elected by the professors, and the crown prince, the metropolitan, and
+the diocesan bishops are _ex-officio_ members of the Senate. Senators
+are elected for eight, and deputies for four years.
+
+The Rumanian constitution grants all those rights and privileges
+usually set forth in documents of that kind. The right of meeting is
+guaranteed; there is liberty of the press; the municipal officers and
+mayors are elected, but the Prince may intervene in the case of towns
+inhabited by more than a thousand families; the punishment of death is
+abolished, except in time of war; and education is free and compulsory
+“wherever there are schools.” There is liberty of religion, though
+there is a State Church, and Christians alone can be naturalised. No
+marriage is legal unless it has been consecrated by a priest. The
+Rumanian Church, as far as dogmas are concerned, is that of the Greeks,
+but it is altogether independent of the Greek patriarch residing
+at Constantinople, and is governed by its own Synod. Most of the
+monasteries have been secularised.
+
+The country is divided into four judicial districts, each having a
+court of appeal, whilst a supreme court sits at Bucharest. The French
+codes, slightly modified, were introduced in 1865.
+
+The army is partly modelled upon that of Prussia. All citizens are
+called upon to serve sixteen years, eight of which are passed in the
+standing army or its reserve, and eight in the militia. The National
+Guard includes all men up to fifty not belonging to either of the other
+categories. By calling out all its men, Rumania can easily send an army
+of 100,000 men into the field. There are likewise a few gunboats on the
+Danube.
+
+The finances of Rumania are in a more satisfactory condition than those
+of most other states of Europe. The Government has certainly been
+living upon loans, for which eight per cent. has to be paid, and nearly
+the whole of the annual income is spent upon the payment of interest,
+the army, and the revenue services. The credit of Rumania is, however,
+good, for the loans are secured upon vast domains, the property of the
+secularised monasteries, several thousand acres of which are sold every
+year. The sale of salt and the manufacture of tobacco are Government
+monopolies.[53]
+
+Rumania is divided for administrative purposes into 33 departments and
+164 districts, or _plasi_. There are 62 towns and 3,020 rural communes.
+
+{172}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO.[54]
+
+
+SERVIA.
+
+Servia, like Rumania, was until recently a semi-independent state,
+paying a tribute of £25,000 a year to the Porte, and submitting to
+the presence of a Turkish garrison at Mali-Zvornik, on the Bosnian
+frontier. But even these vestiges of ancient oppression irritated the
+national pride to an inconceivable degree, and the moment when a blow
+might be struck on behalf of Servia and the neighbouring countries
+inhabited by Slavs still groaning under the Turkish yoke was looked
+forward to with impatience. The blow has been struck, and were it not
+for the support extended to it by the great powers, Servia would ere
+this have ceased to exist as a semi-independent state.
+
+Servia, within its actual limits, includes only a small portion of the
+northern slope of the mountains rising in the centre of the Balkan
+peninsula. It is separated from Austro-Hungary by the Save and the
+Danube, but no natural boundary divides it from Turkey; and the valleys
+of the Morava, the Drina, and the Timok, the former in the centre, the
+others on the eastern and western frontiers of the country, afford
+easy access to a foreign invader. The difficulties to be surmounted by
+the latter would begin only after he had entered the vast forests, the
+narrow valleys, and unfathomable _klisuras_ amongst the mountains.
+
+The only plains of any extent are on the banks of the Save. Everywhere
+else the country is hilly, rocky, or mountainous. The most prominent
+mountain range is that which extends from the “Iron Gate” and the
+defile of Kasan, on the Danube, through Eastern Servia, and forms a
+marked continuation of the Transylvanian Alps, with which it agrees
+in geological structure. In the northern portion of these Servian
+Carpathians, in the angle formed by the confluence of the Danube and
+Morava, where masses of porphyry have burst through limestones and
+schists, we find ourselves in the great mineral region of Servia.
+Copper, {173} iron, and lead ores are being worked here, especially
+at Maidanpek and Kuchaina, but the old zinc and silver mines have
+been abandoned. The valley of the Timok, in the southern portion of
+this mountain range, is likewise rich in minerals, and gold dust is
+collected from the sand of the river. There are few valleys which
+can rival that of the Timok in beauty and fertility, and the basin
+of Knyashevatz, where the head-streams of the river unite, is more
+especially distinguished by its rural beauty, sparkling rivulets
+flowing through the meadows, vines covering the hills, and forests the
+surrounding mountains. A narrow defile immediately below this basin
+leads into the valley of Zaichar, near which, at Gamzigrad, there still
+exist ruins of a Roman fortress, its walls and towers of porphyry in a
+capital state of preservation. Looking northward from this position we
+perceive the Stol (3,638 feet), whilst in the south-west there rises a
+huge pyramid of chalk, which might almost be mistaken for the work of
+human hands. This is the Rtan (4,943 feet), at whose foot burst forth
+the hot springs of Banya, the most frequented and efficacious of all
+Servia.
+
+The valleys of the Morava and of its main tributary, the Bulgarian
+Morava, divide Servia into two parts of unequal extent. The valley of
+the Morava forms a natural highway between the Danube and the interior
+of Turkey, passing through the frontier town of Alexinatz. A Roman road
+formerly led along it. Krushevatz, the ancient capital of the Servian
+empire, occupies the centre of a plain in the valley of the Servian
+Morava, not far above the defile of Stalaj, where the two Moravas
+unite at the foot of a promontory crowned with ruins. The remains of
+the palace of the Servian tsar are still shown there, and it is stated
+that Krushevatz, at the height of Servian power, had a circumference of
+three leagues. It is only a poor village now.
+
+The wildest mountain masses of Servia rise between the two Moravas,
+their culminating point being the Kopaonik (6,710 feet), which attains
+a greater height than any other summit between the Save and the
+Balkans. A wide prospect of incomparable beauty opens from its base and
+rocky summit, extending southwards over plains and mountains to the
+pinnacles of the Skhar and the pyramidal Dormitor. In itself, however,
+the Kopaonik is quite devoid of beauty, and where its slopes have been
+deprived of the forests which once covered them, the bare rocks of
+serpentine present a picture of utter desolation. Its valleys are far
+from fertile, their inhabitants are sulky and poor, and many amongst
+them suffer from goître.
+
+The mountains which extend to the north of the Kopaonik, along both
+banks of the Ibar, are for the most part still clothed with oaks,
+beeches, and conifers. The broad valley of the Servian Morava,
+rivalling in fertility the plains of Lombardy, penetrates into these
+mountain masses. But they rise again to the north of that river,
+attaining a height of 3,622 feet in the mountain mass of Rudnik.
+Cretaceous rocks predominate, frequently surmounted by granitic peaks.
+The valleys are narrow and tortuous. This is the famous Sumadia, or
+“forest region” of Servia, which during the rule of the Turks offered
+a safe asylum to the persecuted rayas, and in the war of independence
+became the {174} citadel of Servian liberty. The little town of
+Kraguyevatz, in one of its narrow valleys, was chosen to be the seat of
+government, and it still retains a gun foundry, supplied with coal from
+the basin of Chupriya. A secluded capital like this may have suited
+a people constantly engaged in war, but when Servia entered upon a
+career of progress the seat of government was removed to Belgrad. This
+city—the Beográd, or “white town,” of the Servians, the _Singidunum_
+of the Romans, and the _Alba Græca_ of the Middle Ages—is delightfully
+situated upon a hill near the confluence of the Danube and Save, and
+overlooks the swampy plains of Syrmia. Belgrad, from its favourable
+geographical situation, has become a place of much trade, and is
+likewise an important strategical position.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 48.—CONFLUENCE OF THE DANUBE AND SAVE.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,420,000.]
+
+To the west of Belgrad we merely meet with hills, and with the fertile
+plains watered by the Kolubara. It is only towards the south-west,
+on nearing the Drina, that we again find ourselves in the midst of
+calcareous mountains, attaining a height of 3,630 feet, and connected
+with spurs of the Kopaonik in the south. This is one of the most
+picturesque portions of the country. Ruins of houses and fortresses
+abound, amongst which those of Ushitza are the most extensive. These
+fortresses have, however, failed to protect the country, and no portion
+of Servia has more frequently been laid waste by ruthless invaders.
+
+[Illustration: BELGRADE.]
+
+In former times Servia could boast of some of the most extensive
+oak forest in Europe. “To kill a tree is to kill a Servian,” says
+an ancient proverb, dating probably from the time when the forests
+afforded shelter to the oppressed rayas. This proverb, unfortunately,
+is no longer acted upon. In many parts of the country the forests have
+disappeared, and the naked rock obtrudes itself as in {175} Dalmatia
+and Carniola. A peasant in need of a branch cuts down an entire tree,
+and the herdsmen are not content to feed their bivouac fires with
+dry sticks, but must needs have an oak. The greatest enemies of the
+forests, next to herdsmen, are goats and hogs, the former browsing upon
+small trees and leaves, the latter laying bare the roots. An old tree,
+thrown down by a tempest or sacrificed to the woodman’s axe, is not
+replaced. Laws for the protection of the forests have certainly been
+passed, but they are not enforced, and the wood required for fuel has
+to be imported, in many instances, from Bosnia. The destruction of the
+forests has naturally been attended by a deterioration of the climate.
+Mr. Edward Brown, who travelled in Servia in the seventeenth century,
+tells us that the Morava was then navigable for the greater part of its
+course; but at the present time, owing to its irregularities, it is no
+longer available as a navigable channel.
+
+Servia, by despoiling the mountains of great forests, has got rid of
+the wild animals which formerly infested them. Wolves, bears, wild
+boars, previously so numerous, have almost disappeared, and those still
+met with occasionally are supposed to come from the forests of Syrmia,
+crossing the frozen Save in winter. The fauna and flora of Servia are
+gradually losing their original features. The introduction of the
+domesticated animals and cultivated plants from Austria has given to
+Servia a South German aspect. Nor does the climate much differ from
+some parts of Southern Germany. Servia, though under the same latitude
+as Tuscany, rejoices by no means in an Italian climate. The Dalmatian
+or Bosnian mountain ramparts shut out the vivifying south-westerly
+winds, whilst the dry and cold winds from the steppes of Russia have
+free access over the plains of Wallachia. Strangers do not readily
+acclimatise themselves, owing to abrupt changes of temperature.[55]
+
+Servia includes within its limits but a small proportion of all the
+Servians of Eastern Europe, but its inhabitants are probably not far
+wrong when they look upon themselves as the purest representatives of
+their race. They are, as a rule, tall, vigorous, with broad shoulders
+and an erect head. Their features are marked, the nose straight and
+often aquiline, and the cheek-bones a trifle prominent; the hair
+is abundant and rarely black, the eyes are piercing and cold, and
+a well-cultivated moustache imparts a military air to the men. The
+women, without being good-looking, have a noble presence, and their
+semi-oriental costume is distinguished by an admirable harmony of
+colours. Even in the towns, where French fashions carry the day,
+Servian ladies occasionally wear the national dress, consisting of a
+red vest, a belt and chemisette embroidered with pearls, strings of
+sequins, and a little fez stuck jauntily upon the head.
+
+Unfortunately the custom of the country requires that a Servian woman
+should have an abundance of black hair and a dazzling white complexion.
+Paint, dyes, and false tresses are universal in town and country.
+Even in the most remote villages the peasant women dye their hair
+and paint their cheeks, lips, {176} and eyebrows, frequently making
+use of poisonous substances injurious to health. Rich country-people
+are, moreover, in the habit of making an exhibition of their wealth
+by means of their clothes, which they overload with gold and silver
+ornaments and gewgaws of every kind. In some districts brides and
+young women wear a most extraordinary head-dress, consisting of an
+enormous crescent of cardboard, to which are attached nosegays, leaves,
+peacock feathers, and artificial roses with silver petals. This heavy
+head-dress may symbolize the “burdens of matrimony;” it certainly
+exposes the wearer to great inconvenience.
+
+The Servians are honourably distinguished amongst the people of the
+East by the nobility of their character, their dignified bearing, and,
+in spite of recent events, incontestable bravery. For centuries they
+resisted oppression, and, notwithstanding their isolation and poverty,
+they conquered their independence in the beginning of this century.
+They are said to be idle and suspicious—qualities which their former
+servitude accounts for—but at the same time honest and truthful. It is
+difficult to cheat them, but they themselves never cheat. Equals when
+under the dominion of the Turks, they are equals still. “There are no
+nobles amongst us,” they say, “for we are all nobles.” In their clear
+and sonorous language, so well suited to oratory, they fraternally
+address each other in the second person singular. Even prisoners are
+looked upon as brothers, and it is customary to permit a condemned
+criminal to visit his family on his giving his word of honour to return
+to prison.
+
+The ties of family and friendship are a great power in Servia. It
+frequently happens that young men who have learnt to like each other
+take an oath of fraternal friendship, in the manner of the brothers
+in arms of Scythia, and this fraternity of heart is more sacred to
+them than that of blood. It is a remarkable fact, and one which speaks
+favourably for the high moral tone of the Servians, that their deep
+family affections and friendships do not lead to incessant acts of
+retaliation and vengeance, as amongst their neighbours the Albanians.
+The Servian is brave; he is always armed, but he is also peaceable,
+and does not demand blood for blood. Still, like other men, he is not
+perfect. As an agriculturist he follows the more obsolete routine. He
+is ignorant and superstitious. The peasants firmly believe in vampires,
+sorcerers, and magicians, and, in order to guard against their evil
+influences, they rub themselves with garlic on Christmas-eve.
+
+Land is held by families in common, as amongst the other Slavs of the
+South. The ancient _zadruga_, such as it existed in the Middle Ages, is
+still preserved, and has never been interfered with by Roman or German
+laws, as in Dalmatia or Slavonia. On the contrary, the law of Servia
+protects this ancient form of tenure, and, in cases of a disputed
+will, relatives by adoption take precedence of those by blood. Servian
+patriots are desirous to see these ancient customs respected, and
+the members of the _Skupshtina_, or parliament, have never attacked
+this common proprietorship in the soil, for they look upon it as one
+of the surest safeguards against pauperism. Servia offers the best
+opportunity for studying agricultural {177} communities of this kind.
+Nowhere else are the features of family life equally delightful. The
+heavy day’s work is followed by an evening devoted to pleasure. The
+children gather round their parents to listen to the warlike legends of
+old, or the young men sing, accompanying themselves upon the _guzla_.
+All those belonging to the association are looked upon as members of
+the family. The _staryeshina_, or head of the community, has charge
+of the education of the children, whom he is required to bring up as
+“good and honest citizens, useful to their fatherland.” Yet, in spite
+of all these advantages, the _zadrugas_ decrease from year to year.
+The demands of commerce and industry interfere with their accustomed
+routine, and they will hardly survive much longer in their present form.
+
+A great portion of Eastern Servia has been occupied by Wallachians, who
+were invited to the country after the war of independence, when vast
+districts had been depopulated. These new settlers, being more prolific
+than their neighbours, gradually gain upon the Servians, and already
+some of their colonies are met with on the western bank of the Morava.
+Many Servian villages have become Wallachian as far as language can
+make them so. It is a strange fact that these Rumanian colonists should
+prosper in Servia, whilst Servian colonists from Hungary and Slavonia
+do not.
+
+Zinzares, or Southern Wallachians, are met with in most towns, where
+they work as masons, carpenters, and bricklayers.
+
+Bulgarians have settled in the valleys of the Timok and Morava, in the
+south-east. They are highly esteemed for their industry, and quickly
+assimilate with the Servians. Near Alexinatz there is a small colony
+of Albanians, whilst Tsigani, or gipsies, are met with in all parts of
+the country. They profess to be Christians, and one of their principal
+occupations is the manufacture of bricks. The Spanish Jews, so numerous
+formerly at Belgrad, have most of them retired to Semlin, their places
+being filled by German and Hungarian Jews.[56]
+
+Taken as a whole, Servia was a prosperous country before the recent
+war. The population has increased rapidly since the declaration of
+independence, but is not nearly as dense yet as in the neighbouring
+plains of Hungary or Wallachia. Scarcely one-eighth of the area is
+under cultivation, and agricultural operations are for the most
+part carried on in the rudest manner. Excepting in the most fertile
+valleys, such as that of the Lower Timok, the fields are allowed to lie
+fallow every second year. The exports of Servia clearly exhibit the
+rudimentary condition of its agriculture, for they consist principally
+of lean pigs, which find their way in thousands to the markets of
+Germany, and of cattle. The peasant of Servia derives most of his
+revenue from the sale of these animals. Within the last few years he
+has also exported some wheat to the markets of Western Europe. If it
+were not for the Bulgarian labourers who annually flock to the country
+in search of field-work, Servia would not produce sufficient corn for
+its own consumption.[57] {178}
+
+Industry throughout the country is still in its infancy. The Servian
+despises all manual labour excepting agriculture, and it is for this
+reason he looks down upon the German mechanics in the towns. Young
+men of the least education aspire to government employment, and the
+bureaucratic plague, which has wrought such injury in the neighbouring
+Austro-Hungarian empire, is thus being developed. There are, however,
+others who have studied at foreign universities, and who devote their
+energies to the spread of education at home. The progress made in
+this respect within the last few years has been enormous. In 1839 the
+sovereign of the country could neither read nor write, whilst, at
+the present time, Servia, with its numerous schools and colleges, is
+becoming the intellectual centre of the Balkan peninsula.[58]
+
+The Servians have used their best efforts to remove from their country
+everything reminding them of the ancient dominion of the Mussulman,
+and they have nearly accomplished this. The Belgrad of the Turks has
+been converted by them into a Western city, like Vienna or Buda-Pest;
+palaces in European style have arisen in the place of mosques and
+minarets; magnificent boulevards intersect the old quarters of the
+town; and the esplanade, where the Turks exposed the heads of their
+victims stuck on poles, has been converted into a park. Shabatz, on
+the Save, has become a “little Paris;” Semendria (Smederevo), on the
+Danube, which gave the signal of rebellion in 1806, has arisen like a
+phœnix from its ashes; whilst Posharevatz, known as Passarovitz in the
+history of treaties, has likewise been transformed. Progress is slower
+in the interior, but good roads now extend to the most remote corners
+of the country.
+
+Servia is an hereditary constitutional monarchy. The Prince, or
+_Kniaz_, governs with the aid of responsible ministers and of a senate;
+he promulgates the laws, appoints all public functionaries, commands
+the army, and signs the treaties. He rejoices in a civil list of
+£20,000. His successor, in the case of there being no male heir, is
+to be elected by universal suffrage. The _Skupshtina_, or national
+parliament, traces back its origin to the earliest times of a Servian
+monarchy. It numbers 134 members, of whom one-fourth are nominated
+by the Prince, and the remainder elected by all male taxpayers. This
+parliament exercises legislative functions conjointly with the Prince.
+In addition to it there exist rural parliaments in each of the 1,063
+_obshtinas_, or parishes, and these enjoy extended rights of local
+self-government. The constitution provides for the election of a
+_Skupshtina_ of 536 members by universal suffrage, should extraordinary
+events make such a meeting desirable. The affairs of the country have
+hitherto been managed satisfactorily. A revenue of £554,000 sufficed
+for the requirements of the State, and up to the outbreak of the war
+there existed no public debt.
+
+Religious liberty exists, but the Greek Church is declared to be
+that of the State. It has been independent of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople since 1376, and {179} is governed by a synod consisting
+of the Archbishop of Belgrad and the Bishops of Ushitza, Negotin, and
+Shabatz. The former is appointed by the Prince. The high dignitaries
+of the Church are in receipt of salaries, but ordinary priests are
+dependent upon fees and gifts. The monasteries have been suppressed by
+a recent decision of the _Skupshtina_, and their revenues are to be
+devoted to educational purposes.
+
+The military forces of the country consist of a standing army of about
+4,000 men, and of a militia including all men capable of bearing arms
+up to fifty years of age. The first ban of this militia is called out
+annually for training, the second ban only in case of war. Servia
+is thus able to place an army of 150,000 men in the field, but the
+efficiency of these badly trained troops leaves much to be desired, as
+has been shown by recent events.
+
+The country is divided into seventeen _okrushias_, or districts, viz.
+Alexinatz, Belgrad, Chachak, Chupriya, Knyashevatz, Kraguyevatz, Kraina
+(capital, Negotin), Krushevatz, Podrinye (Loznitza), Posharevatz,
+Rudnik (Milanovitz), Shabatz, Smederevo, Tserna-Reka (Zaichar),
+Ushitza, Valyevo, and Yagodina. The only towns of importance are
+Belgrad (27,000 inhabitants), Posharevatz (7,000 inhabitants), Shabatz
+(6,700 inhabitants), and Kraguyevatz (6,000 inhabitants).
+
+
+MONTENEGRO.
+
+The name Montenegro is a translation of the Servian Tsrnagora, or
+“black mountains.” It is a curious designation for a country of
+white or greyish calcareous mountains, whose colour even strikes the
+voyager on the Adriatic. The name, according to some, is to be taken
+figuratively, and is to be understood as designating a country of “bad”
+or “black” men; others are of opinion that it refers to ancient pine
+forests which have now disappeared.
+
+The Turks have never succeeded in subjugating the Montenegrins,
+who found safety in their mountain fastnesses. Occasionally the
+Montenegrins placed themselves under the protection of a foreign
+power, such as that of Venice, but they never acknowledged the Sultan
+as their sovereign. The mountains, however, to which they owe their
+independence, are at the same time their weakness, for they isolate
+them from the rest of the world. A high range of mountains, as well
+as a strip of Turkish territory, separates them from their Servian
+kinsmen; another range, held by the Austrians, cuts them off from
+the Gulf of Cattaro and the Adriatic Sea. The small Lake of Scutari
+(Skodra) is their sea; the Zeta and Moracha, which feed it, are their
+national rivers. If the Montenegrins were permitted to descend into the
+plains without sacrificing their independence, the arid plateaux now
+inhabited by them would soon be deserted by all but shepherds.
+
+The eastern portion of Montenegro, which is known as the Berda, and
+drained by the Moracha and its tributaries, is comparatively of easy
+access. The mighty dolomitic pyramids of the Dormitor (8,550 feet)
+command its valleys in the {180} north, whilst the rounded heights
+of Kom (9,000 feet) bound it on the east. The Berda differs in no
+respect from most other mountain countries. It is only in the western
+portion of the country, in Montenegro proper, that we meet with
+features altogether distinct. We there find ourselves in a labyrinth
+of cavities, valleys, and depressions, separated by craggy calcareous
+ridges, abounding in narrow fissures, the hiding-places of adders.
+Only the mountaineers are able to find their way in this inextricable
+labyrinth. “When God created the world,” they tell you laughing, “he
+held in his hand a sack full of mountains. Right above Montenegro the
+sack burst, and hence the fearful chaos of rocks which you see before
+you.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 49.—MONTENEGRO AND THE LAKE OF SKODRA.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,590,000.]
+
+Seen from an immense height, Montenegro resembles a vast honeycomb with
+thousands of cells, and this appearance is due to aqueous agencies.
+The water at one spot has scooped out wide valleys, whilst elsewhere
+its long-continued action has merely succeeded in producing narrow
+_rudinas_, or sink-holes. After heavy rains the waters accumulate
+into lakes, covering fields and pastures, but ordinarily they run off
+rapidly through sink-holes concealed by brambles, only to reappear
+again near the seashore as abundant springs of bluish water. The
+Zeta, the principal river of Montenegro, is fed by rivulets which are
+swallowed up in the valley of {181} Niksich to the north, and find
+their way to it through subterranean channels. Similar phenomena have
+already been noticed in connection with Bosnia (p. 127). The capital
+of Montenegro, Tsetinye (Cetinje), lies in the very midst of the
+mountains, in the centre of an ancient lake basin. Formerly it was
+accessible only by a most difficult mountain path, for the Montenegrins
+took care not to construct roads, which would open their country to
+the guns of their enemies. The requirements of commerce, however, have
+recently induced them to connect it with Cattaro by means of a carriage
+road.
+
+The Montenegrins are the kinsmen of the Servians of the Danube, but
+their life of almost incessant warfare, the elevation and sterility of
+their country, as well as the vicinity of the Albanians, have developed
+special features amongst them. The quiet life of the plains is unknown
+to the Montenegrin; he is violent, and ready at all times to take up
+arms; in his belt he carries a whole arsenal of pistols and knives, and
+even when working in the fields he has a carbine by his side. Until
+recently the price of blood was still enacted, and a scratch even had
+to be paid for. This blood vengeance was transmitted from generation to
+generation, until the number of victims was equal on both sides, or a
+monetary compensation, usually fixed at ten sequins, had been accepted.
+Cases of hereditary vengeance are rare now, but the ancient “custom”
+could be suppressed only by a law of terrible severity, which punishes
+murderers, traitors, rebels, thieves twice convicted, incendiaries, and
+scoffers at religion alike with death. Compared with the Servian of the
+Danube, the Montenegrin is a barbarian. Nor is his personal appearance
+equally prepossessing. The women, however, have regular features,
+and, though less dignified in their carriage than their kinswomen of
+Servia, they possess, as a rule, more grace and elasticity of movement.
+They are very prolific, and if a family increases too rapidly it is
+customary for a friend to adopt one or more of the children.
+
+Up to the invasion of the Osmanli the upper valleys of Montenegro
+were the home merely of herdsmen and brigands. But the inhabitants
+of the lower valleys were forced to retire to these austere heights
+in order to escape slavery. They cultivated the soil, bred cattle
+and sheep, and sometimes robbed their neighbours. But the sterile
+soil yielded only a scanty harvest, and famines were by no means
+unfrequent. Bosnian Uskoches, who fled to the mountains in order to
+escape Mussulman oppression, only added to the misery by reducing to
+a minimum the share of cultivable soil which fell to the lot of each
+family. The pastures are still held in common, in accordance with
+the ancient customs of the Servians. According to a recent census,
+Montenegro is said to have a population of nearly 200,000 souls. This
+may be an exaggeration, but the country is not even able to support
+120,000 inhabitants without drawing supplies from beyond, and the armed
+incursions into neighbouring districts might thus be excused as an
+“economical necessity.” Death from hunger or on the field of battle was
+often the only alternative. The Montenegrin always prefers the latter,
+for he does not fear death, and “May you never die in bed !” is a wish
+universally expressed at the cradle of a new-born infant. If a man
+is unfortunate enough to die of disease, {182} or from old age, his
+friends excuse him euphemistically by charging the “Old Murderer” with
+his death.
+
+The warlike incursions of former days have ceased now, for the
+boundaries of Montenegro have been defined by an international
+commission, and the mountaineers have established friendly relations
+with their neighbours, from whom they are able now to purchase what
+they require. In summer they permit the inhabitants of the coast to
+take their cattle into the hills, whilst in winter they themselves
+descend to the seaboard, where they are sure now of a friendly
+reception.
+
+The Montenegrins have always been anxious to possess a port on the
+Adriatic, which would enable them to import freely, and without the
+intervention of the merchants of Cattaro, the powder, salt, and other
+articles they require, and to export their own produce. Their commerce,
+even now, is of some importance. They export smoked mutton, sheep and
+goats, skins, tallow, salt fish, cheese, honey, sumach, insect powder,
+&c., of an estimated value of £40,000 annually.
+
+The Montenegrins, like their neighbours the Albanians, frequently leave
+their country for a time in order to seek work in the great cities of
+the East. Thousands of them are to be met in Constantinople, where they
+manage to live on friendly terms with the Turks, their “hereditary
+enemies.” They are even to be found in Egypt.
+
+The Tsigani are the only strangers met with in the country. They
+resemble the Servians in language, dress, religion, and customs, and
+only differ from them by working at a useful trade, that of smiths.
+Their industry, however, causes them to be objects of disdain, and they
+are not permitted to intermarry with Servians.
+
+The government of Montenegro is a curious mixture of democratic,
+feudal, and despotic institutions. The citizens fancy that they are
+equals, but they are not, for certain families exercise a powerful
+influence. The sovereign, who appropriates about half the revenue
+of the country, and receives 8,000 ducats annually from Russia in
+addition, appoints the members of the Senate, or _Sovyet_. The
+_Skupshtina_ includes the _glavars_, or chiefs, of the thirty-nine
+tribes (_plemena_), but has hitherto limited itself to applauding the
+“speech from the throne.” There is a body-guard of a hundred men, and
+the whole of the male population is bound to take the field under the
+leadership of Serdars. The country is divided into eight _nahiés_,
+or districts, of which four (Bielopavlichka, Uskochka, Morachka, and
+Vasoyevichka, with the country of the Kuchi), constitute the Berda,
+and four (Katunska, Liesanska, Riechka, and Tsermnichka) belong to
+Montenegro proper. Each of these districts is placed under a _kniaz_.
+The families and associations of families (_brastvos_) are governed
+by _hospodars_ and _starshinas_, dependent upon the tribal chiefs, or
+_glavars_.
+
+[Illustration: ITALY]
+
+{183}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ITALY.[59]
+
+
+I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.
+
+The limits of the Italian peninsula have been most distinctly traced by
+nature. The Alps, which bound it in the north, from the promontories of
+Liguria to the mountainous peninsula of Istria, present themselves like
+a huge wall, the only breaches in which are formed by passes situated
+high up in the zones of pines, pastures, or eternal snows. Italy, like
+its two sister peninsulas of Southern Europe, thus constitutes a world
+of its own, destined by nature to become the theatre of a special
+evolution of humanity. Its delightful climate, beauteous skies, and
+fertile fields distinguish it in a marked manner from the countries
+lying beyond the Alps; and an inhabitant of the latter who descends the
+sunny southern slope of this dividing range cannot fail to perceive
+that everything around him has changed, and that he has entered a “new
+world.”
+
+The protecting barrier of the Alps and the sea which bounds it have
+imparted to Italy a distinct individuality. All its countries, from
+the plains of Lombardy to the shores of Sicily, resemble each other in
+certain respects. There is a sort of family likeness about them; but
+still what delightful contrasts, what {184} picturesque variety, do we
+not meet with ! Most of these contrasts are due to the Apennines, which
+branch off from the southern extremity of the French Alps. At first
+they run close to the seashore, like a huge wall supported at intervals
+by powerful buttresses; subsequently they traverse the whole of the
+peninsula. At times they are reduced to a narrow ridge, at others they
+spread out into vast masses, rising in plateaux or ramifying into
+chains and promontories. River valleys and plains intersect them in
+all directions; lakes and filled-up lake basins are spread out at the
+foot of their cliffs; and numerous volcanoes, rising above the general
+level, contrast, by their regular form, with the rugged declivities of
+the Apennines. The sea, following these sinuosities in the relief of
+the ground, forms a series of bays, arranged with a certain degree of
+symmetry. In the north these bays do not much encroach upon the land,
+but in the south they penetrate deeply, and almost form veritable
+gulfs. There once existed an Italy of granitic rocks, but it exists no
+longer, for the rocks of the Apennines and of the plains teach us that
+the Italy of the present is of recent origin, and that the many islands
+of which it consisted formerly were united into a single peninsula as
+recently as the Eocene epoch.
+
+Italy, compared with Greece, exhibits much sobriety in its
+configuration. Its mountains are arranged in more regular ridges, its
+coasts are less indented, its small archipelagos bear no comparison
+with the Cyclades, and its three great dependent islands, Sicily,
+Sardinia, and Corsica, are regular in their contours. Indeed, its
+contours mark its intermediate position between joyous Greece and
+severe Iberia. Thus there exists a correspondence between geographical
+position and contours.
+
+Italy, as a whole, contrasts in a remarkable manner with the Balkan
+peninsula. The former faces the Ægean, and looks towards the east,
+whilst in the truly peninsular portion of Italy, to the south of
+the plains of Lombardy, the westerly slopes offer most life. Secure
+harbours are most numerous on the shores of the Tyrrhenian, and the
+largest and most fertile plains slope down towards that sea. It results
+from this that the western slopes of the Apennines have given birth to
+the most enterprising and intelligent populations, who have taken the
+lead in the political history of their country. The west represents the
+light, whilst the east, bounded as it is by the Adriatic, an inland
+sea almost, a simple gulf, represents the night. True, the plains of
+Apulia, though on the east, are wealthier and more populous than the
+mountain regions of Calabria, but the vicinity of Sicily, nevertheless,
+even there insures the preponderance of the western littoral. Whilst
+Greece was in the height of her glory, whilst every initiative went
+forth from Athens, the cities of Asia Minor, and the islands of the
+Ægean, those republics which looked towards the east, such as Tarentum,
+Locri, Sybaris, Syracuse, and Catania, enjoyed a pre-eminence over the
+cities on the western littoral. The physical configuration of Italy
+thus facilitated the march of civilisation from the south-east to the
+north-west, from Ionia to Gaul. The Gulf of Taranto and the eastern
+coasts of Greater Greece and Sicily were freely exposed to Hellenic
+influences, whilst further north the peninsula faces about to {185}
+the west as it were. There can be no doubt that these features greatly
+facilitated the expansion of ideas in the direction of Western Europe,
+and that if it had been otherwise civilisation would have taken another
+direction.
+
+For nearly two thousand years, from the fall of Carthage to the
+discovery of America, Italy remained the centre of the civilised world.
+It maintained its hegemony either by conquest and organization, as in
+the case of the “Eternal City,” or by the power of its genius, the
+relative liberty of its institutions, its sciences, arts, and commerce,
+as in the times of Florence, Genoa, and Venice. Two of the greatest
+events in history, the political unification of the Mediterranean world
+under the laws of Rome, and at a later epoch the regeneration of the
+human mind, so appropriately termed “Renaissance,” originated in Italy.
+It behoves us, therefore, to inquire into the geographical conditions
+which may account for this preponderance during these two ages in the
+life of mankind.
+
+Mommsen and others have pointed out the favourable position of Rome as
+an emporium. From the very first that city became the commercial centre
+of the neighbouring populations. Built in the centre of a circus of
+hills, and on the banks of a navigable river, not far from the sea, it
+likewise possessed the advantage of lying on the frontiers of three
+nations—Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans. When Rome had conquered the
+neighbouring territories it undoubtedly rose into importance as a place
+of commerce. This local traffic, however, would never have converted
+Rome into a great city. Its position is not to be compared with that
+of places like Alexandria, Constantinople, or Bombay, upon which the
+world’s commerce converges as a matter of course. On the contrary,
+its situation hardly favours commerce. The Apennines, which environ
+the territory of Rome in a huge semicircle, constituted a formidable
+obstacle until quite recently, and were avoided by merchants; the sea
+near Rome is treacherous, and even the small galleys of the ancients
+could not enter the inefficient harbour at Ostia without risk.
+
+The power of Rome, therefore, depended but in a small measure upon
+commercial advantages resulting from geographical position. It is
+its central position to which that city is mainly indebted for its
+greatness, and which enabled it to weld the whole of the ancient world
+into a political whole. Three concentric circles drawn around the city
+correspond with as many phases in its development. During their first
+struggles for existence the Romans enjoyed the advantage of occupying
+a basin of limited extent, shielded on all sides by mountains. When
+Rome had exterminated the inhabitants of these mountains the remainder
+of Italy naturally gravitated towards her. The plains of Cis-and
+Transpadana in the north presented no obstacles, whilst the resistance
+of the uncivilised tribes of the mountain regions of the south was soon
+broken, for they found no support amongst the Greek colonies scattered
+along an extensive coast. Nor were the populations of Sicily, Sardinia,
+and Corsica sufficiently united to offer an effective resistance to
+the organized forces of the Romans, who were thus able to extend their
+power over all the countries comprehended within the second concentric
+circle referred to. {186}
+
+It happened that the plains of Northern Italy and Sicily were both rich
+granaries, which enabled the Romans to push forward their conquests.
+The whole world of the Mediterranean gravitated towards Rome and Italy:
+Illyria, Greece, and Egypt in the east, Libya and Mauritania in the
+south, Iberia in the west, Gaul in the north-west, and the transalpine
+countries in the north.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 50.—ROME AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE.]
+
+Rome maintained her power and influence as long as the Mediterranean
+constituted the world; but, in proportion as the borders of the
+known world were enlarged, so did Rome lose the advantages which
+a central position had conferred upon her. Even during the latter
+days of the Roman empire Milan and Ravenna usurped the position once
+held by Rome, and the latter became the capital of the Ostrogothic
+kingdom, and subsequently the seat of the Byzantine exarchs. Rome,
+the city of the Cæsars, had fallen for evermore ! True, the emperors
+were succeeded by the popes, but the real masters of the “Holy Roman
+Empire” resided beyond the Alps, and only came to Italy to have their
+power consecrated. Even in Italy itself Rome ceased to be the leading
+town, its place being taken by Pavia, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Venice,
+Bologna, and even Turin.
+
+The unity of Italy has been realised in the course of this century,
+and, excepting a few Alpine valleys, its political boundaries coincide
+with its natural ones. It may surprise us that this unity should not
+have been established long ago, but the geographical configuration of
+Italy readily lends itself to the {187} establishment of small states.
+Its islands, its mountain-bound plains, and coast districts, shut off
+from the interior of the country by abrupt mountains, formed as many
+centres where populations of diverse origin were able to lead a life
+independently of their neighbours. Now and then the whole of Italy
+acknowledged a single master, but it only did so on compulsion. That
+spirit of nationality which has given birth to a united Italy only
+animated very few citizens of the mediæval republics. They might unite
+to resist a common danger, but no sooner was it past than they went
+their separate ways, or, still worse, fought amongst themselves about
+some trifle.
+
+Cola di Rienzi, the tribune of Rome, appealed to the cities of Italy
+in the middle of the fourteenth century; he adjured them to “throw
+off the yoke of the tyrant, and to form a holy national brotherhood,
+whose object should be the liberation of Rome and the whole of Italy.”
+His messengers, carrying a silver wand, went to every city with
+greetings of amity, and asked that deputies should be sent to the
+future parliament of the Eternal City. Rienzi, full of the memories
+of the past, declared that Rome had not ceased to be the “mistress of
+the world,” and had a natural right to govern all nations. It was his
+aim to resuscitate the past, not to evoke a new life, and his work
+disappeared like a dream. Florence and Venice, the most active cities
+of that period, looked upon him as a visionary. “Siamo Veneziani, poi
+Cristiani,” said the proud citizens of Venice in the fifteenth century.
+They, whose sons fought so valiantly for Italian independence, never
+thought of calling themselves Italians. At the same time we must bear
+in mind that the impulse which has made Italy one did not originate
+with the masses, for there are still millions of Sicilians, Sardinians,
+Calabrians, and even Lombards who do not appreciate the vast changes
+which have taken place.
+
+If Italy no longer remains a “geographical expression,” it is owing in
+a large measure to frequent foreign invasions. Spaniards, French, and
+Germans in turn have seized the fertile plains of Italy, and their hard
+oppression has taught the Italians to look upon each other as brothers.
+The Alps might be supposed to offer an effective protection against
+such invasions, but they do not. They are steepest on the Italian side,
+whilst their exterior slopes, towards France, Switzerland, and German
+Austria, are comparatively gentle. Invaders, tempted by the delightful
+climate and the wealth of Italy, were able to reach easily the Alpine
+passes, whence they rushed down upon the plains; and thus the “barrier
+of the Alps” is a barrier only to the Italians, and has always been
+respected by them, excepting during the Roman empire. Nor is there any
+reason why they should cross it, for there is no country beyond equal
+to their own. French, Swiss, and Germans, on the other hand, have
+always looked upon Italy as a sort of paradise. It was the country of
+their dreams; they yielded frequently to their desire to possess it,
+and dyed its coveted plains with blood.
+
+Italy, exposed as it is to attacks from beyond, and no longer situated
+in the centre of the known world, has definitively lost its _primato_,
+or foremost place amongst nations, which some of its sons, carried away
+by an exclusive patriotism, {188} would restore to it. But though no
+longer the most powerful nation, and eclipsed in industry, commerce,
+and even literature and science, it still remains unrivalled in its
+treasures of art. There is no other country in the world which can
+boast of an equal number of cities remarkable on account of their
+buildings, statues, paintings, and decorations of every kind. There are
+provinces where every village, every group of houses even, delights the
+eye either by a fresco painting or a work of the sculptor’s chisel, a
+bold staircase or picturesque balcony. The instinct for art has passed
+into the blood of the people, and we need not wonder if an Italian
+peasant builds his house and plants his trees so as to bring them into
+harmony with the surrounding landscape. This constitutes the greatest
+charm of Italy; everywhere art goes hand in hand with nature. How many
+artists are there not in Lombardy, Venetia, or Tuscany who would have
+become famous in any other country, but whose names will never be
+remembered, in consequence of their overwhelming numbers, or because
+their lot was cast in some remote village !
+
+Italy owes the rank it has held for more than two thousand years not
+merely to its monuments and works of art, which attract students from
+the extremities of the earth, but also to its historical associations.
+In a country which has been inhabited for centuries by a civilised
+people there cannot be a town the origin of which is not lost in the
+darkness of tradition. The modern cities have replaced the Roman towns,
+and these latter rose upon the ruins of some Greek, Etruscan, or Gallic
+settlement. Every fortress, every country house, marks the site of
+some ancient citadel, or of the villa of a Roman patrician; churches
+have replaced the ancient temples, and though the religious rites
+have changed, the altars of gods and saints arise anew in the spots
+consecrated of old. An examination of these relics of all ages is full
+of interest, and only the most obtuse can resist the influence of the
+historical reminiscences which surround him.
+
+Italy, after a long period of decay and foreign domination, has again
+taken its place amongst the foremost modern nations. The aspect of
+the peninsula has undergone many changes since it received the name
+of Vitalia, or Italia, from the herds of cattle which roamed over
+it. Its well-cultivated plains, carefully tended gardens, and busy
+cities entitle it now to some other appellation. The passes of the
+Alps and its central position give Italy the command of all the routes
+which converge from France, Germany, and Austria upon the Gulfs of
+Genoa and Venice. Its quarries, sulphur and iron mines, its wines and
+agricultural produce of every description, and its industry afford
+ever-growing resources. Its men of learning and inventors may fairly
+claim to be on a level with those of other countries. The population
+increases rapidly. It is not only more dense than in France, but also
+sends a considerable contingent of emigrants to the solitudes of
+Southern America.[60] {189}
+
+
+II.—THE BASIN OF THE PO.
+
+PIEMONT,[61] LOMBARDY, VENETIA, AND EMILIA.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 51.—MONTE VISO AS IT APPEARS FROM CHIAFFREDO.]
+
+The valley of the Po is frequently spoken of as Upper Italy, because
+it occupies the northern portion of the peninsula, but might more
+appropriately be termed the Italian Netherlands, for its elevation is
+less than that of any other group of provinces. It is a river valley
+now, but during the Pliocene epoch it still formed a gulf of the sea.
+This gulf was gradually filled up by the alluvium brought down by the
+rivers, and upheaved by subterranean forces above the surface of the
+waters, the erosive action of the mountain torrents continuing all the
+while; and thus, in the course of ages, the basin of the Po assumed
+its gentle and regular slope towards the sea. As long as the waters of
+the Adriatic penetrated the valleys between Monte Rosa and Monte Viso,
+Italy was attached to the Alps {190} of continental Europe only by a
+narrow neck of land formed by the Ligurian Apennines.
+
+No other region of Europe can rival the valley of the Po as regards
+the magnificence of its distant prospects. The Apennines in the south
+raise their heads above the region of forests, their rocks, woods,
+and pasturages contrasting with the uniform plain spread out along
+their foot; whilst the snow-clad Alps rise in all their sublimity from
+the Col di Tenda in the west to the passes of Istria in the east.
+The isolated pyramid of Monte Viso (thus called from the beautiful
+prospect which may be obtained from its summit) looks down upon the
+fields of Saluzzo, and the small lakes in its pasturing region feed a
+roaring rivulet which subsequently assumes the name of Po. Enormous
+buttresses to the north-west of Turin support the ice-clad Grand
+Paradis, near which peeps out the Grivola, perhaps the most charming,
+the most gracefully chiselled of all Alpine peaks. Right in the bend
+of the Alpine chain rises the dome of Mont Blanc, like an island above
+a sea of mountains. Monte Rosa, crowned with a seven-pointed diadem,
+pushes its spurs far into Italy. Then come the Splügen, the Ortler, the
+Adamello, the Marmolade, and many another summit distinguished for some
+special beauty. When from the top of the dome of Milan we behold spread
+out around us this magnificent amphitheatre of mountains rising above
+the verdant plain, we may well rejoice that we should have lived to
+contemplate so grand a scene.
+
+Geographically the Alps belong to the countries which surround Italy.
+From the south we seize at a glance the entire slope of the mountains,
+from the vineyards and plantations of mulberry-trees to the forests of
+beech and larch, the pastures, the naked rocks, and the dazzling fields
+of ice. But the cultivator only ventured into this difficult region
+when forced by poverty. The features of the northern slope are quite
+different. There the land rises gradually, and the valleys are less
+fertile, but the inhabitants can easily reach the heads of the passes,
+whence they look down upon the inviting plains of Italy. It is this
+structure of the Alps which explains the preponderance of the Germanic
+and Gallic elements throughout their extent, and whilst Italian is
+spoken only in a few isolated localities beyond this mountain barrier,
+the French and German elements are largely represented on their inner
+slopes.
+
+Italy can only claim a few Alpine mountain masses within the basin
+of the Po, the Adige, and the rivers of Venetia. The most important
+of these, alike on account of its height, its glaciers, and springs,
+is the Grand Paradis, which rears its head to the south of the Dora
+Baltea, between the masses of Mont Blanc and the plains of Piemont.
+An Englishman, Mr. Mathews, may claim to be the first discoverer of
+this mountain giant, which even on the Sardinian staff map, published
+only recently, is confounded with Mont Iseran, a far less noble summit
+twenty-five miles to the west of it.
+
+None of the other Alpine summits on Italian territory can compare in
+height with the Grand Paradis, for though the Italian language extends
+in numerous instances to the central chain of the Alps, the political
+boundaries of Italy do not. {191} Switzerland holds possession of
+the valley of the Upper Ticino, whilst Austria still possesses the
+Upper Adige. The only rivers rising on the southern slope of the Alps,
+and belonging in their entirety, or nearly so, to Italy, are the
+Tagliamento and the Piave. In consequence of this violation of the
+natural frontiers there are many snow-clad Alpine summits which, though
+geographically belonging to Italy, are situated on the frontiers of the
+present kingdom, or even within Swiss or Austrian territory. Amongst
+these are the giant summits of the Ortler, the Marmolade, and the
+precipitous Cimon della Pala. The Monte della Disgrazia, however, to
+the south of the Bernina, is an Italian mountain; such is also, for the
+greater part, the mountain mass of the Camonica, bounded on the north
+by the Pass of Tonale, which plays so prominent a part in legendary
+history, and is commanded by the Adamo, or Adamello, whose glacier
+streams creep down to the Upper Adige. Farther to the east, in the
+valley of the Piave, the obelisk surmounting the huge pyramid of the
+Antelao pierces the line of perennial snow, and there are other peaks
+scarcely inferior to it in height.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 52.—GRAND PARADIS.
+
+From the Map of the French Alpine Club. Scale 1 : 228,000.]
+
+Most of the Alpine groups lying within Italy and between the main
+chain and {192} the plains do not exceed the Apennines in height,
+and only a few amongst them are covered with perennial snow. But the
+prospects which may be enjoyed from them are all the more charming for
+this reason, for we find ourselves between two zones, with cultivated
+valleys, towns, and villages at our feet, and a panorama of bare
+and snowy summits bounding the view to the north. Several of these
+mountains deservedly attract large numbers of tourists. Favourites
+amongst them are the hills rising above the blue lakes of Lombardy,
+such as the Motterone on Lago Maggiore, the pyramidal Generoso rising
+in the midst of verdant fields on the Lake of Lugano, the superb hills
+between the two arms of the Lake of Como and the fertile plains of the
+Brianza, and Monte Baldo, advancing its buttresses like lions’ claws
+into the waters of the Lake of Garda. The mountains of the Val Tellina,
+or the Orobia range, to the south of the valley of the Upper Adda,
+being remote from towns and customary highways, are less frequently
+visited than they deserve. Standing at their foot, we may almost fancy
+being in the Pyrenees. As to the dolomites, on the frontiers of Venetia
+and the Tyrol, they are unique. Their fantastically shaped rocks,
+delicately tinted with pink and other colours, contrast marvellously
+with the green of beeches and firs, or the blue waters of the lakes.
+Richthofen and others look upon these isolated mountain masses as
+ancient coral islands, or _atolls_, upheaved to a height varying
+between 6,500 and 10,400 feet; and, whatever their geological origin
+may be, they certainly contribute much towards the beauty of the Alpine
+regions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 53.—THE PLAIN OF DÉBRIS BETWEEN THE ALPS AND THE
+APENNINES.
+
+According to Zollikofer.]
+
+If we descend the Italian slope of the Alps, we pass gradually from the
+more ancient to the most recent geological formation, until we finally
+reach the alluvial plain. Metamorphic rocks, _verrucano_, dolomites,
+and other rocks overlie the granites, the gneiss, and the schists of
+the more elevated mountain masses. These are succeeded by beds of
+Triassic and Jurassic age. Lower still we meet with {193} terraces
+and hills composed of tertiary marls, clays, and conglomerates. Monte
+Bolca, so famous amongst geologists on account of its fossils, belongs
+to this formation.[62] The whole of the plain of Lombardy and Piemont,
+with the exception of the isolated hillocks rising in it, and a few
+marine deposits near its margin, consists of débris brought down by the
+rivers. The depth of this accumulation is not yet known, for hitherto
+no borings have pierced it; but if we suppose the slopes of the Alps
+and the Apennines to continue uniformly, it would amount to no less
+than 4,130 feet. The two diagrams (Fig. 53) are intended to illustrate
+this feature. In the upper of these the heights are exaggerated
+tenfold; in the lower both the horizontal and the vertical scales are
+the same. A glance at this diagram reveals the astounding fact that
+the volume of this débris almost equals that of the existing mountain
+systems.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 54.—SLOPE OF THE VALLEY OF THE PO.
+
+The vertical scale is ten times larger than the horizontal.]
+
+The vast plain stretching from the Adriatic to the foot of the Monte
+Rosa and the Viso may boast of its peninsulas, its islands, and even
+its archipelagos, as if it were a sea. The tertiary hills of Northern
+Monferrato, to the east of Turin, attain a height of 1,600 to 2,000
+feet, and the valley of the Tanaro completely separates them from the
+Ligurian Alps and the Apennines. Even at the very foot of the Alps, as
+at Cavour and elsewhere, isolated granitic or porphyritic pyramids and
+domes rise in the midst of the plain sloping down towards the Po.[63]
+The hump-backed Bosco Montello, to the south of the Piave, is another
+isolated hill; and on the banks of the Po may be seen a hillock of
+pebbles and marine sands, abounding in fossils, which bears the village
+of San Colombano and its vineyards. Several volcanic peaks, surrounded
+by cretaceous formations, rise in the midst of the plains to the east
+of the Lake of Garda. The craters of the Berici, near Vicenza, and of
+the Euganean Hills, near Padua, have not vomited {194} flames within
+the historical epoch, but the hot and the gas springs which issue
+from clefts in the trachytic and basaltic rocks prove sufficiently
+that volcanic forces are not yet quite extinct in that part of Italy.
+Earthquakes occur frequently in the neighbouring Alps, and particularly
+near Belluno and Bassano.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 55.—MUD VOLCANOES AND HOT SPRINGS OF THE NORTHERN
+APENNINES.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,160,000.]
+
+A similar volcanic zone extends along the northern slope of the
+Apennines, which bound the valley of the Po on the south. Hydrogen gas
+escapes from fissures in the rocks to the south of Modena and Bologna,
+and is utilised in several instances in the manufacture of lime,
+and for other purposes. These gas springs of Pietra Mala, Porretta,
+and Barigazzo were known by the ancients and during the Middle Ages
+as “fiery springs,” and they illuminated the path of the traveller
+overtaken by the night. Lower down the slope, almost on the verge of
+the plains, we meet with a line of mud volcanoes, or _bombi_, the most
+famous of which are those of Sassuolo, near Modena. The largest of
+these, that of Mirano, has no less than forty craters. The ancient gulf
+of the sea, now converted into a plain, is thus skirted by volcanic
+cones, mud volcanoes, hot springs, and deposits of sulphur. As high up
+as Piemont, and notably at Acqui, we meet with hot springs, attesting
+that volcanic activity is not yet altogether extinct.
+
+[Illustration: La Dent blanche, 14,319 ft.; Château des Dames, 11,998
+ft.; Mt. Cervin, 14,705 ft.; Mischabel Hōrner, 14,942 ft.; Breithorn,
+13,680 ft.; Monte Rosa (Dufour Spitze, 15,217 ft.).
+
+THE PENNINE ALPS, AS SEEN FROM THE BECCA DI NONA (PIC CARREL), 10,380
+FEET.]
+
+The valleys of the Alps and the plains extending along their foot were
+filled, in a former geological epoch, with huge glaciers, descending
+from what was anciently the immense glacial region of Central Europe.
+There is not a valley between that of the Tanaro in the west, and that
+of the Isonzo descending from the mountains of Carinthia, but contains
+accumulations of débris carried down by the {195} glaciers, and now
+covered with vegetation. Most of these ancient glaciers exceeded those
+of the Monte Rosa and the Finsteraarhorn in extent, and several of them
+rivalled the existing glaciers of the Himalaya. If we would gain a
+notion of what the Alps were like during this glacial epoch, we must go
+to Greenland or to the Antarctic regions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 56.—THE ANCIENT GLACIERS OF THE ALPS.
+
+Scale 1 : 4,800,000.]
+
+One of the smallest of these ice streams, that which descended from the
+mountains of Tenda in the direction of Cuneo, had a length of thirty
+miles. That which brought down the ice of Mont Genèvre, Mont Tabor, and
+Mont Cenis had twice that length, and its moraines formed a veritable
+amphitheatre of hills, locally known as _regione alla pietre_, or stony
+region. Farther north the streams of ice descending from the Pennine
+Alps between the Grand Paradis and Mont Blanc united in a single stream
+eighty miles in length, and spread over the plain far beyond Ivrea.
+The alluvial accumulation of this ancient glacier rises 1,100 and even
+2,130 feet above the valley through which the Dora Baltea now flows.
+One of its lateral moraines, known as the _Serra d’Ivrea_, forms a
+regular rampart to the east of the river, eighteen miles in extent.
+Its slopes are now covered with chestnuts. The western ravine (Colle
+di Brossa) is less prominent, because it is inferior in height; but
+the frontal ravine, forming a complete demicircle, can still be traced
+readily. In the débris accumulated at the foot of this ancient glacier,
+rocks derived from Mont Blanc are mixed with others brought down
+from Mont Cervin. And yet it was but a dwarf when compared with the
+ancient twin glacier of the Ticino and the Adda, which extended from
+the Simplon to the Stelvio, filled up the cavities now occupied by the
+Lago Maggiore {196} and the Lake of Como, sent a lateral branch to the
+tortuous bed of the Lake of Lugano, and finally, after a course of from
+100 to 120 miles, debouched upon the plain of Lombardy. The glacier of
+the Oglio was small in comparison with it, but it was exceeded by that
+of the Adige, the most considerable of all on the southern slope of
+the Alps. This river of ice, from the mountains of the Oetzthal, where
+it originated, to its terminal moraine to the north of Mantua, had a
+length of 175 miles. One of its branches descended towards the east,
+down the valley of the Drave, as far as where the town of Klagenfurt
+now stands. Its main stream filled up the cavity of the Lake of Garda,
+pushing along a formidable rampart of elevated moraines.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 57.—THE SERRA OF IVREA AND THE ANCIENT GLACIER
+LAKES OF THE DORA.
+
+From the Sardinian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 250,000]
+
+The hand of man is scarcely able to make an impression upon the vast
+accumulations heaped up by the action of the glaciers. The hills
+of Solferino, of Cavriana, and Somma Campagna, so often named in
+connection with battles, are nothing but débris brought down from the
+flanks of the Alps, and they were much higher formerly than they are
+now. {197}
+
+Some of the erratic blocks were as large as houses, but, being used as
+quarries, they are fast disappearing. One of them at Pianezza, at the
+mouth of the Susa valley, is 80 feet long, 40 feet broad, and 46 feet
+high, and a chapel has been built upon it. The huge erratic blocks
+in the hills between the two arms of the Lake of Como have supplied
+materials for the monolithic columns of the churches and palaces in the
+environs. The slopes of the hills of Turin facing the Alps are likewise
+covered with erratic blocks.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+When the glaciers retired into the upper valleys of the Alps, the soil
+which they covered was left bare, and the depressions now occupied by
+the beautiful lakes of Lombardy were revealed. These depressions, whose
+bottom even now sinks down below the level of the ocean, were formerly
+arms of the sea, in character very much like the fiords of Norway.
+That such was the case is proved by the presence, in every one of the
+Lombard lakes, of a sardine (the _agone_), which naturalists consider
+to be a sea fish. In Garda Lake, moreover, there still dwell two marine
+fishes which have adapted themselves to their new condition of life, as
+well as a small marine shell-fish.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 58.—ANCIENT LAKES OF VERBANO.]
+
+The number of these Alpine lakes was much larger formerly, and those
+which still exist shrink from year to year. In Upper Piemont alluvial
+deposits have long ago filled up the lakes, and there now only remain
+a few pools of {198} water to indicate their site. The first sheets
+of water to which the term “lake” may fairly be applied are met with
+on both banks of the Dora Baltea (see Fig. 57). The little basin of
+Candia and the shallow Lake of Azeglio, to the west and east of the
+river, are the only remains of _Lacus Clisius_, which covered an area
+of several hundred square miles until its waters broke through the
+semicircular terminal moraine which bounded it on the south. The Dora
+Baltea formerly escaped from this lake in the south-east, its present
+course only dating from the fourteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 59.—THE UPPER EXTREMITY OF THE LAKE OF COMO.
+
+Scale 1 : 148,000.]
+
+Since this reservoir has been drained, the first lake of importance in
+the west is that of Verbano, very inappropriately called Lago Maggiore,
+or the “principal lake,” as that of Garda exceeds it in extent. Ancient
+beaches, at an elevation of 1,300 feet above the sea, prove that the
+waters of the lake have considerably subsided, and that its area was
+much larger formerly; and it curiously ramified with neighbouring lake
+basins, now merely connected with it by rivers. The ancient moraine
+at the foot of this lake, and through which the Ticino has excavated
+itself a passage, still rises to a height of 980 feet. {199}
+
+Centuries elapsed before the changes which we now perceive were
+accomplished. Still they proceeded at a sufficiently rapid rate. Even
+now the alluvium carried down by the Ticino and the Maggia continually
+encroaches upon the Lago Maggiore. Seven hundred years ago the village
+of Gordola stood on the shore of the lake: it is now nearly a mile away
+from it. The landing-places of Magadino, at the mouth of the Ticino,
+have to be continually shifted, for the lake retires steadily. Only
+sixty years ago barges were able to receive their cargoes at a wharf
+nearly half a mile higher up than the present one. The Gulf of Locarno
+is gradually being separated from the main sheet of water by alluvial
+deposits brought down by the Maggia.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 60.—SECTION OF THE NORTHERN PORTION OF LAKE COMO.
+
+Scale 1 : 25,000.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 61.—SECTION OF THE LAKE OF LECCO, NEAR THE
+BIFURCATION.
+
+Scale 1 : 25,000.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 62.—LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF LAKE COMO.
+
+Horizontal scale 1 : 50,000. Vertical scale 1 : 500,000.]
+
+The Lario, or Lake of Como, which rivals the Maggiore by its beauty,
+is likewise being gradually silted up. In the time of the Romans the
+navigation extended as far as Summolacus (lake-head), the modern
+Samolaco. But the torrent of Mera gradually converted most of the upper
+extremity of the lake into an alluvial plain, whilst the alluvial
+deposits carried down by the Adda cut off the remainder from the main
+body of water. There now remains only the _Lacus_ {200} _Dimidiatus_,
+or Lake of Mezzola, which is shrinking from year to year, and will
+finally disappear altogether. The miasmata rising from the swamps
+at the mouth of the Adda have frequently depopulated the environs,
+and the ruined fort of Fuentes, at the mouth of the river, built to
+defend the Val Tellina, was hardly ever more than a hospital for its
+fever-stricken garrison.
+
+The south-eastern arm of the lake, that of Lecco, through which the
+Adda makes its escape to the south, has likewise been divided into a
+series of separate basins. Nature, which would convert these lakes into
+bottom-lands at no distant date, is being aided here by the works of
+man. The barrier which obstructed the free egress of the Adda has been
+cleared away, the structures of fishermen have been removed, and, in
+consequence of these and other engineering measures, the once-dreaded
+rises of the lake have been reduced to a minimum, and the southernmost
+of the lake basins, that of Brivio, has been converted into dry
+land. The large Lake of Brianza, which extended formerly far to the
+south-west, has likewise been partially drained, and there now remain
+only a few lakelets of small extent.
+
+We know sufficient of the bottom of the Lake of Como to enable us to
+judge of the manner in which it is becoming gradually filled up with
+alluvium. The mud deposited in its northern portion has filled up all
+the original inequalities of the soil, and even in the centre of the
+lake, and in its south-eastern arm, the bottom is almost a perfect
+level. In the Como arm, however, which receives no tributary river
+of any importance, the bottom is still full of inequalities. These
+differences amply prove to us the geological agency of the rivers,
+which must terminate in the lake being converted into a bottom-land,
+with a river flowing through its centre. The third of our diagrams
+(Fig. 62) shows that the greatest depth now hardly exceeds 1,300 feet,
+whilst, if we may judge from the slopes of the hills which bound it,
+the depth in former times cannot have been less than 2,300 feet.
+
+The Sebino, or Lake of Iseo, and the lakelet of Idro, which are fed
+by the glacier streams of the Adamello, exhibit the same features as
+the lakes farther to the west. The Benaco, or Lake of Garda, however,
+the most extensive of these Alpine lakes, is very stable as regards
+its outline and the configuration of its bottom, a fact sufficiently
+explained by the small size of its tributary streams as compared
+with its vast area. The old Alpine lakes of the Venetian Alps have
+disappeared long ago, and there remain only a few ponds, filling
+cavities in the dolomitic rocks and peat bogs, to indicate their
+ancient sites.[64] {201}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 63.—VILLA SERBELLONI, ON THE PENINSULA OF
+BELLAGIO, LAKE OF COMO.]
+
+These lacustrine basins, like all other reservoirs of the same kind,
+regulate the outflow of the torrents which empty into them. During the
+freshets they store up the superabundant waters, and only part with
+them in the dry season, and upon their difference of level in different
+seasons depend the oscillations of the emissary rivers which issue from
+them. In the case of the Lake of Garda, which drains but a small area
+in proportion to its size, this difference is small, and throughout
+the year the pellucid waters of the Mincio flow tranquilly beneath
+the blackened ramparts of Peschiera. Such is not the case as regards
+either the Lago Maggiore or the Lake of Como, for the volume of water
+discharged into them is so considerable that their level in summer
+and winter varies to the extent of several yards, and corresponding
+differences may be observed in the rivers issuing from them. Lake Como
+rises no less than 12 feet, and increases 70 square miles in area,
+whilst the Lago Maggiore sometimes rises 22 feet, and {202} increases
+to the extent of one-fifth. The volume of the Ticino, when at its
+highest, almost equals the average volume of the Nile, and if it were
+not for the regulating influence of the lake from which it issues, it
+would alternately convert the plains of Lombardy into a sheet of water
+and leave them an arid tract of land.[65]
+
+The Alpine lakes of Italy thus play an important part in the economy of
+the country. They render the climate more equable, serve as high-roads
+of commerce, and, being the centres of animal life, attract a dense
+population. But it is not this which has rendered these lakes famous,
+which has attracted thousands of wanderers ever since the time of the
+Romans, and caused villas and palaces to rise on their shores: it is
+their incomparable beauty. And, indeed, there are few spots in Europe
+which bear comparison with the delightful Gulf of Pallanza, over which
+are scattered the Borromean Islands, or with the peninsula of Bellagio,
+which may be likened to a hanging garden suspended within sight of
+the snow-clad Alps, and affording a prospect of the rock-bound shores
+of the Como Lake, cultivated fields, and numerous villas. Perhaps
+even more delightful is the peninsula of Sermione, jutting out into
+the azure waters of the Garda Lake, like the tender stalk of a flower
+developing into a many-coloured petal.
+
+Most of the lakes in the plain have been drained into the neighbouring
+rivers. The Lake of Gerondo, mentioned in mediæval records, has
+dwindled down into a small swamp, or _mosi_, now, and its populous
+island of Fulcheria has become merged in the plain of Lombardy. The
+lakes on the southern bank of the Po, above Guastalla, have likewise
+been drained; and if the two shallow lakes of Mantua still exist, this
+is entirely due to the embankments raised in the twelfth century. It
+would have been much better, and would have saved the city the horrors
+of many a siege, if these lakes had been allowed to disappear likewise.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The lagoons along the Adriatic have decreased in extent in the course
+of centuries, and whilst new lagoons are being formed, the old ones
+are gradually being converted into dry land. The old maps of the
+Venetian littoral differ essentially from our modern ones, and yet
+all the vast changes they indicate have been wrought in the course
+of a few centuries. The swamps of Caorle, between the Piave and the
+Gulf of Trieste, have changed to an extent which prevents us from
+restoring the ancient topography of the country; and if the lagoons
+of Venice and Chioggia exhibit a certain permanence of contour, this
+is only on account of the incessant interference of man. The ancient
+lagoon of Brondolo has been dry land since the middle of the sixteenth
+century. The large lagoon of Comacchio, to the south of the Po, has
+been cut up into separate portions by alluvial embankments formed by
+the agency of rivers and torrents. For the most part it consists now of
+_valli_, or alluvial deposits, but there still remain a few profound
+cavities, or _chiari_, which the rivers have not yet succeeded in
+filling up. Formerly these {203} lagoons extended far to the south in
+the direction of Ravenna, and, according to Strabo and other ancient
+writers, that ancient city once occupied a site very much like that of
+Venice or Chioggia in our own days.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 64.—BEECH AND PINE WOODS OF RAVENNA.
+
+Scale 1 : 2,470,000.]
+
+There can be no doubt that these lagoons were anciently separated from
+the Adriatic by a narrow strip of land over 120 miles in length, and
+similar to what we still meet with on the coasts of Carolina and of
+the Brazils. This ancient barrier still exists in the _lidi_ of Venice
+and Comacchio, which are pierced at intervals, admitting the vivifying
+floods of the open sea. Elsewhere the traces of this ancient beach must
+be looked for on the mainland. The low delta of the Po is traversed
+from north to south by a range of dunes constituting the continuation
+of the lidi of Venice, and extending into the swamps of Comacchio,
+where they form a natural embankment running parallel with the coast.
+These dunes, between the Adige and Cervia, are covered with sombre pine
+woods, replaced here and there by oaks. The underwood mainly consists
+of hawthorns and juniper-trees, and wild boars still haunt it.
+
+No sooner have the lagoons protected by these barriers been converted
+into dry land than the sea seizes upon the sand, and forms it into new
+curvilinear barriers similar to the former ones. The principal range of
+dunes to the east of Ravenna, which is about 20 miles in length, and
+varies in width between 50 and 3,300 yards, has thus two other ranges
+of dunes running parallel with it, one of them being still in course of
+formation. Signor {204} Pareto has estimated the annual advance of the
+land at 7½ feet, and at much more near the mouths of rivers.
+
+The sea thus marks by a series of barriers its successive recoils.
+Sometimes, however, the sea gains upon the land in consequence of a
+gradual subsidence of the Venetian shore, the cause of which has not
+yet been elucidated. Thus the gravel bank of Cortellazzo, opposite
+the swamps of Caorle, appears to have anciently been a _lido_ which
+has sunk nearly 70 feet below the level of the sea. The islands which
+fringed the littoral of Aquileja during the Middle Ages have almost
+wholly disappeared. In the time of the Romans these islands were
+populous; there were forests and fields upon them, and the inhabitants
+built ships. The chronicles of the Middle Ages tell us that the Doge
+of Venice and the Patriarch of Aquileja hunted stags and wild boars
+upon them, much to the scandal of the inhabitants. At the present day
+the dunes which of yore protected these islands have almost wholly
+disappeared, the forests have been supplanted by reeds, and Grado is
+the only place on the littoral which may still boast of a certain
+number of inhabitants. Piers, walls, mosaic pavements, and even stones
+bearing inscriptions, which are found occasionally at the bottom of the
+sea or of swamps, prove that the mainland was formerly more extensive
+there. Farther to the west the littoral of Venice bears evidence of
+a similar subsidence. Artesian wells sunk in the city of the lagoons
+have led to the discovery of four beds of turf, the deepest no less
+than 420 feet below the level of the sea. The subterranean church of
+St. Mark has within historical times been converted into a submarine
+church, and streets and buildings are gradually sinking beneath the
+waters of the lagoons. If it were not for the alluvium brought down by
+the rivers, the sea would continually encroach upon the land. Ravenna,
+too, participates in this subsidence, which Signor Pareto estimates to
+amount to 0·60 inch in the course of a century.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Amongst the geological agents constantly at work to modify the surface
+of the earth, the rivers and torrents irrigating the plain lying at the
+foot of the Alps are the most active, and no other country of Europe,
+Holland alone excepted, can compare in this respect with Northern Italy.
+
+The torrent of Isonzo offers one of the most striking instances of
+these geological revolutions. It is said to have formerly communicated
+through subterranean channels with the Istrian Timavo, and that its
+existence as a separate river does not date very far back. Ancient
+writers do not enumerate the Isonzo amongst the rivers flowing into
+the Adriatic. It is first mentioned in a document of the sixth century
+as a river irrigating some inland valley. On Peutinger’s Table we
+meet with a station, Ponte Sonti, far to the east of Aquileja, and
+near the sources of the Timavo. The chronicles are silent with
+respect to the peripatetics of this river, but a careful examination
+of the surrounding hills justifies the assumption that the valley of
+Tolmein, on the Upper Isonzo, was formerly a lake which overflowed
+towards the north-west through the narrows of Caporetto, and that its
+pent-up waters found their way through the Natisone into the Adriatic.
+Subsequently they opened themselves a passage to the south, and another
+lake was {205} formed at the confluence of Isonzo and Wippach. This
+lake communicated by subterranean channels with the Timavo, but it has
+now disappeared, and the Isonzo flows directly into the sea, its bed
+wandering continuously towards the east. The alluvium carried down by
+this river has formed the peninsula of Sdobba, and joined several old
+islands to the mainland.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 65.—SHINGLE BEDS OF THE TAGLIAMENTO, THE MEDUNA,
+AND ZELLINE.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 290,000]
+
+The Tagliamento is even a more active geological agent than its
+neighbour just beyond the frontier. The débris deposited at the mouth
+of the narrow gorge in which it rises covers many square miles of
+a once fertile plain. In summer its waters trickle through these
+accumulations of shingle, but after heavy rain the river is converted
+into a powerful torrent several miles in width, and all the more
+formidable as its bed lies higher than many parts of the surrounding
+country. The Meduna and Zelline, to the west of the Tagliamento, are
+equally destructive, and an extensive tract at their confluence is
+covered with shingles. Lower down, in the lagoons, these torrents have
+thrown up huge embankments of sand on either side of their ancient
+beds. The alluvium brought down by these torrents to the sea is in
+every instance deposited to the west, a circumstance accounted for by
+the direction of the coast current.
+
+The Piave, the most considerable river to the east of the Adige, is
+likewise a most active geological agent, converting fertile fields
+into sterile shingle tracts, filling up swamps, and carrying large
+quantities of matter into the sea. At its {206} mouth the land
+gains rapidly upon the sea, and Heraclea of the Veneti, now known as
+Cittanova, which was a seaport once, at the present time lies far
+inland.
+
+The Piave was formerly supposed to have changed its bed in the same
+manner as the Isonzo. Below the Capo di Ponte, a wild defile in the
+Dolomite Alps, the Piave flows towards the south-west, past Belluno,
+and lower down is joined by the Cordevole. It was, however, supposed
+that the river originally flowed through the valley of Rai, immediately
+to the south of the Capo di Ponte, and that the Meschio and Livenzo
+constituted its lower course. Earthquakes or landslips were supposed to
+have created a barrier across that valley, and the small lakes still
+seen there were looked upon as remains of the ancient river bed. But
+M. de Mortillet has shown that this hypothesis is untenable, for the
+barrier referred to is merely the moraine of an ancient glacier, and
+there exist no traces whatever of landslips.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 66.—THE SUPPOSED OLD BED OF THE PIAVE.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 550,000.]
+
+At the same time it cannot be doubted that extensive changes have
+taken place in the basin of the Piave. Thus in 1771 the course of the
+Cordevole, its most important tributary, was obstructed for a time by
+a landslip which carried the verdant terraces of Pezza down into the
+valley. Two villages were destroyed, and two others overwhelmed by the
+rising floods of the river.
+
+[Illustration: VENICE.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 67.—THE LAGOONS OF VENICE.
+
+Scale 1 : 394,000.]
+
+The Brenta, which rises in the beautiful Sugana valley of the Tyrol,
+has at all times been a source of anxiety to the Venetians on account
+of its irregularities. Formerly it entered the lagoons at Fusina, and
+its alluvium filled up the canals {207} and infected the air. The
+Paduans and other inhabitants of the lowlands were anxious to divert it
+by the most direct course into the lagoons, so as to avoid inundations,
+whilst the Venetians were solicitous to get rid of a river which
+threatened to fill up their lagoons and render them insalubrious. These
+conflicting interests gave rise to numerous wars. The possession of the
+coast became a question of existence to the Venetians, and no sooner
+had they obtained it than they set about “regulating” the Lower Brenta.
+Hy means of two canals, the Brenta Nuova, or Brentone, and the Brenta
+Nuovissima, the river was conducted right round the lagoons to the port
+of Brondolo, a few miles to the north of the Adige. But the river,
+whose course had thus been considerably lengthened, gradually filled
+up the bed in its upper course, and it was found impossible to {208}
+confine it within its lateral embankments. They were broken through
+by the floods no less than twenty times between 1811 and 1859, and, as
+the channel of the river became more and more choked, a more frequent
+recurrence of such disasters was naturally expected. It was then
+resolved to shorten the course of the river to the extent of ten miles,
+by diverting it into a portion of the lagoon of Chioggia. The danger
+of irruptions has thus been averted for a time, but the fisheries
+of Chioggia have been completely destroyed, and fever is a frequent
+visitor in the towns of the littoral.
+
+There can be no doubt that but for the efforts of the Venetian
+engineers the lagoons of the Lido, Malamocco, and Chioggia would long
+ago have been converted into dry land. Venice has at all times been
+alive to the necessity of preserving its precious inland sea. The
+Venetian engineers were not content with turning aside the torrents
+which formerly poured their waters into the lagoons; they have also, by
+means of canals, moved the mouths of the Sile and Piave to the east,
+thus securing the ports of the Lido from the dreaded alluvium of the
+rivers. They even conceived the gigantic project of a huge encircling
+canal for the interception of all the Alpine torrents between the
+Brenta and Isonzo. This project, however, has never been carried
+out. The débris carried southward by the coast current has silted up
+the port of the Lido, which was abandoned towards the close of the
+fifteenth century, when a new military port was constructed eight miles
+farther south, at the canal of Malamocco, and it is now protected by a
+pier extending 7,200 feet into the sea.
+
+The torrents which descend from the slopes of the Apennines to the
+south of the delta of the Adige and Po are as erratic in their course
+as those of Venetia. The Trebbia, the Taro, and other rivers irrigating
+the districts of Piacenza and Parma only cross a narrow plain between
+the mountains and the Po, and do not much modify the topography of the
+country. But this cannot be said of the rivers flowing through the vast
+plains of Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, and Imola. They are constantly
+changing their beds, and the remains of embankments met with all over
+the country prove that all efforts to confine them permanently have
+proved abortive. Modena itself was once destroyed by the floods of the
+Secchia. The Tanaro, the Reno, and other rivers flowing towards the
+north-west, either into the canal encircling the lagoons of Comacchio
+or direct into the sea, all have a history attached to them; they are
+blessed for their fertilising alluvium, cursed on account of their
+destructive floods. One of them, probably the Fiumicino, is the famous
+Rubicon which bounded the Italy of the Romans, and which was crossed by
+Cæsar when he pronounced the fatal words, “Alea jacta est.”
+
+The Reno is the most erratic, the most dangerous of all these Apennine
+rivers. The bed of débris deposited by it in the plain measures 20
+miles across from east to west. Its volume varies between 35 and 49,500
+cubic feet a second, according to the season, and its bed is in places
+no less than 30 feet above the adjoining country. The destruction of
+the forests has augmented the danger of its inundations. The engineers,
+puzzled by its irregular floods, have proposed the most {209} opposite
+plans for subduing this terrible scourge. The river has been turned
+into the Po; then eastward, direct into the sea. Recently it has been
+proposed to divert it to the lagoons of Comacchio. But all these
+diversions are attended with disadvantages, and whilst the inhabitants
+of one district congratulate themselves upon having got rid of so
+troublesome a neighbour, those of another complain of its inundations,
+see their fisheries destroyed, and their navigation interfered with.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 68.—COLONIES OF THE ROMAN VETERANS.
+
+Scale 1 : 356,000.]
+
+Lombardini, the famous hydraulic engineer, has shown how we may
+discover the places to which the soil of the lowlands of Emilia has
+been conveyed by the torrents, and trace the ancient shores of the
+lagoon of Padua, now converted into dry land. A traveller following
+the Emilian causeway from Cesena to Bologna can hardly help noticing
+the quadrangular fields on his right, all of them of the same size.
+Looked at from the spurs of the Apennines, the plain resembles a huge
+draught-board, the squares of which are covered alternately with
+verdure and ripening crops. We learn from the topographical maps that
+these fields are exactly of the same size, and there can be no doubt
+that we have here before us the fields which, according to Livy, were
+taken from the Gauls and distributed amongst Roman military settlers. A
+sinuous line marks, in the direction of the Po, the shore of an ancient
+lake. The rectangular fields, laid out by the cadastral surveyors of
+ancient Rome, cease there, and we find ourselves again amidst the usual
+labyrinth of ditches and tortuous roads. This lake has been filled up
+long ago by the débris brought down by the torrents. {210}
+
+The Po, proportionately to the area it drains and its length, has
+undergone fewer changes than either the Piave or the Reno, but looking
+to the populous cities which line its banks, and to the fertility of
+its fields, the least of these is of some importance.
+
+The torrent fed by the snows of Monte Viso is usually looked upon
+as the head stream of Father Po, as the ancient Romans called the
+river; but the Mastra, Varaita, and Clusone are quite equal to it in
+volume, and feed as many canals of irrigation. Indeed, these canals
+would quickly drain the Po if it were not for a bountiful supply of
+snow-water brought down by the Dora Riparia, the Stura, the Orca, and
+the Dora Baltea from the glaciers of the Alps. Lower down, the Po
+receives the Sesia from the north, and the Tanaro, which is fed by
+streams rising in the Apennines and the Alps. Then comes the Ticino,
+by far the most important tributary of the Po, “without which,” as the
+river fishermen say, “il Po non sarebbe Po.”
+
+The Po, after its junction with the Ticino, exhibits no longer the
+features of a mountain torrent; the pebbles have been triturated into
+the finest dust, and no piled-up masses of débris are met with along
+its banks. If it were not for its dykes, or _argini_, it might spread
+itself freely over the plain. These artificial embankments rival those
+of the Netherlands, and date back to the most remote ages. Lucian
+refers to them as if they had existed from time immemorial. During the
+great migration of peoples they were allowed to decay, and only in the
+course of the ninth century were measures taken to restore them. In
+1480 the great work had been achieved. Its importance may be judged
+from the fact that these embankments protect 3,000,000 acres of the
+most fertile land, yielding annually more than £8,000,000 sterling’s
+worth of agricultural produce. Most of the towns have been built upon
+artificial platforms or terraces, and up to the beginning of this
+century they have never been known to suffer from floods; but whether
+owing to the devastation of the forests or to the closing up of all
+breaches in the dykes, the floods rise higher now than they did of
+yore, and it has been found necessary to throw up embankments around
+Revere, Sermide, Ostiglia, Governolo, Borgoforte, and other places.
+
+[Illustration: DELTA OF THE PO]
+
+Continuous embankments begin at Cremona, and they extend not only
+along both banks of the Po, but also along the lower course of its
+tributaries. The main dykes have a length of nearly 650 miles. In
+addition to these there are smaller dykes traversing the space between
+these _froldi_, or main dykes, in all directions, and enclosing willow
+plantations, fields, and even vineyards. In fact, the river extends to
+the foot of the main dykes only in a few localities. It is ordinarily
+only 650 to 1,600 feet wide, whilst the dykes are several miles apart,
+to allow the river to spread during the inundations. The land thus
+lying within the dykes has been divided by the villagers into _golene_,
+and is protected by smaller dykes against ordinary floods. The rules
+laid down for the construction of embankments have been drawn up in the
+general interest, and are sufficiently precise, but they are not always
+observed. The old system, embodied in the dreadful proverb, “Vita mia,
+morte tua,” is not yet quite extinct. Formerly the peasants were in the
+habit of {211} crossing over to the other bank, and deliberately
+cutting through the embankments there, thus saving their own crops by
+ruining their neighbours’.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 69.—THE PO BETWEEN PIACENZA AND CREMONA.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 325,000.]
+
+The width of the bed of inundation enclosed between these embankments
+grows less in proportion as we descend the river, and in the case
+of the arms of the delta does not exceed 900 to 1,600 feet. This is
+not sufficient to enable the waters to escape during extraordinary
+floods, when they sometimes rise 25 and even 30 feet. Besides, it
+frequently happens that the villagers fail to keep the embankments in
+thorough repair, and sometimes entire districts are ruined because the
+mole-tracks were not stopped up. A breach in the embankment, unless
+quickly filled up, produces untold misery. The crops are destroyed, the
+villages levelled with the ground, the soil is torn up and carried off,
+and the inhabitants are swept away by famine and its fearful attendant,
+typhus fever. These great floods of the Po and the earthquakes of
+Calabria are the two plagues of Italy. In 1872 1,200 square miles
+between the Secchia and the sea were converted into a lake. Two years
+afterwards there still remained pools of water.
+
+In these great disasters the inhabitants are afforded an opportunity
+of exhibiting their valour, and it is always the most energetic who
+succeed in protecting their property from being washed away by the
+floods. During the flood just referred {212} to, the inhabitants of
+the little town of Ostiglia fought successfully with the rising waters,
+whilst many of their neighbours succumbed. The town stands close to the
+_froldo_, and there is no second line of dykes to protect it. The dyke
+threatened to give way. The inhabitants at once set about throwing up a
+second barrier. All the able-bodied men of the place, 4,000 in number,
+turned out to work, headed by their mayor. They worked day and night,
+and, as the floods carried away the old dyke, the new one rose in its
+rear. The victory was won; the floods retired, and their houses were
+safe.
+
+Some of those breaches in the dykes have led to permanent changes
+in the course of the river, and these divagations have been most
+considerable in the delta. During the time of the Romans, and up to
+the thirteenth century, the Po di Volano was the principal branch of
+the river, whilst now it has dwindled down to an insignificant ditch
+which can hardly be traced through the swamps of Comacchio. Two other
+branches, farther to the south, are used now as carriage roads. In the
+eighth century the Po di Primaro, which enters the sea to the north
+of Ravenna, took the place of these old channels. Another bifurcation
+ensued in 1152, when the embankment at Ficcarolo was destroyed, it is
+said, by the people living above that town, and the main channel of
+the river, the Maestra, deserted the walls of Ferrara in the midst of
+its swamps, and united itself with the channels of the Adige. Breaches
+in the embankments usually take place in October or November, and
+generally at the same places. The danger is always greatest at Corbola,
+where the Po di Maestra bifurcates.
+
+The Adige is quite as great a wanderer as the Po. Scarcely has that
+river left its defile, or _chiusa_, of calcareous mountains and the
+fortifications of Verona than it begins its erratic course over the
+plain. In the time of the Romans the Adige flowed much farther to the
+north, along the foot of the Euganean Hills, and entered the sea at
+Brondolo. In 587 the river broke through its embankments, and its main
+branch took the direction which it maintains up to the present day,
+entering the sea at Fossone. But new channels opened repeatedly towards
+the south, until the Adige and Po conjointly formed but one delta. The
+Polesina of Rovigo, between the two rivers, and that of Ferrara, are
+low tracts of alluvial land. The courtyard of the Castle of Ferrara,
+which occupies one of the most elevated sites in these plains, is nine
+feet lower than the highest level of the Po when flooded.
+
+The frequent inundations caused by the Po and the numerous changes of
+its bed, by spreading the alluvium all over the country, have raised
+the whole of the plains to about the same level. But now, when all the
+arms of the Po are confined within embankments, most of the alluvium
+brought down by the floods is deposited on the coast of the Adriatic.
+The land, therefore, gains much more rapidly upon the sea than it
+did formerly. The series of dunes marking the ancient shore now lies
+fifteen miles inland, and the new land formed annually is estimated at
+280 acres. In exceptional years the quantity of solid matter carried
+by the river into the sea amounts to 3,531,000,000 cubic feet; on an
+average it is 1,623,000,000 cubic feet, sufficient to form an island
+ten square miles in area in ten feet of water. The Po, next to the
+Danube, is the most active geological agent amongst all the rivers
+{213} entering the Mediterranean.[66] The Rhone is inferior to it, and
+so is the Nile. At the present rate of progress, the Po, in the course
+of a thousand years, will throw a tongue of land six miles wide across
+the Adriatic, converting the Gulf of Trieste into an inland sea.
+
+Northern Italy, in addition to these numerous rivers, possesses one of
+the most extensive systems of canals in the world, which has served as
+a pattern to all the rest of Europe. Lombardy, portions of Piemont,
+the Campagna of Turin, the Lomellina on the Ticino, and the Polesinas
+of Ferrara and Rovigo possess a wonderful ramification of irrigation,
+which carries fertile alluvium to the exhausted fields. In the Middle
+Ages, when the remainder of Europe was still shrouded in darkness,
+the Lombard republics already practised the art of irrigation on the
+vastest scale, and drained their low-lying plains. Milan, after she
+had thrown off the yoke of her German oppressors, towards the close
+of the twelfth century, constructed the _Naviglio Grande_, a ship
+canal derived from the Ticino, thirty miles distant—probably the first
+great engineering work of the kind in Europe. In the beginning of the
+thirteenth century the superabundant waters of the Adda were utilised
+in filling the Muzza Canal. The same river, at a subsequent period,
+was made to feed another canal, the Martesana, which was constructed
+by the great Leonardo da Vinci. The art of surmounting elevations of
+the ground by means of locks had been discovered by Milanese engineers
+about a century before that time, and was applied to the construction
+of secondary canals. Amongst works of more recent date are the
+_naviglio_ from Milan to Pavia; the Cavour Canal, fed by the Po, below
+Turin; and the Canal of Verona, derived from the Adige.[67]
+
+Not only the rivers of Northern Italy, but also the springs, or
+_fontanelle_, however small, which burst forth at the foot of the
+Alps, are utilised for purposes of irrigation. Virgil alludes to these
+springs in his Bucolics, where he says, “Children, stop the water; the
+meadows have drunk enough.” Lombardy is indebted to these springs for
+her fine prairies, or _marcite_, which sometimes yield eight crops
+a year. The great Adriatic plain has indeed undergone vast changes
+through the work of man. Originally it was a swamp surrounded by
+forests and heaths, but is now one of the best-cultivated countries
+of Europe. One of its great features consists in plantations of
+mulberries, the uniformity of which is relieved in many districts—and
+especially in the Brianza of Como, that {214} garden of Italy—by
+groups of tall trees, little lakes, and sinuous valleys. There still
+remain extensive heaths covering the moraines of ancient glaciers,
+which become more and more sterile from year to year; but the engineers
+are considering schemes for irrigating them by means of the fertilising
+waters of the Alpine lakes.
+
+The irrigated area in the valley of the Po nearly amounts to 5,000
+square miles, and the water it absorbs every second is estimated at
+35,000,000 cubic feet, equal to about one-third of the volume of the
+Po. If the proposed works of irrigation are carried out, the Po, which
+now plays so important a part in the economy of the country by its
+floods and alluvial deposits, will be reduced to the dimensions of a
+small river.
+
+The evaporation from the numerous rivers and canals of the country
+fills the air with moisture. Rains are less frequent than on the
+Atlantic coasts of England and France, but the clouds, driven by
+southerly winds against the cool slopes of the Alps, discharge
+themselves in torrents. The quantity of rain that falls in the upper
+Alpine valleys equals that of the most humid districts of Portugal,
+the Hebrides, and Norway, and the rainfall in the plains of Lombardy
+is equal to that of Ireland. The annual rainfall in the basin of the
+Piave is estimated at five feet, exclusive of what may evaporate or be
+absorbed by plants. These rains are not confined to certain seasons,
+though it has been observed that they are most abundant in May and
+October, and least so in February and July.[68]
+
+As regards the direction of the winds, the great plain bounded by the
+Apennines and the Alps resembles an Alpine valley, the winds either
+blowing up it from east to west, or in an inverse direction. The winds
+descending from the Alps rarely bring rain, for they have deposited
+their moisture on the western slopes, but those coming from the
+Adriatic are generally charged with moisture. Nevertheless, owing to
+the great extent of the plains and the numerous breaks in the mountain
+chains, this rule is frequently interfered with. In the Alpine valleys
+the ascending and descending currents are far more regular, and the
+navigators on the lakes fully avail themselves of this circumstance.
+
+The forty-fifth degree of north latitude intersects the valley of the
+Po, but the climate, nevertheless, is not as mild as might be expected
+from this circumstance, and the range of temperature is great. In the
+Val Tellina the temperature sometimes rises above 90°, and frequently
+fails below freezing point. In the plain the climate is less austere,
+but it is notwithstanding continental in its character; and Turin,
+Milan, and Bologna are for this reason the least pleasant cities of
+Italy to live in. A few favoured spots on the Alpine lakes, such as
+the Borromean Islands, are an exception to this rule, and enjoy an
+equable climate, thanks to the moderating influences of a vast expanse
+of water. In the Gulf of Pallanza the thermometer never falls below 40°
+F., and we must go as far as Naples if we would meet with a climate
+equally favourable to vegetation. Venice, too, is a privileged spot,
+thanks to the vicinity of the Adriatic, and is healthy, too, in spite
+of the lagoons {215} which surround it. It is remarkable that these
+brackish lakes and swamps of Northern Italy do not give rise to the
+dreaded malarial fevers. Venice undoubtedly owes its healthiness to
+the tides, which are higher there than in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and
+perhaps, also, to the cold winds descending from the Alps. Comacchio,
+too, is a healthy place, and young natives of the Polesina suffering
+from consumption are sent there to recover their health. Wherever the
+engineers have cut up the connection between the lagoons and the open
+sea, marsh fever has made its appearance. The swamps of Ravenna and
+Cervia breed malignant fevers, especially where avaricious landowners
+have cut down the protecting rows of pines and oaks. A heavy miasmal
+air hangs likewise over the environs of Ferrara and Malalbergo, at the
+head of the Paduan delta.
+
+The Alpine valleys are the most unhealthy spots of Northern Italy, for
+they are deprived of sunlight. Goître and idiotcy are frequent there,
+and in the valley of Aosta nearly all the women are afflicted with the
+former, owing, perhaps, to the water which flows over magnesian rocks.
+The inhabitants of districts traversed by numerous canals suffer from
+diseases traceable to miasmal effluvia. The food of the peasantry is
+not sufficiently nourishing or varied to counteract these deleterious
+influences, and many die of _pellagre_, an incurable skin disease, only
+known in countries where the flour of maize, in the diluted form of
+_polenta_, constitutes the principal article of food. In the province
+of Cremona one in every twenty-four inhabitants is afflicted with this
+malady. The sanitary condition of the people is even worse in the
+rice-fields of Milan and the Polesina. The women there frequently stand
+for hours in tepid putrefying water, and are obliged from time to time
+to pick off the leeches which creep up their legs.[69]
+
+But in spite of maladies, misery, and famines, always following in the
+train of the inundations, the fertile plain of the Po is one of the
+most densely peopled portions of Europe. Every plot of ground there
+has been utilised. The forests, very much reduced in size, harbour no
+game, except, perhaps, on the Alpine slopes, and even small birds are
+rare. Not only snipes, quails, and thrushes are shot or trapped, but
+also nightingales and swallows. Tschudi estimates the number of singing
+birds annually killed on the shores of the Lago Maggiore at 60,000; and
+at Bergamo, Verona, Chiavenna, and Brescia they are slain by millions,
+the nets being spread in the hedges of every hill.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The population of the valley of the Po is composed of the most diverse
+elements. Amongst its ancestors were Ligurians, probably the kinsmen
+of our Basks; Etruscans, famous for their works of irrigation; Gallic
+tribes, whose peculiar intonation is still traceable in the rural Latin
+spoken in Northern Italy; and Celtic Ombrians, the most remote of all,
+and looked upon by historians as the aboriginal inhabitants of the
+country.
+
+The German invasions during the first centuries of our era have left
+a {216} permanent mark upon the population of Northern Italy. The
+many tall men met with in the valley of the Po are proofs of this
+Transalpine influence. The Goths and Vandals, Herulians and Longobards,
+or Lombards, soon became merged in the Latinised masses, but their
+position as conquerors and feudal lords gave them an influence which
+their mere numbers would not have insured them. The ancient history
+of Lombardy is a continual struggle between the towns and these
+feudal lords, and as soon as the latter had been defeated—that is to
+say, about the beginning of the tenth century—German was superseded
+everywhere by Italian.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 70.—THE GERMAN COMMUNES OF NORTHERN ITALY.
+
+Scale 1 : 650,000.]
+
+Family and topographical names of Lombard origin are very common on the
+left bank of the Po, and as far as the foot of the Apeninnes. Marengo,
+for instance, is a corruption of the German Mehring.
+
+This German influence upon manners and language has been most enduring
+in the Friuil, or Furlanei, a district bounded by the Adriatic, the
+Carniolan Alps, and the plateau of the Karst, or Carso. The Friulians
+were even looked upon as a distinct race, though their ancestors, like
+those of most Italians of the north, were Latinised Celts. Frequent
+intermarriages with their Slovenian neighbours {217} contributed in
+some measure to produce a type distinct from that of Venice or Treviso.
+The number of these Friulians still speaking their own dialect does not
+now exceed 50,000 souls.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 71.—MONTE ROSA, AS SEEN FROM GALCORO.]
+
+Amongst the numerous German colonies of which traces have been found
+in the plains of Northern Italy and on the southern slopes of the
+Alps, the “Thirteen Communes” to the north of Verona, and the “Seven
+Communes” in the deep valleys to the north-west of Bassano, are the
+most considerable. The _homines Teutonici_ of these two districts are
+supposed to be the descendants of the Cimbrians defeated by Marius, and
+blue eyes and fair hair still prevail amongst them, but in all other
+respects they resemble the Italians of the plains, and only a few old
+women amongst them still talk the language of their ancestors, which
+is said to resemble the dialect spoken on the Tegern Lake, in Bavaria.
+Nor were they the champions of German authority on Italian soil. On the
+contrary, they were charged by the Republic of Venice with the defence
+of the northern frontier, and {218} have always valiantly acquitted
+themselves of this duty. In return, they were granted self-government
+and exemption from military service. But neither the Republic of
+Venice nor Austria was able to protect these German colonies against
+an invasion of the “Welsh” or Italian element, and there do not now
+exist any non-Italian communities to the east of the great lakes. To
+the north of Piemont, however, in the valleys descending from Monte
+Rosa and in the valley of Pommat, where the Toce forms one of the most
+beautiful waterfalls, German colonies still maintain their ground.
+They, too, would long ago have lost their language were it not for the
+support they receive from the Germans occupying the Swiss valleys on
+the northern slopes of the Alps. Alagna, or Olen, one of these German
+villages, preserved its ancient customs until quite recently. For
+centuries there had been no lawsuit there; contracts, testaments, and
+other legal documents were unknown; and everything was regulated by
+“custom;” that is, by the absolute authority of the heads of families.
+
+The French element is far more numerous on the Italian slope of the
+Alps than the German. The inhabitants of the valley of Aosta, between
+the Grand Paradis and the Monte Rosa, of the upper valleys of the
+Dora Riparia, Cluson, Pelice, and Varaita, speak French, and are of
+the same origin as the Savoyards and Dauphinois on the western slope
+of the Alps. The configuration of the ground has facilitated this
+pacific invasion of the western Celts, numbering about 120,000 souls.
+They descended from the passes, and occupied the whole of the forest
+and pastoral region down to the foot of the hills, the last mountain
+defile, in many instances, forming their boundary. But the French
+language is steadily losing ground, for the official language is
+Italian, and every village has already two names, of which the modern
+Italian one is used by preference. The Vaudois, or Waldenses, in the
+valleys of Pelice (Pellis) and Cluson, above Pinerolo (Pignerol),
+alone resist this Italianisation with a certain amount of success, for
+they have a literature and history, and are held together by strong
+religious ties. Their sect was persecuted as early as the thirteenth
+century, long before the Reformation, and ever since, until their final
+emancipation in 1848, they have struggled against adversity. Many times
+it was thought they had been exterminated, but they always rose again,
+and in history they occupy a rank far out of proportion to their small
+numbers.
+
+The bulk of the population are engaged in agriculture, which need
+not be wondered at if we bear in mind the fertility of the soil, the
+abundant supply of water, and the improvements effected in bygone ages.
+The labour invested in every kind of agricultural improvement, such
+as canals, embankments, terraces, or _ronchi_, built up like steps on
+the slope of every hill, has been immense, and defies computation. The
+mode of cultivation, moreover, entails a vast amount of labour, for
+the peasant knows not the iron plough, but tills his field with the
+spade: he is a gardener rather than an agriculturist. The agricultural
+produce is immense; its annual value is estimated at £80,000,000
+sterling, and it furnishes large quantities for exportation. Cereals,
+forage, mulberry leaves and cocoons, vegetables and fruit, and cheese,
+including the famous Parmesan, are the principal products. {219}
+Lombardy and Piemont occupy the first rank in the world for certain
+kinds of agricultural produce, and they are almost the only countries
+in Europe in which rice, introduced in the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, is extensively grown. The vineyards, on the other hand, are
+not as carefully tended as they might be, and the wines, with the
+exception of those of Asti, Monferrato, San Colombano, and Udine (the
+_picolito_), are of small repute.
+
+The valley of the Po divides itself into several well-marked
+agricultural provinces. In the Alpine valleys, between Col di Tenda and
+Monte Tricorno, the greater portion of the forests and pastures is held
+in common, but nearly every mountaineer is likewise the free proprietor
+of a bit of meadow or land, which his labour has converted into a
+garden. The social condition of these mountaineers thus resembles that
+of the French peasantry; for they, likewise, enjoy the advantages of
+a minute division of the land amongst freehold proprietors. The hilly
+tracts along the foot of the mountains are divided into farms of
+moderate size. The peasant no longer owns the land, but, in accordance
+with old feudal customs, he shares in its produce. In the plain, where
+it is necessary to keep up a complicated system of canals, nearly all
+the land belongs to rich capitalists, who cut it up into numerous small
+farms, and for the most part reside in the towns. These small farmers
+have no resources of their own, and are hardly above the rank of
+agricultural labourers. Though they cultivate the most fertile region
+of Northern Italy, they are miserably fed, frequently decimated by
+disease, and least alive to the advantages of education. The contrast
+between these miserable peasants and the mountaineers of Vaudois and
+the Val Tellina is great indeed.
+
+Periodically many of the mountaineers migrate to the towns and
+neighbouring countries in search of work, and a proverb tells us that
+there is no country in the world “without sparrows or Bergamosks.”
+But though the natives of the hills of Bergamo furnish a numerous
+contingent of these migrants, they are outnumbered by Friulians,
+inhabitants of the shores of the Lago Maggiore, and Piemontese. The
+latter cross the passes of the Western Alps in large numbers in search
+of work at Marseilles and other towns of Southern France, and, small
+wages sufficing for their frugal wants, they are not particularly liked
+by their French fellow-workmen.
+
+The metallic wealth of Northern Italy is but small. The only mines of
+note are those which formerly supplied the famous armourers of Brescia
+with iron, and the gold diggings of Anzasca, at the foot of Monte Rosa,
+where 5,000 slaves were kept at work by the Romans, and which are
+not yet quite exhausted. Marble, gneiss, granite, potters’ clay, and
+kaolin are, however, found abundantly. In former times silks, velvets,
+carpets, glass, porcelain, metal-work, and other art productions of the
+workmen of Venice and Lombardy enjoyed a very high reputation. These
+ancient industries decayed with the downfall of the old republics, but
+there are signs now of their revival. The want of coal or other fuel
+for setting in motion the machinery of modern factories is compensated
+for, to some extent, by an abundant water power, and this explains why
+nearly all the important manufactories are met with at the debouchures
+of the Alpine valleys. {220}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 72.—THE LAGOONS OF COMACCHIO.
+
+Scale 1 : 290,000.]
+
+Amongst the ancient industries of the country not yet extinct, the
+fisheries of the lagoons of Comacchio occupy a foremost place. The
+Canal of Magnavacca, now hardly navigable, admits the waters of the sea
+into the Canal Palotta, which may be described as the great artery of
+these lagoons. It was constructed in 1631–34, and, by an ingeniously
+designed system of ramifying canals, carries the vivifying floods to
+the most remote parts of the lagoons. The various basins, or _valli_,
+of the lagoons are thus filled with sea-water, and constitute as many
+breeding beds, where the fish come from the sea multiply abundantly. A
+labyrinth of canals provided with flood-gates cuts off their retreat to
+the sea, and they are caught in immense numbers when the fishing season
+arrives. Spallanzani has seen 60,000 pounds of fish taken in a single
+bed, or _valle_, within an hour; but sometimes the draught is even more
+considerable, and the fish are actually used as manure. The fishing
+population of Comacchio numbers about 5,000 individuals, most of them
+distinguished by tall stature, great strength, and suppleness. Coste,
+the fish-breeder, mentions it as a curious fact that this secluded
+colony of fishermen {221} should have retained these characteristic
+features for centuries, though sustained exclusively by fishing, and
+living upon mullets, eels, and _acquadelle_. Unfortunately these
+fishermen are not the proprietors of the ponds, for they belong to
+the State or to rich private individuals. The workmen live in large
+barracks away from the town, to which they return only at stated
+intervals, and even their wives and relatives are not permitted to
+visit them in their places of exile.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 73.—THE FISHERIES OF COMACCHIO.
+
+Scale 1 : 78,000.]
+
+The enormous population of the valley of the Po, which almost equals
+that of the remainder of continental Italy, is very unequally
+distributed; but, except in the high and cold Alpine valleys, the
+inhabitants live in towns, dozens of which may be seen peeping out
+amidst the verdure if we ascend a high tower. There are scarcely any
+villages or hamlets. The farmers alone live in the country, completely
+isolated from each other, whilst the numerous landed proprietors throng
+the towns, and impart to them an aspect of wealth which similar places
+in other {222} parts of Europe cannot boast of. No other country in
+the world is as densely populated, and in Lombardy the number of towns
+is relatively larger than anywhere else.[70]
+
+Large towns, too, are numerous, and many of them enjoy a deserved
+reputation amongst the cities of the world on account of their
+monuments, art treasures, and historical associations. Their number
+is partly accounted for by the density of the population, and by the
+facility with which the inhabitants were able to shift their abodes,
+according to the hazards of war or the vicissitudes of events. And this
+accounts, too, for the large number of towns which became famous as the
+capitals of republics, or as royal and ducal residences.
+
+Several of the towns at the base of the Alps occupy sites marked out
+for them by nature. Such are the towns at the mouth of the valleys or
+defiles, which were places of defence as well as staples of commerce.
+Ariminum, the modern Rimini, at the southern extremity of the great
+plain of the Po, was one of these, for during the reign of the Roman
+it defended the narrow littoral passage between the Adriatic and the
+Apennines. The Flaminian Road there reached the sea, the Emilian Road
+thence departed for the north-west, as did also the littoral road of
+Ravenna. When Rome had ceased to be the capital of the world, and
+Italy was divided into small hostile states, the towns in the southern
+part of the plain, or near the passes over the Po, such as Ferrara and
+Bologna, retained their strategical importance. Piacenza, which defends
+the passage of the Po between Piemont and Emilia, remains a first-rate
+fortress to the present day; Alessandria, near the confluence of Tanaro
+and Bormida, and in a plain famous for many a bloody battle, was
+likewise destined to become a formidable fortress, though derisively
+called a “city of straw.” Every valley debouching from France or
+Austria was locked at its mouth by a strong fort; but most of these
+places, such as Vinadio, Pinerolo, Fenestrella, and Susa, have become
+untenable, owing to the range of modern artillery.
+
+The defences of the road over the Brenner, ever since the downfall of
+the Roman empire, had to be looked to most carefully, for the plain
+between the Mincio and the Adige, to the south of the Lake of Garda,
+is the least-protected part of Italy from a military point of view.
+History has proved this. Well might the peaceable inhabitants of the
+plain consecrate this Alpine road to the gods, and intrust its defence
+to the neighbouring tribes. But the northern barbarians were not to
+be stopped by altars; and many a time they swept down it like an
+avalanche, pillaging the towns and massacring the inhabitants. No spot
+on the earth’s surface has been so frequently saturated with human
+blood. Most of the battles for the possession of Italy, down to our
+own days, were fought near the mouth of the upper valley of the Adige.
+Hardly a town or a village of this small district but {223} has gained
+a mournful notoriety in the dark pages of human history. It is there
+we must seek for the battle-fields of Castiglione, Lonato, Rivoli,
+Solferino, and Custozza. When the Austrians held Lombardy and Venice,
+they took care to protect this district by the four fortresses known as
+the Quadrilateral (Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and Legnago) and other
+works. These constituted the “key of the house,” of which Italy has now
+repossessed herself.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 74.—MOUTH OF THE ADIGE VALLEY.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 397,000.]
+
+The configuration of the country which rendered these defiles of the
+Alps of importance strategically, likewise insured their commercial
+importance. The fortresses were placed there to defend the passes, the
+commercial entrepôts to intercept the trade. The rank of these places
+of commerce depends essentially upon the number and the importance of
+the roads which converge upon them. Turin, upon which converge all the
+Alpine roads from Mont Blanc to the Apennines, naturally became one of
+the vital points of European commerce. Milan, to which lead the seven
+great Alpine routes of the Simplon, the Gotthard, the Bernardino, the
+Splügen, the Julier, the Maloya, and the Stelvio, was marked out by
+nature as a commercial emporium. Bologna, too, which was separated by
+the swamps of the Po from the Alpine passes, has risen into importance
+since railways have joined it to Vienna, Paris, Marseilles, and Naples.
+{224}
+
+The valley of the Po would never have attained its importance in the
+history of Europe unless roads had been constructed for traversing the
+obstructive mountains which surround it on all sides except towards
+the east, where it opens out upon the Adriatic. No other district of
+Europe is so completely hemmed in by natural obstacles as is this, but
+the construction of carriage roads and railways has converted Northern
+Italy into one of the great centres of European commerce. Venice
+gives it the command of the Adriatic, the Apennine railways connect
+it with Genoa, Savona, the Gulf of Spezia, and the Tyrrhenian, and
+it thus commands the two seas which wash the shores of Italy. Other
+railways cross the Alps, and put it into communication with France and
+Germany. This central position, joined to the natural fertility of the
+country, has converted Northern Italy into one of the most flourishing
+portions of Europe. Human hands have conquered original geographical
+disadvantages, and the true centre of Italy is in the ancient Cisalpine
+Gaul, and not at Rome. Had the Italians been guided in the choice of
+their capital by actual importance, and not by historical tradition,
+they would have chosen one of the great cities of their northern plain.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 75.—THE PASSAGES OVER THE ALPS.
+
+Scale 1 : 6,000,000.]
+
+Turin, though an old town, seeing that it was burnt by Hannibal, is
+nevertheless a modern city, if we compare it with other towns of Italy.
+Its straight and broad streets almost give it the appearance of a town
+of the New World. Until made a ducal residence, Turin was but a small
+provincial town. During the time of the Romans, and even during the
+Middle Ages, the great high-road between Italy and Gaul led along the
+coast of the Gulf of Genoa. The passage of the Alps was looked upon
+with dread by travellers. Still some traffic went on even in these
+{225} early days, and small towns sprang into existence at the foot of
+each Alpine pass. Amongst these were Mondovi, the triple town built on
+three hills; Cuneo, favourably placed upon a terrace between Stura and
+Gesso, in which rise the hot sulphur springs of Valdiera; Saluzzo, on
+the gentle slope of the foot-hills of Monte Viso; Pinerolo, with its
+ancient castle, so often converted into a prison of state; Susa, the
+Italian key of Mont Cenis; Aosta, still abounding in Roman antiquities;
+Ivrea, built on a site formerly occupied by a glacier descending from
+Monte Rosa; and Riella, with its flourishing woollen industry. The
+towns lower down in the plain, upon which several of these Alpine roads
+converged, likewise attained some local importance. In Upper Piemont
+there are Fossano, on a heap of shingle at the junction of the roads
+of Mondovi and Cuneo; Savigliano, lower down, where the roads of the
+Po and Maira valleys join; and Carmagnola, which commands one of the
+principal roads over the Apennines. Novara, the commercial outlet of
+the Lago Maggiore, and in the midst of one of the most productive
+agricultural districts, is the most populous town of Eastern Piemont.
+Vercelli, on the Sesia, and below the confluence of the rivulets
+descending from Monte Rosa, enjoys natural advantages similar to those
+of Novara. Casale, the ancient capital of Monferrato, defends one of
+the principal passages of the Po.
+
+But Turin, owing to its favourable position, has become the great
+emporium of the valley of the Upper Po. Its commerce has grown
+immensely, since the town no longer enjoys the perilous honour of being
+the capital of a kingdom, and the places vacated by the court and
+Government officials have been filled up quickly by immigrants carried
+thither by the railways. Its libraries, a fine museum, and various
+learned societies entitle it to rank as one of the intellectual centres
+of the peninsula, whilst its manufactures of silks and woollens, of
+paper and other articles, are of great importance. The environs of
+Turin are delightful. From the hill of the Superga, a few miles to the
+east of the city, and crowned by a sumptuous church, may be enjoyed one
+of the finest panoramas of the Italian Alps. The numerous small towns
+in its vicinity, such as Moncalieri, Chieri, and Carignano, abound in
+villas and participate in the prosperity of the capital. As to the
+towns in the valley of the Tanaro, in the south, they form a group
+apart, and are the natural intermediaries between the valley of the
+Po and the port of Genoa. Alessandria, a strong fortress of hideous
+regularity, which has superseded the old fortresses of Tortona and
+Novi, is the terminus of eight railways, and one of the busiest places
+of Italy. The neighbouring cities of Asti, famous for its sparkling
+wines, and Acqui, celebrated from the time of the Romans for its hot
+springs, are likewise important for their commerce.[71]
+
+Milan, the capital of Lombardy, is in every respect one of the leading
+cities of Italy. In population it is inferior to Naples, in commerce
+it is outstripped only {226} by Genoa, but in industry it is the equal
+of both. Its scientific and literary life entitles it, probably, to
+the first rank amongst the cities between the Alps and Sicily. In the
+most remote times Milan was an important town of the Celts, and since
+then the advantages of its position have given it the preponderance
+amongst all other cities of Northern Italy. Its power during the Middle
+Ages gained it the epithet of the “Second Rome.” At the close of the
+thirteenth century it had 200,000 inhabitants, whilst London had not
+then a sixth of that number. Milan stood in want of water, for it
+was dependent upon the feeble stream of the Olona, and its citizens
+created the Naviglio Grande and the Martesana, veritable rivers, which
+furnish a quantity of water double that of the Seine at Paris during
+summer. They likewise erected magnificent monuments, but most of these
+have perished during innumerable wars, and the aspect of Milan is now
+that of a modern town of Western Europe. Its most famous building, the
+“Duomo,” with its prodigious crowd of statues, its finely chiselled
+marbles and granites, must be looked upon as a marvel of architecture,
+though from an artistic point of view it is hardly more than an
+elaborately carved trinket out of all proportion. The stones for this
+edifice were quarried on the Lago Maggiore, near the mouth of the Toce.
+
+The capital of Lombardy, proud of the past and confident of the future,
+boasts of never yielding servilely to impulses given from beyond. It
+has its own opinions, manners, and fashions, and anything accepted
+from abroad is moulded in accordance with local traditions. The other
+towns of Lombardy likewise maintain their local character, are proud
+of their traditions, and glory in the annals of the past. Como, on the
+beautiful lake named after it, the ancient rival of Milan, gains wealth
+by spinning silk and exporting the agricultural produce of the Brianza.
+Monza, surrounded by parks and villas, is the coronation city. Pavia,
+with its 525 towers, now in ruins, remembers the time when it was the
+residence of the Lombard kings, and proudly points to the university,
+one of the oldest in Europe, and to the Certosa (Chartreuse), one of
+the most sumptuous monasteries of Italy. Vigevano, on the other side of
+the Ticino, rejoices in a fine castle. Lodi, in the eleventh century,
+was the most powerful city of Italy next to Milan, and carried on a war
+of extermination with the latter; it is still a busy place. Cremona, an
+old republic, boasts of its _torrazzo_, or tower, 393 feet in height,
+the loftiest in Europe until Gothic cathedrals were built. Bergamo,
+on a hill commanding the rich plains of Brembo and Serio, produced a
+larger number of great men than any other town except Florence; and
+Brescia, the armourers’ town, more haughty still, proclaims herself to
+be the mother of heroes.
+
+Mantua, on the Mincio, is one of the fortresses of the Quadrilateral,
+and can hardly be said to belong to Lombardy, though included within
+its political boundaries. It is essentially a military town. It has
+lost much of its old commerce, though Jews are more plentiful there
+than in any other inland city of Italy. Its swamps, woods, rice-fields,
+ditches, and fortified canals are productive of a degree of humidity
+exceptional even in Lombardy, and the inhabitants consequently eschew
+this ancient birthplace of Virgil. Strikingly different is the
+character of the towns situated in the heart of the mountains, such as
+Sondrio, the capital of the {227} Val Tellina, or delightful Salo, on
+the Lake of Garda, with its group of villas scattered amongst groves of
+orange-trees.[72]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 76.—THE LAKES AND CANALS OF MANTUA.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 198,000.]
+
+The physiognomy of the large towns of Emilia, beyond the Po, offers
+far fewer peculiarities, for, as most of them are situated along the
+great Emilian highway, they have been exposed for ages to the levelling
+influences of travelling merchants and soldiers. Piacenza, a sorry
+place as a fortress, carries on an important commerce. Parma, an old
+ducal residence, has a rich library, a museum, and wonderful frescoes
+by Correggio in its churches. Reggio, another important {228} station
+on the Emilian highway, is famous as the birthplace of Ariosto. Modena
+has its museum, and the precious collection of books and manuscripts
+known as the _Biblioteca Estense_. Bologna the “Learned,” which has
+taken the word “Libertas” for its motto, still remains one of the
+most interesting of Italian cities. There are its Etruscan cemetery,
+its palaces and mediæval buildings, and its two leaning towers, which
+will most certainly come down in the end. Bologna is one of the great
+railway centres, carries on much commerce, and increases rapidly in
+population. It would have made a far better capital than Rome. Of late
+years the environs of the city have been frequently flooded by the
+Reno, and these disasters have cost Bologna its ancient epithet of “the
+Fat.”
+
+Near this bustling place there are others, now stagnant, which can
+point only to buildings in proof that they, too, were once flourishing.
+Ferrara, the ancient capital of the Estes, has fallen from its high
+estate since the Po has deserted it, but still remains a place of some
+importance. Ravenna has not been deserted by the Po, but by the sea,
+with which it communicates now by a canal seven miles in length, and
+navigable for ships drawing thirteen feet of water. The town became
+the capital of Honorius and Theoderic the Goth, on account of the
+protection offered by the surrounding marshes. To the exarchs it is
+indebted for its curious Byzantine edifices, so rich in mosaics. As to
+the ancient Etruscan city of Adria, on Venetian soil, to the north of
+the Po, it could hardly have claimed at any period during the last two
+thousand years to give a name to the neighbouring sea. It lies now at a
+distance of fourteen miles from it, and even in the time of the Romans
+it must have been surrounded by lagoons or swamps, for how else can we
+explain its epithet of “Town of the Seven Seas?” Porto, at the foot of
+the Euganean Hills, may owe its name to an ancient lake or river.
+
+Towns famous on account of their history, and still populous, are
+most crowded together in the southern angle of the plain, usually
+known as the Romagna. The towers and crenellated walls of Imola rise
+there on the banks of the Santerno. Lugo, the “town of the beautiful
+Romagnese,” occupies the centre of the district of Ravenna, and has
+much trade. Faenza, on the Emilian Road, is a large village rather
+than a town, though it has given its name to a particular kind of
+porcelain (faience). Forli is, next to Bologna, the most populous city
+of Romagna. Cesena is known for the excellence of the hemp grown in the
+neighbourhood. Rimini, where the Emilian Road reaches the sea, still
+has a few Roman ruins, including a triumphal arch. The inhabitants
+of the Romagna are distinguished by great energy. Their passions
+are violent, and as frequently lead them into crime as to deeds of
+heroism.[73]
+
+[Illustration: THE PALACE AT FERRARA.]
+
+[Illustration: VERONA.]
+
+In Venetia there are several provincial towns of importance. Padua
+abounds in monuments of art, possesses a university, and was formerly
+the rival of Venice. Vicenza is embellished by the palaces erected by
+Palladio. Treviso and Belluno are towns of some importance, the one
+on the Sile, the other in the upper valley {229} of the Piave.
+At Udine is pointed out a mound of earth said to have been thrown up
+by Attila, from which he contemplated the conflagration of Aquileja.
+Palmanova, on the Austrian frontier, is a regularly built fortress.
+Verona, at the other extremity of Venetia, has played an important part
+in the history of Italy, but its commerce and industry have fallen into
+decay. It hardly fills up the space enclosed by walls and bastions, and
+its present population is quite out of proportion to the multitude of
+its public buildings dating from the Middle Ages, and the dimensions of
+its Roman amphitheatre, capable of seating 50,000 spectators. Amongst
+all the cities of Venetia it is Venice itself, the “Queen of the
+Adriatic,” which has suffered least in the course of ages.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 77.—PALMANOVA.
+
+Scale 1 : 86,400.]
+
+Venice is a very ancient city. The remains of Roman buildings
+discovered on the island of San Giorgia, far below the present level
+of the sea, and therefore referred to in proof of the slow subsidence
+of the Venetian coast, prove to us that the mud islands of the gulf
+supported a population long before the invasion of the Barbarians.
+These half-drowned lands may have attracted the coast population at
+an early age, for they afforded security against attack, and offered
+great advantages for carrying on commerce. Nevertheless, the Venice
+of our time only dates from the commencement of the ninth century,
+when the government of this maritime republic was established upon the
+islands separated from the sea by the _lidi_, and from the mainland
+by estuaries and swamps. This unique position rendered Venice almost
+impregnable; and whilst the rest of Europe was being desolated by war,
+Venice sent forth its commercial and warlike expeditions to every part
+of the Mediterranean, established factories, and built fortresses. Not
+without arduous struggles, it became the most powerful and wealthiest
+of the commercial republics of Italy. It was largely indebted for
+this success to its favourable geographical position, almost in the
+centre of the mediæval world. Its commerce brought the Venetians into
+contact with nearly every nation, and they had no prejudices against
+foreigners. The Armenians were admitted to their city, and an alliance
+was made even with the Turks. At the time of the Crusades the Venetian
+Republic occupied the foremost position amongst the states of Europe,
+and its ambassadors enjoyed a vast amount of influence. This influence
+was sustained by enormous material forces. Venice had a navy of 300
+vessels, manned by 36,000 sailors, and the riches of the world, whether
+obtained by legitimate commerce or by violence, were accumulated in its
+2,000 palaces and 200 churches. Even _one_ of the islets upon which the
+city is built would have purchased a kingdom of Asia or Africa. One
+of the most sumptuous cities of the West had {230} arisen upon banks
+of mud, inhabited formerly only by poor fishermen. The larch forests
+of Dalmatia had been cut down, and converted into piles upon which
+to build palaces. More than 400 bridges of marble joined island to
+island, and superb embankments of granite defended this marvellous city
+against the encroachments of the sea. Great achievements in the arts
+contributed their share in making _Venezia la Bella_ a city without its
+equal.
+
+But geographical discoveries, in which Venice itself took a leading
+share, undermined the power of the Italian Republic. When Africa had
+been circumnavigated and the New World discovered, the Mediterranean
+ceased to be the great commercial sea of the world. Venice was doomed
+to die. It no longer monopolized the road to India, and the increasing
+power of the Turks crippled its Eastern trade. Still, so great were
+its resources, that it maintained its independence for more than three
+hundred years after it had lost its factories, and only fell when
+shamefully deserted by General Bonaparte, its supposed ally.
+
+The decadence of Venice was most remarkable during the dominion of
+Austria. In 1840 the city had less than 100,000 inhabitants, hundreds
+of its palaces were in ruins, the grass grew in its squares, and
+seaweeds encumbered its landing-places. Since that time it has been
+gradually recovering. A bridge of 222 arches and 2,000 feet in length
+connects it with the mainland, and its commerce, though not equal to
+that of Trieste, is nevertheless of considerable importance.[74] The
+manufacture of looking-glasses, lace, and other articles has imparted
+fresh life to Venice, and there, as well as in other towns of the
+lagoons (Malamocco, Burano, Murano, and Chioggia), thousands of workmen
+are busy in the production of those gay-looking glass beads which find
+their way into every part of the world, and which in certain countries
+of the East and in Central Africa take the place of coin. But Venice,
+though less populous and active than of yore, still rejoices in its
+delightful climate and its bright skies. Its gaiety and fêtes are not
+yet things of the past, and its palaces, built in a style half Italian,
+half Moorish, still contain the priceless masterpieces of Titian,
+Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese.[75]
+
+
+III.—LIGURIA AND THE RIVIERA OF GENOA.[76]
+
+Liguria is but a narrow slip of land if we compare it with the broad
+plain of the Po, but it is one of the most clearly defined districts
+of Europe, and its inhabitants have retained many original traits.
+The contrast between the Podane plains and the littoral region beyond
+the barren Apennines is striking, but if we travel in the direction
+of Provence or of Tuscany the landscape changes only by degrees. The
+rampart of the Apennines surrounds the whole of the Gulf of {231}
+Genoa, and there is not a single break in it. These mountains are
+very different in character from the Alps, though joined to them as
+the branch of a tree is united to its trunk. It is not possible to
+tell where one chain ends and the other begins. If the main direction
+of the mountain is to be the criterion, the Ligurian Apennines may
+be said to begin at the frontier of France, near the sources of the
+Tinea and Vesubio; but if great height, pastures, and perennial snow
+are considered sufficient to constitute an Alpine region, then the
+Apennines only begin to the east of the Col di Tenda, for the fine
+summits of the Clapier, Fenêtre, and Gordalesque, to the west of that
+pass, attain a height of 10,000 feet. They are quite Alpine in their
+character, and may boast even of small glaciers, the most southerly
+in the mountains of Central Europe. Geologists usually draw the line
+where cretaceous and tertiary rocks take the place of the crystalline
+rocks of the Alps. But this, too, is only a conventional division,
+for these crystalline rocks, which constitute the crest of the Alps
+in the west, extend far to the east, and occasionally they break
+through the sedimentary formations which overlie them, and rise into
+summits similar to those of the Alps. Thus the granitic summits of the
+mountains of Spezia remind us of the mountain mass near the Col di
+Tenda.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 78.—THE JUNCTION OF ALPS AND APENNINES.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,500,000]
+
+The chain of the Ligurian Apennines is by no means of uniform height,
+but, like that of the Alps, it consists of mountain masses separated by
+passes. The lowest of these passes is that to the west of Savona, named
+indifferently after one of the neighbouring villages, Altare, Carcara,
+or Cadibona. This pass is hardly more than 1,600 feet in height, and
+is popularly looked upon as constituting the boundary between the Alps
+and Apennines. The possession of this pass during war has {232} always
+been considered of great importance, for it commands the approaches to
+Genoa and the upper valleys of Piemont, and the Tanaro and Bormido,
+which rise near it, have often run with blood.
+
+The Apennines to the east of this pass have an average height of 3,300
+feet, and beyond the Pass of Giovi (1,538 feet), through which the road
+leads from Genoa to the northern plains, many summits attain a height
+of 4,500 feet. Several spurs, abounding in ravines, extend here to the
+north. The main chain, at the same time, retires from the coast, and
+the Pass of Pontremoli, which separates the Ligurian from the Tuscan
+Apennines, and through which leads the road from Parma to Spezia, is
+no less than thirty miles from the sea. In this eastern portion of
+the Genoese Apennines a spur detaches itself from the main chain, and
+terminates in the fine promontory of Porto Venere, a magnificent rock
+of black marble, surmounted formerly by a temple of Venus. This spur,
+which protects the Gulf of Spezia against westerly winds, has at all
+times constituted an obstacle to the intercourse between neighbouring
+peoples, not so much on account of its height, but because of its
+steepness. In some places the crest of the Apennines is hardly more
+than four miles from the sea. The slope, in such places, is exceedingly
+steep, and roads can ascend it only in numerous windings.[77]
+
+The small width of the maritime slope of the Ligurian Apennines
+accounts for the absence of perennial rivers. The most considerable
+streams to the east of the Roya, which runs for the greater part
+through French territory, such as the Taggia or the Centa, only assume
+the appearance of rivers when the snows melt, or after heavy rains.
+Ordinarily they are but small streams, closed at the mouth by bars of
+pebbles. Between Albenga and Spezia, for a distance of 160 miles, there
+are only torrents, and in order to meet again with a real river we must
+go beyond the Gulf of Spezia. This river is the Magra, which separates
+Liguria from Etruria, and which, up to the epoch of Augustus, formed
+the boundary of Italy. Its alluvium has converted an ancient bay of the
+sea into a lake, and formed a beach, 1,300 yards in width, in front
+of the ancient Tyrrhenian city of Luni, which formerly stood on the
+seashore.
+
+The want of great rivers in Liguria is compensated for to some extent
+by subterranean water-courses. Several springs rise from the bottom of
+the sea, at some distance from the shore. The springs of La Polla, in
+the Gulf of Spezia, are amongst the most bountiful amongst them. They
+have been isolated by the Italian Government from the surrounding salt
+water, and their water is supplied to ships.
+
+Owing to the absence of rivers, the sterility of the soil, and the
+steep escarpments, this portion of the Mediterranean coast region
+contrasts strikingly with other parts of temperate Europe. Having
+reached the summit of the mountains beyond the magnificent chestnut
+forests at the head-streams of the Ellero, the Tanaro, and the Bormida,
+we look down upon a scene almost African in its character. Scarcely
+a blade of grass is to be seen between Nice and Spezia, and only
+the grass-plots, kept up at great expense in some pleasure-gardens,
+remind us that Piemont and {233} Lombardy are near at hand. Pines and
+brambles would have remained the only verdure in these Ligurian valleys
+and ravines if it were not for the transformation wrought by gardeners
+and agriculturists. Strange to say, trees do not ascend to the same
+height on the slopes of the Apennines as in the Alps, though the mean
+temperature is far higher, and at an altitude at which the beech still
+attains noble proportions in Switzerland we find it here stunted in
+growth. Larches are hardly ever seen.
+
+The sea is as sterile as the land. There are neither shallows,
+islands, nor seaweeds affording shelter to fish. The cliffs descend
+precipitously into the sea, and the narrow strips of beach, extending
+from promontory to promontory, consist only of sand without the
+admixture of a single shell. The Genoese fishermen, therefore, resort
+to distant coasts, those of the “Ponente,” or west, going to Sicily,
+whilst those of Camogli, on the Riviera di Levanto, visit the coasts of
+Tuscany. This sterility of land and sea accounts for the large number
+of Genoese met with in other parts of the world.
+
+But though an unfruitful country, Liguria is exceedingly picturesque. A
+traveller availing himself of the railway between Nice and Genoa, which
+follows the sinuosities of the coast and pierces the promontories in
+numerous tunnels, is brought within reach of the most varied scenery.
+At one time the line runs close to the beach, with the foam of the sea
+almost touching the track on the one side, while tamarisks bearing
+pink blossoms overshadow it from the other. Elsewhere we creep up the
+steep slope, and obtain a view of the cultivated terraces raised at
+immense labour by the peasantry, whilst the bluish sea is seen afar
+to the right, almost hidden by a grove of olive-trees, and stretching
+away until lost in the direction of Corsica. Towns, villages, old
+towers, villas, ship-yards, and other industrial establishments impart
+an almost infinite variety to the scenery. One town occupies the top
+of a hill, and, seen from below, its old walls and towers stand out
+boldly against the sky; another is built amphitheatrically, close to
+the strand upon which the fishermen have drawn their boats; a third is
+hidden in a hollow, and surrounded by vines, olive, orange, and lemon
+trees. A date-tree here and there imparts an oriental aspect to the
+landscape. Bordighera, a small place close to the French frontier, is
+quite surrounded by palm-trees, whose fruit, however, but rarely ripens.
+
+The climate of Albenga, Loana, and some other places on the Genoese
+coast is far from salubrious, on account of the miasmata exhaled by
+sheets of stagnant water left behind by freshets. Even Genoa cannot
+boast of an agreeable climate, not because there are marshes near
+it, but because the southerly winds charged with moisture are caught
+there by the semicircle of mountains, and are made to discharge their
+superabundant humidity. The number of rainy days at Genoa averages 121
+a year. There are, however, several towns along this coast protected
+by the mountains against the north, and yet out of the usual track of
+the moisture-laden southerly winds, whose climate is exceptionally
+delightful.[78] Bordighera {234} and San Remo, near the French
+frontier, are the rivals of Mentone as regards climate; and Nervi, to
+the east of Genoa, is likewise a favourite place of resort, on account
+of its clear sky and pure atmosphere. Villas and castles rise on every
+promontory and in every valley of these favoured districts. For a
+dozen miles on either side of Genoa the coast is lined by villas. The
+population of the city has overflowed the walls which once confined it,
+and is establishing itself in populous suburbs. The long street which
+winds between factories and gardens, scales promontories, and descends
+into valleys, will continue to grow in length until it extends along
+the whole coast of Liguria, for the charms of the country attract men
+of leisure from every quarter of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 79.—GENOA AND ITS SUBURBS.
+
+From the Sardinian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 100,000.]
+
+The historical development of the ancient Ligurians, who were probably
+of Iberian race, was largely influenced by the nature of the country
+they inhabited. The cultivable land being only of small extent,
+the superabundant population was forced to look to the sea for a
+livelihood, and engaged in navigation and commerce. Antium, the modern
+Genoa, was an “emporium” of the Ligurians ever since the time of the
+Romans, and its vessels frequented every corner of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
+In the Middle Ages the Genoese flag was carried into every part of the
+known world, and it was Genoa that gave birth to Christopher Columbus,
+whose name is inscribed upon the first page of modern history as the
+discoverer of America. It was a Genoese, too, Giovanni Gabotto, or
+Cabot, who afresh discovered the coast of North America five centuries
+after its original discovery by the {235} Normans. The hardy mariners
+of Genoa have thus navigated the seas from the most remote times. Even
+now they almost monopolize the navigation of the great rivers of the
+Argentine Republic. The Genoese likewise enjoy a high reputation as
+gardeners, and are met with in every large town of the Mediterranean.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 80.—VIEW OF GENOA.]
+
+As long as the Apennines were not crossed by practicable carriage
+roads, Genoa possessed no advantages whatever over the other ports of
+Liguria, but ever since it has been placed in easy communication with
+the fertile plains of Lombardy and Piemont, the great advantages of
+its geographical position have told upon its development. Pisa was
+the only republic on the western coast of Italy which contested this
+superiority of Genoa, but was defeated after a sanguinary struggle.
+The Genoese possessed themselves of Corsica, the inhabitants of which
+were treated most cruelly; they took Minorca from the Moors, and
+even captured several towns in Spain, which they restored only after
+important commercial privileges had been granted them. In the Ægean Sea
+the nobles of Genoa became the proprietors of Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos,
+and other islands. At Constantinople the Genoese merchants were as
+powerful almost as the Emperor. Kaffa, in {236} the Crimea, was one
+of their wealthy colonies. Their factories and towers were met along
+every commercial high-road in Asia Minor, and even in the recesses of
+the Caucasus. The possession of the Black Sea gave them the command of
+the trade with Central Asia. These distant colonies explain the use of
+a few Arab, Turkish, and Greek terms by the Genoese, and though the
+dialect spoken by them is decidedly Italian, the intonation is French.
+
+Nevertheless Genoa, though more powerful than Pisa, failed in wresting
+the command of the sea from the Venetians, who enjoyed immense
+advantages through their connection with Germany. Her political
+influence has never equalled that of Venice, nor has she produced as
+many men eminent in literature and art as has her Adriatic rival.
+The Genoese had the reputation in former times of being violent and
+false, fond of luxury and power, and indifferent to everything which
+did not enrich them. “A sea without fish, mountains without forests,
+men without faith, women without modesty—thus is Genoa,” was a proverb
+ever in the mouth of the enemies of the Ligurian city. The dissensions
+amongst the noble families of Genoa were incessant, but the Bank of St.
+George never allowed civil strife to interfere with business. Wealth
+flowed into the city without any cessation, and enabled its citizens
+to construct those palaces, marble arcades, and hanging gardens which
+have won for it the epithet of _la Superba_. In the end, however, ruin
+overtook the Bank, and that justly, for it had supplied princes with
+money to enable them to wage war, and its bankruptcy in the middle of
+the eighteenth century rendered Genoa politically impotent.
+
+The capital of Liguria, in spite of its small extent, its sinuous
+streets, its ramparts, stairs, and dirty narrow quays, may justly boast
+of palaces equally remarkable for the splendour and originality of
+their architecture. Many of these magnificent buildings appeared to
+be doomed to ruin during the decay of the town, but, on the return of
+more prosperous times, the citizens again devoted themselves to the
+embellishment of their city. Genoa is the busiest port of Italy.[79]
+Its shipowners possess nearly half the Italian mercantile marine, and
+three-fourths of the vessels annually built in Italy are furnished
+from its ship-yards. The harbour, though 320 acres in extent, no
+longer suffices for the hundreds of sailing vessels and steamers which
+crowd into it. Nor is it sufficiently sheltered against the winds,
+and it has therefore been proposed to construct a vast breakwater far
+beyond its present limits. Genoa fancies that its interests are not
+sufficiently attended to by the Central Government. A second railway
+across the Apennines is urgently demanded, in order to manage the
+traffic that will be created by the opening of the direct railway
+through Switzerland, which will place Genoa in direct communication
+with Western Germany.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 81.—THE GULF OF SPEZIA.
+
+From the Sardinian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 80,000.]
+
+In the meantime Genoa is expanding in all directions. Its factories of
+macaroni, paper, silks and velvets, soap, oil, jewellery, metal-work,
+pottery, ornamental flowers, and other objects are ever increasing; and
+_ovrar del Genoes_—Genoese {237} industry—is a marvel now, as it was
+in the Middle Ages. San Pier d’Arena (Sampierdarena), to the west, has
+become a veritable manufacturing town. Cornigliano, Rivarolo, Sestri
+di Ponente with its large ship-yards, Pegli, and Voltri are populous
+towns, having spinning-mills and foundries. Savona, whose port was
+{238} filled up by the jealous Genoese, occupies the bottom of a vast
+bay. It has glass-works and potteries, and is connected by a railway
+with Turin. Elsewhere on the Riviera di Ponente the towns are crowded
+closely together. Such is the case with the twin cities of Oneglia
+and Porto Maurizio, the one built on the beach, the other on a steep
+hill close by, and known as the “Fountains of Oil,” because of their
+extensive plantations of olives. At San Remo, however, olives are more
+plentiful still.[80]
+
+On the Riviera di Levante town joins town like pearls in a necklace.
+Albaro, with its charming mansion, Quarto, whence departed the
+expedition which took Sicily from the Bourbons, and Nervi, a health
+resort for persons suffering from pulmonary diseases, constitute a
+long-stretching suburb of Genoa, extending in the direction of Recco
+and Camogli, two towns abounding in shipping. The rocky promontory of
+Porto Fino, thus named after the dolphins which formerly frequented
+it, imposes an insurmountable obstacle to the further extension of
+Genoa in this direction. Having traversed the tunnel leading through
+this promontory, we reach another group of towns, viz. Rapallo, the
+industrious; Chiavari, a great place of trade; Lavagna, with its famous
+quarries of grey slates; and Sestri di Levante, a town of fishermen.
+
+The coast beyond Sestri is but sparsely inhabited, for there bold
+cliffs approach the sea; but having doubled the superb cape of Porto
+Venere, we enter the fine Gulf of Spezia,[81] with its numerous forts,
+ship-yards, arsenals, and other buildings. The Italian Government has
+been busy ever since 1861 in converting this gulf into a first-rate
+naval arsenal, but no sooner has a portion of the work been completed
+than the progress made in the arts of destruction compels the engineers
+to remodel it—a very costly task. Whatever future may be in store for
+Spezia as a military port, it has none as a commercial one, for though
+it affords excellent shelter to vessels, no railway connects it with
+the fertile countries beyond the Apennines, and its exports are limited
+to the produce of the valleys in its immediate vicinity. Spezia is
+indebted for its high rank amongst the cities of Italy to its beautiful
+gulf, the rival of the Bay of Naples and the roadstead of Palermo. From
+the summit of the marble hill above the decayed town of Porto Venere we
+look down upon a marvellous succession of bays and promontories, and
+far in the distance the mountains of Corsica rise indistinctly above
+the blue waters. Looking to the east, we behold the picturesque towns
+on the opposite side of the gulf embedded in groves of olive-trees and
+cypresses, the Apuanic Alps and the Apennines bounding the horizon.
+Right opposite is the charming town of Lerici, and to the south of it
+the shore upon which Byron reduced to ashes the body of his friend
+Shelley: no spot more appropriate for this mournful holocaust. {239}
+
+
+IV.—TUSCANY.
+
+Tuscany, like Liguria, lies on the southern slope of the Apennines, but
+is of far greater width, for that back-bone of Italy retreats there
+from the Gulf of Genoa, and stretches right across the broadest part of
+the peninsula to the Adriatic. Besides this there are several detached
+plateaux and mountain ranges to the south of the valley of the Arno.[82]
+
+The Apennines of Tuscany are of very unequal height, and they are
+traversed by numerous low passes, which could easily be converted
+into carriage roads. Speaking generally, they consist of a series of
+elongated and parallel mountain masses, separated from each other by
+valleys, through which flow the head-streams of the Serchio and the
+Arno. The first important mountain mass of the main chain near the
+frontiers of Liguria, which is commanded by the Orsajo and Succiso,
+is thus separated by the valley of the Magra from the parallel range
+of Lumigiana. The chain of Garfognana, to the north of the plains of
+Lucca, has for its pendant the Alps of Apuana. Monte Cimone, farther
+east, and the other summits of the _Alpe Apennina_ to the north of
+Pistoja and Prato, are attended by the parallel ridges of the Monti
+Catini and Monte Albano, on whose slope is the famous grotto of
+Monsummano, with a thermal spring. A fourth mountain mass, that which
+the direct road from Florence to Bologna crosses in the Pass of Futa,
+has likewise its lateral chains, viz. the Monte Mugello, to the south
+of the Sieve; the Prato Magno, encircled by the Upper Arno; and the
+Alps of Catenaja, between the Arno and the Tiber.[83]
+
+The Apennines of Tuscany in many places attain a height of 5,000 feet,
+and are quite Alpine in their aspect, the upper slopes remaining
+covered with snow for more than half the year. They owe much of their
+grandeur to the precipitous slopes and fantastic profiles of the
+calcareous rocks which enter so largely into their composition. The
+forests of chestnuts, firs, and beeches which formerly clothed the
+whole of the range have not yet been entirely destroyed. The beautiful
+woods which cover the slopes of Prato Magno have impressed the mind of
+many a poet; and, since Milton sang the delights of Vallombrosa, the
+“shaded vale” has become a proverbial name for everything sweet and
+touching in the poetry of nature. Farther to the west the monastery of
+the Campo di Maldulo (Camaldoli) occupies one of the most beauteous
+spots in all Italy, the woods and meadows of which have been celebrated
+by Ariosto. From the summit above the convent both the “Tuscan and the
+Slavonian Sea” can be seen, as that poet tells us.
+
+The barren escarpments and forests of the Apennines form a charming
+contrast to the valleys and rounded hills of Lower Tuscany, where
+nearly every height is {240} surmounted by the ruins of a mediæval
+castle; graceful villas are scattered over the verdant slopes,
+farmhouses stand in the midst of vineyards and pointed cypresses, and
+every cultivable spot is made to yield a rich harvest. Historical
+associations, the taste of its inhabitants, the fertility of the soil,
+an abundance of running water, and the sweetness of the climate all
+combine in making Central Tuscany one of the most privileged regions of
+Italy. Protected by the rampart of the Apennines against cold northerly
+winds, this region faces the Tyrrhenian Sea, whence blow warm and humid
+winds of tropical origin. The rains they bring are not excessive,
+thanks to the screen formed by the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia,
+and the happy disposition of the detached hills near the coast. The
+climate of Tuscany is essentially temperate, and to its equability, no
+less than to the natural beauty of their abode, the Tuscans owe, no
+doubt, much of their gaiety, their good-nature, fine taste, poetical
+feeling, and facile imagination.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 82.—THE GOLFOLINO OF THE ARNO, NEAR SIGNA.]
+
+The valley of the Arno completely separates the hills of Southern
+Tuscany, usually known as the “Sub-Apennines,” from the principal
+chain of the mountains. This valley, with its defiles and ancient
+lake basins, may be likened to a moat {241} bounding the wall of the
+Apennines. The vale of Chiana, originally an arm of the sea, and then
+a lake, forms the uppermost portion of the zone which separates the
+Apennines from the hills of Southern Tuscany. Then follows the Campagna
+of Florence, an ancient lake basin, which it would be easy to flood
+again by building a dam across the defile of the Golfolina, through
+which the river makes its escape, and which was rent asunder by the
+“Egyptian Hercules.” Castruccio, the famous commander of the Luccans,
+actually proposed to flood the plains of Florence in the fourteenth
+century by constructing a dam across this defile; but happily his
+engineers pronounced the scheme to be impracticable, for they supposed
+the difference of level to amount to 288 feet, whilst in reality it is
+only fifty.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 83.—DEFILES OF THE ARNO.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 285,000.]
+
+The Sub-Apennine hills to the south of the Arno are of rounded
+contours, of a gloomy grey colour, and devoid of all verdure. Whilst
+the Apennines consist exclusively of Jurassic and cretaceous rocks,
+the Sub-Apennines are of tertiary formation, their sandstones, clays,
+marls, and pudding-stones being pierced here and there by serpentine.
+Well-defined ranges can hardly be said to exist. Southern Tuscany,
+indeed, may be described as a table-land intersected by rivers in
+all directions, surmounted by irregular groups of hills, and pierced
+by “sinks,” which swallow up some of the rivers. The cavities of
+the Ingolla form one of these sinks, in which several rivulets lose
+themselves, to reappear lower down as the source of the Elsa Viva,
+one of the principal tributaries of the Arno. The most elevated
+hills of this Sub-Apennine region form the water-parting between the
+Arno, the Cecina, and the Ombrone, and in the Poggio di Montieri, a
+mountain abounding in copper, they attain an elevation of 3,323 feet.
+The Labbro (3,815 feet), Cetona (3,650 feet), and Monte Amiata (5,450
+feet), to the south of the Ombrone valley, rise to a greater height,
+but geologically they belong already to Central Italy. The Cetona is
+a Jurassic outlier surrounded by recent formations. Monte Amiata, a
+trachytic cone, is the most elevated volcano of continental Italy. It
+no longer vomits lava, but numerous hot springs and solfataras prove
+that the volcanic forces are not yet quite extinct. The Radicofani
+(2,950 feet) is likewise an extinct volcano, whose lava resembles
+petrified froth, and can be cut with a hatchet.
+
+Subterranean agencies must indeed be very active in Tuscany, for
+metalliferous {242} veins ramify in all directions, and the number
+of mineral springs of every description is larger than in any other
+part of Italy. Amongst these springs there are several of world-wide
+reputation, as, for instance, those of Monte Catini, of San Giuliano,
+and of the Bagni di Lucca. The brine springs of Tuscany are very
+productive; but the most curious, and at the same time most useful,
+springs of all are the famous _lagoni_, in a side valley of the Cecina,
+and at the northern foot of the Poggio di Montieri. From a distance
+dense clouds of white vapour are seen rolling over the plain, and the
+bubbling noise made by gases escaping through the ponds, or _lagoni_,
+is heard. These ponds contain various salts, silica, and boracic acid,
+which is of great value in the manufacture of china and glass, and
+yields a considerable revenue to Tuscany. Nowhere else in Europe,
+except, perhaps, in the crater of the Eolian Vulcano, is boracic acid
+met with in sufficient quantities to repay the labour of extracting it.
+In Tuscany, however, there are several other localities where it might
+be won with advantage, as, for instance, near Massa Maritima, to the
+south of the Montieri.
+
+The subterranean fermentation of which Tuscany is the scene is no
+doubt due in a large measure to the changes which have taken place in
+the relative proportions of land and sea. Several isolated hills rise
+near the coast like islands from the sea, and these have evidently
+been joined to the mainland by the alluvial deposits brought down by
+the rivers. The Monti Serra (3,000 feet), to the east of Pisa, between
+the Arno and the Serchio, are almost insulated even now, for they are
+surrounded by swamps, and the level of the Lake of Bientina, at their
+eastern foot, is scarcely thirty feet above that of the Mediterranean.
+The heights along the coast to the south of Leghorn are not quite so
+isolated, but the lowland which connects them with the table-land of
+the interior is only of small elevation. The promontory, however,
+whose extremities are occupied by the towns of Populonia and Piombino
+(653 feet), is joined to the mainland only by a low plain of sand.
+The most perfect type of these ancient islands is presented to us in
+the superb Monte Argentaro, at the southern extremity of the Tuscan
+littoral, which rises boldly from the sea to a height of 2,085 feet,
+and is attached to the mainland by two narrow strips of land covered
+with pine-trees, enclosing a lake of regular shape: in the midst of it,
+on a fragment of the ancient beach, is built the town of Orbetello.
+This lake, which looks almost as if it were the work of a generation
+of giants, has been converted into an eel-pond, and millions of fish
+are caught in it every year. Towards the west of this mountain, in the
+direction of Corsica, lie the islands of Giglio and Monte Cristo (2,062
+feet) and the rock of Formica. The island of Elba, farther north, forms
+a small world of its own.
+
+The rivers of Tuscany have wrought great changes in the plains through
+which they flow, and along the sea-coast. Their labour has been
+facilitated by the nature of the soil which they traverse. The least
+rain converts the barren hill-slopes into a semi-fluid paste, which is
+carried by the rivers down to the sea. The mouth of the Arno has thus
+been pushed forward to the extent of seven miles in the course of a
+few centuries. In former times the Serchio and the Arno united before
+they flowed into the sea, but the Pisans diverted the former river to
+the {243} north, in order to rid themselves of its unwelcome deposits.
+Pisa, in the time of Strabo, stood at a distance of only twenty
+Olympian stadia from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and when the _cascina_ of San
+Rossore was built, towards the close of the eleventh century, its walls
+were close to the beach, which is now at a distance of three miles.
+Extensive plains intersected by dunes, or _tomboli_, and partly covered
+with forests of pines, have been added to the land in the course of
+centuries. These sandy wastes have become the home of large herds of
+horses and half-wild cattle, and the camel has been acclimatised there,
+it is said, since the Crusades. These changes in the coast-line may
+not, however, be due exclusively to the agency of the rivers, for there
+exists evidence of an upheaval of the land. The building stone known at
+Leghorn as _panchina_ is clearly of marine origin, and the shells which
+enter into its composition are still met with in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 84.—MONTE ARGENTARO.
+
+From the French Chart. Scale 1 : 168,000.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 85.—VAL DI CHIANA.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 218,000.]
+
+Amongst the changes effected by human agency in the basin of the Arno
+those referring to the Val di Chiana are, perhaps, the most important.
+This depression connects the basins of the Arno and Tiber, and may
+possibly have served as an outlet to the former river before it had
+opened itself a way through the {244} gorge below Florence. Formerly
+the water-parting between the two rivers was close to the Arno. A small
+portion of its drainage was carried to the Tuscan river, but by far the
+greater portion of the vale was occupied by stagnant pools, extending
+to the south as far as the latitude of Montepulciano, a distance of
+twenty miles. The whole of this region was a breeding-place of fever.
+Dante and other Italian writers speak of it as an accursed place. The
+inhabitants made vain attempts at drainage. The illustrious Galileo,
+when consulted on the subject, {245} declared that nothing could be
+done to mend this evil; and though Torricelli conceived that it would
+be possible to drain the valley, he took no steps to put his theories
+into practice.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 86.—THE LAKE OF BIENTINA.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 328,000.]
+
+About the middle of the eighteenth century the work of drainage was at
+length seriously taken in hand, directed by Fossombroni, the celebrated
+engineer. “Warps,” or _colmate_, were thrown up at the outlet of each
+lateral ravine between which the débris carried down from the flanks
+of the mountains was deposited. The swamps gradually filled up, and
+the soil became firm. By constructing a dam (_argine_) across the vale
+at the point chosen for the new water-parting, an outfall was created,
+and a line of stagnant swamps was thus converted into a pure rivulet.
+The valley, at one time a hotbed of fever, has now become one of the
+most salubrious districts of Italy. The newly won lands were at once
+taken possession of by agriculturists, and 500 square miles were thus
+added to the productive area of Tuscany. Villages, formerly inhabited
+by fever-stricken wretches, have become wealthy towns, and the success
+of this _bonification_, or reclamation, has been thorough. The torrents
+are under control now, and have already deposited 17,650 million
+cubic feet of alluvium over an area of 50,000 acres, as if they were
+intelligent workmen. The same system of drainage has been successfully
+applied in other parts of Italy, and particularly near Grosseto, on the
+right bank of the Ombrone.
+
+Amongst the great drainage works which will evermore contribute to
+the glory of Tuscan engineers, the innumerable canals draining the
+plains of Fucecchio, {246} Pontedera, Pisa, Lucca, Leghorn, and
+Viareggio, each of which was formerly occupied by its lake, deserve
+to be noticed. One of the most difficult of these lakes is that of
+Bientina, or Sesto, to the east of the Pisan hills, which is supposed
+to have been formed by an overflow of the Serchio. In former times this
+lake had two effluents, one running north to the Serchio, the other
+south to the Arno. The outfall left nothing to be desired in ordinary
+times, but after heavy rains the two effluents were converted into
+inflowing rivers, and if the sluices had not been closed, the Arno and
+the Serchio would have rejoined each other in this inland sea. The
+Bientina, during such freshets, covered six times its ordinary area,
+and in order to save the fertile fields of Tuscany it became absolutely
+necessary to create a third effluent. The engineers conceived the happy
+idea of conveying this new effluent through a tunnel, passing beneath
+the Arno, three feet in width, into an ancient bed of that river, now
+supplanted by the Colombrone.
+
+In most of these enterprises it was necessary to struggle on in spite
+of the miasmatic atmosphere, which hung more particularly over the
+littoral zone, where the fresh inland water mingles with the salt
+water of the Mediterranean. The blending of the two waters destroyed
+the fresh-water plants and animals, and the deleterious gases arising
+from their decomposition poisoned the atmosphere. About the middle
+of last century an engineer, Zendrini, proposed to construct sluices
+separating the fresh from the salt water. This was done, and the fevers
+at once disappeared. In 1768, the sluices having been allowed to fall
+out of repair, the miasmatic scourge immediately reappeared, and it
+was not until they had been repaired that the sanitary condition of
+the villages along the coast was improved. Twice since neglect to keep
+the sluices in a proper condition has been punished with the same
+results; but from 1821 they have been maintained in thorough order,
+and the sanitary condition of the country has ever since been most
+satisfactory. Viareggio, in the centre of this malarial district,
+was up to 1740 hardly more than a hamlet, avoided on account of its
+insalubrity, but is now a seaside town, the favourite resort of numbers
+of visitors.
+
+Much has been done, no doubt, in draining the land, but there is still
+room for many improvements. The Maremma, a track between Piombino and
+Orbetello, remains one of the most insalubrious regions of Europe, in
+spite of what has been done by sanitary engineers. The inhabitants
+never reach a high age, and though they descend to the plain only when
+it is absolutely required for cultivating their fields, they frequently
+carry away with them the germs of disease. In the two summers of 1840
+and 1841 no less than 36,000 persons suffered from fever amongst a
+total population of 80,000 souls, most of whom reside in villages built
+on hills, and only rarely visit the pestilential plain. In order to
+escape the pernicious influence of the poisonous air, it is necessary
+to reside constantly at an elevation of 325 feet above the sea, and
+even that does not always suffice, for the episcopal city of Sovana
+is notoriously unhealthy, though built at that height. Fevers occur
+frequently at a distance from the swamps, and Salvagnoli Marchetti is
+of opinion that they are due to the nature of the soil. The malaria is
+said to creep up clayey hills permeated by empyreumatic substances;
+it likewise {247} poisons the air of districts abounding in saline
+springs, and still more that near deposits of alum. Southerly winds are
+likewise most pernicious, and fevers rise highest in the valleys which
+are exposed to them. Places, on the other hand, which are fully open to
+the sea breeze are quite free from malaria, even if swamps are near, as
+at Orbetello and Piombino.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 87.—THE MALARIAL REGIONS.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 2,700,00.]
+
+It is generally admitted that the coasts of Etruria did not suffer
+from malaria whilst the ancient Tyrrhenian cities were prosperous. The
+excavations made recently in connection with the railways have revealed
+a complete system of subterranean canals, which formerly drained the
+whole of the Maremmas. Populonia and other large cities, of which only
+a few ruins are found now, could certainly not have existed if the
+climate had been as unhealthy as at present. The ancient Etruscans were
+famous as hydraulic engineers. They embanked torrents, drained swamps,
+and rendered the country cultivable, but their engineering works were
+allowed to decay soon after they had been subjected, and the country
+returned to its primitive savageness. On the other hand, there are many
+towns {248} which were considered healthy during the Middle Ages, but
+are now desolated by fever. Massa Maritima, to the south-west of the
+Moutieri mountain, was rich and populous as long as it maintained its
+republican liberties; but no sooner had it been enslaved by Pisans and
+Sienese than its drainage works were allowed to fall into decay, and
+in the end it found itself reduced to the “shadow of a town.” Sanitary
+works carried out recently have brought back some of its ancient
+prosperity.
+
+Amongst the causes which have contributed most materially towards a
+deterioration of the climate may be mentioned the destruction of the
+mountain forests and the rapid increase of alluvial lands resulting
+from it. The monasteries of Tuscany, which until quite recently were
+the owners of the fish-ponds in the Maremmas, energetically protested
+against the construction of embankments or other drainage works,
+which they conceived would interfere with their cherished Lenten
+food. Several of the inland towns rejoiced in the possession of some
+unhealthy swampy tract, to which obnoxious persons might be banished
+with a certainty of their dying. Even the Kings of Spain established a
+penal establishment at one of the most deadly spots on this coast, and
+banishment to Talamone, at one time a flourishing port of the Republic
+of Siena, was tantamount to a sentence of death.
+
+Many attempts were made to reclaim these lands. Macchiavelli and other
+statesmen of Tuscany thought that the former salubrity of the climate
+could be restored by merely repeopling the country. Colonists were
+sent for from other parts of Italy, and even from Greece and Germany,
+but they soon succumbed to the climate. Since that time considerable
+progress has been made in rendering these marshy districts more
+salubrious. Trees have been planted, and, in combination with proper
+drainage, they have rendered many districts habitable which were not
+so formerly. Populonia is a case in point. Follonica, where there
+are furnaces in which the iron ores of Elba are smelted, is likewise
+looking up, though its inhabitants still fly the place on the approach
+of the fever season.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Etruscans, or Tyrrhenians, were the ancestors of the Tuscans, and
+long before the dominion of the Romans they were the preponderating
+race of all Italy. They occupied not only the whole of the southern
+slope of the Apennines as far as the Tiber, but had also founded a
+confederation of twelve towns in the Campagna, of which Capua was
+the head, and as traders and pirates they held possession of the
+Tyrrhenian Sea, still named after them. The island of Capri was one
+of their most advanced outposts towards the south. The Adriatic was
+likewise their own, for Adria, Bologna (called Felsina by them),
+Ravenna, and Mantua were Etruscan colonies, and the Rhætians in the
+Alpine valleys were their allies, and perhaps kinsmen. But who were the
+Etruscans? They have been classed with Aryans, Ugrians, and Semites;
+with Greeks, Germans, Scythians, Egyptians, and Turks. The Etruscan
+inscriptions on ancient monuments, though very legible, have not
+hitherto been deciphered satisfactorily. If Corssen’s interpretation is
+accepted, their language resembled the Latin tongues; but this {249}
+philologist, after all, may not be entitled to be called the “Œdipus
+of the Etruscan sphinx.”
+
+The most common type of the Etruscans, as transmitted to us on cinerary
+vases, is that of squat men, often inclining to obesity, with broad
+shoulders, prominent face, curved noses, broad retreating forehead,
+dark complexion, dolichocephalous skull, and curly hair. This type is
+neither Hellenic nor Italian. Amongst their monuments there are none
+of those curious structures known as _nuraghi_, which abound in Malta,
+Sardinia, and Pantellaria, but dolmens are numerous. The sepulchral
+monuments, of which many thousands have already been brought to
+light, prove that the arts had attained a high degree of development
+in ancient Etruria. The paintings in the interior of the vaults,
+the bas-reliefs on the sarcophagi, the vases, candelabra, pottery,
+and bronzes, resemble similar work produced by the genius of Greek
+artists. The arrangement of their dwelling-houses, though not devoid
+of originality, proves the intimate connection existing between the
+civilisations of the Etruscans and early Greeks. It was the Etruscans
+who initiated Rome into the arts. The _Cloaca Maxima_, the most ancient
+monument of the Eternal City, the wall named after Servius Tullius,
+the Mamertine prison, and, in fact, all the remains of the Rome of the
+kings, were their work. It was they who erected the temples, supplied
+the statues to deities, built the dwelling-houses, and furnished them
+with articles of ornament. Even the she-wolf of bronze, now in the
+Capitoline Museum, and a symbol of the Roman people, appears to be of
+Etruscan workmanship.
+
+The Tuscans of our day differ, however, in many respects from their
+Etruscan ancestors. These latter, to judge from the paintings in their
+sepulchral cities, were an austere race. They appear, likewise, to have
+been a nation of cooks and gluttons. Neither of these qualities can be
+laid to the charge of their descendants. The modern Tuscan is of an
+amiable and kindly disposition, he is possessed of wit and artistic
+tastes, easy to move, and altogether perhaps a trifle too pliant of
+character. The Tuscans of the plain, but not those of the Maremmas,
+are the most gentle of Italians; they “live and let live,” and are
+exceedingly good-natured. A singular trait distinguishes them from the
+rest of the Italians: though brave when carried away by passion, they
+turn with horror from a dead body. In this we may trace the persistence
+of ancient superstitions, for though the Tyrrhenians concealed their
+tombs, the worship of the dead was the most prominent of their
+religious observances.
+
+The modern Tuscans, like their ancestors, have known a time when they
+took the lead amongst the people of Italy, and even now they stand at
+the head of the nation in certain respects. After the decadence of
+Rome, when civilisation gravitated towards the north, the valley of the
+Arno became one of the great centres of the world’s activity. At that
+time the passage of the Alps was still difficult, but communications
+by sea were established between Tuscany, France, and Spain. The
+Apennines not only sheltered the fertile valleys opening upon the
+Tyrrhenian against cold northerly winds, but also against the hordes
+of barbarian invaders. Tuscany was, indeed, a favoured region, and its
+intelligent {250} inhabitants made the most of the natural advantages
+they possessed. “Work” was the great law of the Florentines, and all,
+without exception, were expected to engage in it. Whilst Pisa disputed
+the dominion of the sea with Genoa and Venice, Florence became the
+head-quarters of commerce, and its bankers extended their operations to
+every part of Europe.
+
+But Tuscany was more than a commercial and industrial country. What
+Athens had been to the world two thousand years ago, republican
+Florence became during its period of prosperity, and for the second
+time in the history of mankind there arose one of those centres of
+light the reflected rays from which still illuminate our own times.
+Arts, letters, sciences, and political economy—everything, in fact,
+that is noble in this world was cultivated with an energy to which
+nations had been strangers for a long time. The pliant genius of the
+Tuscans revelled in every species of work, and amongst the names great
+in history Florence may fairly claim some of the greatest. Where are
+the men that have exercised a greater influence in the world of art
+and intellect than Giotto, Orgagna, Masaccio, Michael Angelo, Leonardo
+da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, Brunelleschi, Savonarola, Galileo, or
+Macchiavelli? It was a Florentine, too, Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his
+name to the New World, and justly so, for it was Vespucci through whom
+the discoveries made by the Spaniards first became known, and who, in
+1501, bestowed the name of _Novus Mundus_ upon the newly discovered
+countries, whilst Columbus died in the belief that he had reached the
+eastern coast of Asia.
+
+The dialect of Florence has become the polished language of the whole
+of Italy, and it is curious that this honour should not have been
+carried off by Rome. But whilst Florence cultivated the arts and
+sciences, and through her great writers exercised an immense influence,
+the city of the popes yielded herself up to the worship of the past,
+and its literature was written in a dead language, more or less
+successfully imitated from that of Cicero. The dialect of Rome never
+became a language like that of Florence, but Italian is nevertheless
+indebted to Rome for its musical pronunciation, that of the Tuscans
+being harsh and guttural. Hence the old proverb, “Lingua Toscana in
+bocca Romana.” The delicate, pure poetry breathed in the _ritornelli_
+which Tuscan peasants chant in the evening is highly appreciated by
+all admirers of Italian, and the influence which the fine dialect of
+the Florentines exercised upon the unification of Italy can hardly be
+overestimated. The worshippers of Dante are almost justified in saying
+that Italian unity dates from the day on which the great poet first
+expressed himself in the firm and sonorous language which he had forged
+out of the various dialects spoken throughout the peninsula.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The geographical position of Tuscany accounts for the influence it has
+exercised upon Italy and the rest of the world, whilst its topography
+gives us the key to the local history of the country. The Apennines
+and the mountains to the south of the Arno divide it into a number of
+separate basins, each of which gave birth to a small state or republic.
+At the time of the Tyrrhenians Etruria formed {251} a confederation
+of cities, whilst during the Middle Ages it was divided into numerous
+small republics, frequently at war with each other. Since that time
+many changes have taken place in the relative importance of the various
+towns, but even now most of the free cities of the Middle Ages, and
+even some founded by the ancient Etruscans, occupy a high rank amongst
+the provincial towns of Italy.
+
+Florence (Firenze) is not one of these ancient cities of the
+Tyrrhenians; it is merely a Roman colony of comparatively modern
+origin. In the time of the Empire it was of small importance, for
+Fiesole, on a hill to the north, remained the leading town of the
+country until destroyed by the Florentines, who carried its columns
+and statues to their own town. The rapid growth of Florence during
+the Middle Ages is due to its position on the highway which connects
+Germany, Lombardy, and even Bologna with Southern Italy. As long as
+Rome was the capital of Italy travellers starting from the valley
+of the Tiber crossed the Apennines in the direction of Ancona and
+Ariminum. But after the fall of Rome, when barbarian hordes inundated
+the country from the north, the high-roads connecting the plains
+of Lombardy with the valley of the Arno rose into importance. This
+great military highway became simultaneously a high-road of commerce,
+and it was only natural that a great emporium should spring up on
+the site occupied by Florence. The “city of flowers” prospered, and
+became the marvel which we still admire. But the wealth of the growing
+commonwealth proved its destruction. The rich bankers grasped at
+political power, the Medici assumed the title of princes, and though
+the arts continued to flourish for awhile, public virtues decayed, the
+citizens became subjects, and intellectual life ceased.
+
+Florence, as in the days of republican liberty, owes much of its wealth
+to the industry of its inhabitants. There are manufactories of silks
+and woollen goods, of straw hats, mosaics, china, cut stones (_pierra
+dura_), and other objects, all of them requiring workmen possessed
+of taste and manual dexterity. But neither these industries nor the
+commerce carried on by the town would have raised Florence above the
+level of other populous Italian cities. The prominent position it holds
+is due entirely to the beauty of its monuments, which attract to it
+the lovers of art from every quarter of the world. Not even Venice is
+equally rich in architectural masterpieces of the Middle Ages and the
+Renaissance. The museums of Florence “la Bella”—such as the Uffizi, the
+Pitti Galleries, and the Academy of Arts—are amongst the richest in
+Europe, and contain some of the most highly prized treasures of art;
+its libraries abound in curious manuscripts and rare old books. Nay,
+the very streets and piazzas of the town, with their palaces, towers,
+churches, and statues, may be likened to a huge museum. Brunelleschi’s
+Duomo; Giotto’s Campanilla, which was to “surpass in beauty all
+imagination can conceive;” the Baptistery, with its incomparable doors
+of brass; the Piazza della Signoria; the monastery of San Marco, now a
+museum; the gloomy palace of the Strozzi; and numerous other buildings
+of superior merit make Florence the delightful place it is. Its charms
+are enhanced by the beauty of the surrounding {252} country, and the
+traveller will always recall with pleasure the walks along the Arno,
+the hills of San Miniato and Belle Sguardo, and the picturesque spur
+upon which lie the villas and ruins of Etruscan Fiesole. Unfortunately
+the climate of Florence leaves much to be desired; the wind changes
+abruptly, and the heat in summer is overpowering. _Il caldo di Firenze_
+has become proverbial throughout Italy. Narrow streets, and to some
+extent the disregard of the laws of hygiene, cause the mortality to
+exceed that of nearly every other town on the Continent. During the
+Middle Ages pestilence was a frequent visitor, and Boccaccio tells us
+that in an single season nearly 100,000 inhabitants, or two-thirds
+of the entire population, were swept away by it. Targioni Tozetti
+contrasts the site of Empoli, a small town to the west, with that of
+Florence, and regrets that a project for removing Florence thither
+should not have been carried out, as proposed in 1260.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 88.—FLORENCE: THE DUOMO AND PALAZZO VECCHIO.]
+
+The only town of any importance in the upper valley of the Arno
+is Arezzo, an ancient city of the Etruscans, and at one time the
+capital of one of the most prosperous republics of the Middle Ages.
+The inhabitants ascribe to the “subtile {253} air they breathe
+the subtility of their spirits,” and indeed the list of famous men
+connected with the town is very long. The present Arezzo, however, is
+a decayed place, and lives upon the memories and the monuments of a
+past age. Cortona, farther south, near the Lake of Trasimeno, claims
+to be the most ancient city of Italy; but all traces of its former
+greatness have disappeared. Siena, which formerly governed the whole
+of the hilly tract between the Arno and Ombrone, has fallen from her
+high estate, not without the fault of its own citizens, who were
+continually quarrelling amongst themselves. Siena no longer rivals
+Florence in population, power, or industry, but may still compare with
+the city on the Arno as regards its public buildings—many of them in
+the Gothic style—its works of art, its quaint streets and piazzas, and
+its magnificent position on the slopes of three hills. Chiusa, one of
+the most powerful towns of ancient Etruria, is of no importance now,
+and only attracts antiquarians in search of its ancient tombs. The
+vineyards of Montepulciano, on the same side of the vale of Chiani,
+produce the “king of wines.” Volterra is only a small town now,
+interesting, however, on account of its cyclopean walls and a museum
+abounding in Etruscan antiquities. The environs are dreary in the
+extreme. Salt-works, yielding from 7,000 to 8,000 tons a year, quarries
+of alabaster, copper mines at Monte Catini, sulphur springs, and the
+famous _lagoni di Monti Cerboli_ (see p. 242), are in the neighbourhood.
+
+The cities at the foot of the Apennines, on the other side of the
+Arno, have retained their importance, for they are favourably situated
+for commerce. Prato, where the valley of the Arno is widest, is the
+centre of a rich agricultural district. The quarries of serpentine
+in the neighbourhood have furnished building stones for many of
+the most beautiful edifices of Tuscany, including the cathedral of
+Prato, celebrated on account of Donatello’s marvellously sculptured
+pulpit. Pistoja, where the railway descends from the Apennines, is a
+busy manufacturing town. Other towns of some importance are Pescia,
+Capannori, in the “garden of Italy,” and Lucca the industrious, with
+its celebrated pictures by Fra Bartolommeo.
+
+The basin of the Serchio is of incomparable productiveness since its
+marsh lands have been brought under cultivation. From the ramparts
+of Lucca one of the most charming views may be enjoyed. On the one
+hand we have the towers and cupolas of the town, on the other fertile
+fields and orchards, with white houses peeping through the verdure, and
+distant hills surmounted by old towers. The impression made by this
+view is one of perfect peace. In a country so fertile and beautiful,
+it would seem, the people ought to be happy, and, if enthusiastic
+writers can be believed, such is really the case, and the peasants of
+Lucca and of Lower Tuscany in general enjoy advantages denied to their
+class elsewhere in Italy. They are farmers for the most part, but hold
+their land by long leases, and their share of its produce is regulated
+by ancient custom. The land, however, does not suffice for their
+wants, and they emigrate in thousands in search of work. Many of these
+emigrants work as grinders.
+
+The inhabitants of the Upper Serchio valley, known as the Garfagnana,
+are as industrious as those near Lucca, which is the natural outlet for
+its produce. The slopes and spurs descending from the Apennines and
+Apuanic Alps are cultivated {254} in terraces. Castelnuovo, the chief
+town of this valley, occupies one of the most delightful spots of this
+picturesque district. The common people near it are said to speak the
+best Italian, superior even to that of the Sienese.
+
+The valley of the Magra is far more frequented than that of Garfagnana,
+for the high-road from Parma to the Gulf of Spezia leads through it.
+In its upper portion, in the heart of the Apennines, stands the small
+town of Pontremoli. Its inferior portion, known as the Lunigiana,
+from the ancient city of Luni, is as beautiful as the parallel valley
+of the Serchio. At Sazana it opens upon the sea, and to the south of
+that charming town, where the Apuanic Alps approach close to the sea,
+leaving only a narrow passage of some note in history, are situated
+the towns of Carrara and Massa. Carrara, the “Quarry,” has replaced
+Luni as the place from whence the white marbles so highly esteemed by
+sculptors are exported, and choice blocks of which sometimes fetch £80
+a cubic yard. No less than 720 quarries perforate the neighbouring
+hills, and about 300 of these are being worked now. The town may be
+likened to an agglomeration of sculptors’ studios, and its Academy has
+trained artists of high reputation. Massa enjoys a better climate than
+Carrara, but its marbles are less highly esteemed. As to the marbles
+of Serravezza, which are quarried in the Altissimo and other mountains
+of the Apuanic Alps near the town of Pietra Santa, they are in many
+instances as beautiful as those of Carrara. Michael Angelo highly
+appreciated them, and had a road constructed to facilitate access to
+them. The quarries and mines in the neighbourhood also yield slates,
+iron, lead, and silver.[84]
+
+These towns at the foot of the Apuanic Alps were bound to prosper in
+proportion as the country increased in wealth, whilst Pisa, the great
+commercial republic of mediæval Tuscany, was doomed to decay, owing to
+the silting up of its harbour. This Porto Pisano was situated about ten
+miles to the south of what was then the mouth of the Arno. In 1442 its
+depth had been reduced to five feet, a century later only rowing boats
+could enter it, and soon after it was abandoned definitely. There are
+no traces of it now, and its very site is disputed. But though Pisa is
+dead—Pisa _morta_—the city still possesses admirable monuments of its
+past grandeur. It has a wonderful cathedral; an elegant baptistery;
+its Campo Santa, with the famous frescoes of Orgagna and Gozzoli; and
+a leaning tower commanding a view of the Pisan hills and the alluvial
+plains of the Arno and Serchio. Its commerce has dwindled away, but
+it is still the capital of a rich agricultural district, and its
+university is one of the best in Italy. It possesses, moreover, that
+which no change in the commercial highways can deprive it of, a mild
+climate, and during winter attracts numerous visitors from the north.
+
+Leghorn, or Livorno, has inherited the commerce of Pisa. It is the
+natural outlet of the fertile districts of Tuscany, and its commerce
+is far more important than might be supposed from the unfavourable
+configuration of the coast, and is surpassed only by that of Genoa and
+Naples.[85] Thousands of Spanish and {255} Portuguese Jews who found a
+refuge here have contributed in no small measure to the development of
+the resources of the town. From an architectural point of view, Leghorn
+is one of the least interesting cities of Italy, but as the outcome of
+human labour it is one of the most curious. Before the city could be
+built, the swamps which occupied its site had to be drained, and an
+artificial harbour had to be excavated for the protection of vessels.
+Numerous canals intersect the north-western portion of the town, which
+is known as New Venice. A huge breakwater marks the entrance to the
+harbour, and on a sand-bank in the offing rises the tower of Meloria,
+which recalls the naval engagement in which the fleet of the Pisans was
+destroyed by the Genoese.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 89.—THE HARBOUR OF LEGHORN.
+
+Scale 1 : 112,000]
+
+Insular Tuscany consists of Elba and several smaller islands, which
+mark the site of an isthmus that formerly joined the mainland to
+Corsica, and contribute greatly towards the beauty of the Tuscan
+littoral.
+
+Elba, once the miniature kingdom of Napoleon, is larger than all the
+other islands together.[86] An ancient dependency of the Etruscan city
+of Populonia, Elba rises above the blue waters of the Tyrrhenian a
+picturesque group of mountains. A narrow and dangerous strait separates
+its steep coasts from the promontory of Piombino, where passing vessels
+were formerly obliged to pay toll.
+
+The granitic heights of Monte Capanne, the eastern extremity of the
+island, {256} attain an elevation of 3,303 feet; the dome-shaped hills
+of serpentine at the other extremity are 1,600 feet in height, and
+the centre of the island is occupied by hills of various formations,
+covered with brushwood. The variety of rocks is very great, taking into
+account the small extent of the island. Associated with the granites
+and serpentine, we meet with beds of kaolin, and with marble similar to
+that of Carrara. Remarkable crystals and precious stones abound to such
+an extent, that Elba has been likened to a “mineralogical cabinet” on a
+vast scale.
+
+Formerly, when the sea was infested by pirates, the inhabitants
+retreated to the recesses of the interior, or to the summits of steep
+promontories, where the picturesque ruins of ancient fortifications
+may still be seen. Several of the old inland villages continue to
+be inhabited; amongst others, that of Capoliberi, the “Mountain of
+the Free,” which is looked upon as a sort of acropolis. After the
+suppression of piracy the islanders came down to the _marina_, or
+coast, and established themselves in the towns of Porto Ferrajo,
+Porto Longone, Marciana, and Rio. The resources of the island
+are considerable, and afford plenty of occupation to fishermen,
+salt-makers, wine-growers, and gardeners. The inhabitants are
+hospitable, and, though neighbours of the fierce Corsicans, they
+possess all the gentleness of Tuscans.
+
+Elba is not, however, so much noted on account of its fisheries,
+vineyards, salt-works, or commerce, as because of its rich deposits of
+iron ore. The russet-coloured cliffs of ironstone are visible from the
+mainland. The huge excavations made by the miners, many of whom are
+convicts, resemble the craters of extinct volcanoes, and the reddish
+brown, violet, or blackish colour of the rocks helps the illusion. Of
+the quantity of ore carried away from here in the course of twenty-five
+or thirty centuries we can hardly form a conception. The ironstone is
+bedded in layers, differing in colour according to the nature of the
+earthy ingredients, and rising into hills 600 and more feet in height,
+the slopes of which are covered with brushwood (_macchie_). Shovels
+and spades are the only mining tools required in clearing away these
+heaps of ore, of which at least 100,000,000 tons remain. By regular
+mining operations 500,000 tons might be obtained annually during
+twenty centuries. The annual produce at present hardly exceeds 100,000
+tons. The ore is more particularly suited to the manufacture of steel.
+Loadstones abound near Capo Calamita. The mariners of the Mediterranean
+formerly made use of them in the construction of a primitive ship’s
+compass, by placing them in a piece of cork, which they allowed to
+float in a basin of water.
+
+The smaller islands of the Tuscan archipelago are—Giglio, with quarries
+of granite; Monte Cristo, a pyramidal rock rising 2,130 feet above the
+sea-level; Pianosa, with an agricultural penal settlement; Capraja,
+with a small town built within an amphitheatre of pink-coloured
+granite; and Gorgona (987 feet).[87] {257}
+
+
+V.—THE ROMAN APENNINES, THE VALLEY OF THE TIBER, THE MARCHES, AND THE
+ABRUZZOS.
+
+That portion of the Italian peninsula which has Rome for its centre
+may be likened to the trunk of the body, for it is there the Apennines
+attain their greatest height, and nowhere else to the south of the Po
+are rivers of equal magnitude met with.[88]
+
+The main rampart of the Apennines runs parallel to the coast of
+the Adriatic. To the mariner, who sees these mountains rise above
+the verdure of the littoral region, they have an appearance of the
+greatest regularity. Summit rises beyond summit, one lateral chain
+succeeds to the other, and every one of the numerous valleys descends
+perpendicularly to the coast. The slope throughout is steep, and the
+geological strata, whether of Jurassic, cretaceous, or tertiary age,
+succeed each other regularly from the snow-clad summits down to the
+promontories of the coast. The only irregularity consists in a detached
+group of hills (1,880 feet) to the south of Ancona, above which the
+axis of the Apennines changes its direction. This region of Italy is
+the natural counterpart of Liguria. The position of Ancona corresponds
+with that of Genoa, and the coast, which extends on the one hand to
+Emilia, and on the other towards the peninsula of Monte Gargano, may
+fairly be likened to the “Rivieras” of Genoa, with this exception, that
+its direction is inverse. The territory between the mountains and the
+coast is narrow, the littoral road frequently winds round promontories,
+and the towns extend up the hill-sides. Still this portion of Italy
+is not as strongly protected by nature as Liguria. Towards the north
+it expands upon the plain of the Po, whilst the terraces at the
+foot of the main range of the Apennines afford easy access from the
+west. During the whole of the Middle Ages and down to our own days
+neighbouring states have fought for the possession of this territory,
+which has become known, from this circumstance, as the “Marches;” that
+is, the disputed frontier districts, where every town is a fortress
+perched on the top of a hill.
+
+The Apennines forming the boundary between the Marches and Latium, or
+Rome, like those of Etruria, are grouped in separate mountain masses.
+The first of these commands the valley of the Tiber in the east; it
+extends in the north to Monte Comero (3,828 feet) and the Fumajolo,
+or head-stream of the Tiber, and in the south to Monte Verone (5,006
+feet). Though inferior in height to other parts of the Apennines, these
+mountains are known as the _Alpe della Luna_. A gap, {258} through
+which passes the road from Perugia to Fano, separates them from Monte
+Catria (5,585 feet). At that point the Apennines bifurcate, and two
+parallel ranges can be traced thence for a distance of 120 miles, as
+far as the transverse range of the Majella (9,158 feet), which reunites
+them, and from which radiate the mountains of Southern Italy. These
+parallel chains belong to the Jurassic and cretaceous formations, and
+neither of them forms a water-parting, for whilst the Nera and other
+rivers tributary to the Tiber force themselves a passage through the
+western one, that on the east is broken by numerous gorges, through
+which rivers and torrents find their way into the Adriatic. The most
+considerable of these rivers is the Pescara, which rises on the plateau
+of the Abruzzos, where it is known as the Aterno, and traverses the
+eastern range where it is highest. The gorge excavated by this river is
+sufficiently wide to afford space for a railway joining the Adriatic to
+the basin of the Tiber.
+
+The plateau of the Abruzzos, enclosed by these parallel ranges,
+may be looked upon as the natural citadel of Central Italy. On its
+western side rise the double pyramids of Monte Velino (8,157 feet);
+in the north Monte Vettore (8,131 feet) forms the termination of the
+range of the Sibillini; in the east rises the culminating point of
+the Apennines, a mountain covered with snow the greater part of the
+year, and appropriately called the “Great Rock of Italy”—“Gran Sasso
+d’Italia” (9,518 feet). The fact that this magnificent mountain is the
+highest in all Italy has been known from times immemorial. The Romans
+conceived they had discovered the “umbilic of Italy” in a small lake
+near it, upon which floated an island formed of rank vegetation. The
+Marsi and their allies, when they took up arms against their Roman
+oppressors, chose Corfinium, in its neighbourhood, for the seat of
+their empire, and surnamed it Italica; and there, too, the first
+movements which led to the resurrection of modern Italy took place. The
+Gran Sasso, as seen from the Adriatic, affords a magnificent spectacle.
+Its calcareous masses cannot boast of much beauty of profile, but this
+is compensated for by the fine Alpine region extending beneath its
+summit, which remains the haunt of bears and chamois, and where rare
+plants in the meadows remind us of Switzerland. Forests of beeches
+and pines are still met with in a few places, and are all the more
+appreciated as forests no longer exist in the lowland regions. This
+universal destruction of the forests is one of the great misfortunes
+of Italy. In many parts of the Roman Apennines even the soil has been
+washed away, and only in a few crevasses do we meet with brooms and
+briers.
+
+The valleys on the western slope of the Apennines are enclosed between
+calcareous spurs of the main range, some of which attain a considerable
+elevation. The Tiber itself thus passes between two lofty mountains,
+rising at the lower extremity of two of these Sub-Apennine spurs, and
+forming a kind of triumphal gateway. These are the Soracte (2,270
+feet) and Gennaro (4,162 feet). These fine mountains, with the Sabine
+Hills and the volcanic groups near them, form the horizon of the Roman
+Campagna, and their natural beauties are enhanced by the memories of
+art and history which attach to them.
+
+[Illustration: PEASANTS OF THE ABRUZZOS.]
+
+Several ranges of hills and detached mountain groups of calcareous
+formation, {259} like the Sub-Apennines, border upon the shore of
+the Tyrrhenian Sea and the marshes which extend along it. Such are the
+hills, rich in alum, which are grouped around the ancient trachytic
+cone of the Tolfa. Such, too, are the Monte Lepini (4,845 feet),
+the naked crest of which has been likened to an ass’s back—_schiena
+d’asino_—and which bound the Pontine Marshes on the east. In some of
+the recesses of these hills there still exist forests of chestnut-trees
+and beeches, where the descendants of the ancient Volsci may pasture
+their hogs; but almost everywhere else the hill-sides are bare of
+vegetation, and the scorching rays of the sun have split the rocks
+into innumerable angular fragments. To the east of the marshes rises a
+summit with ten pinnacles, covered with dense shrub on the land side,
+but barren towards the sea, a few stunted palms excepted, which grow
+in the fissures of the rock. This isolated hill, a counterpart of the
+Argentaro of Tuscany, is the Circello (1,729 feet), famous as the
+residence of the enchantress Circe. The grotto where she changed human
+beings into animals is still pointed out there to the curious, and the
+remains of cyclopean walls recall the mythical age of the Odyssey. The
+ancient Greeks, who were but imperfectly acquainted with Italy, looked
+upon this dreaded promontory of Circe as one of the most important
+islands of the Western Cyclades.
+
+During the glacial period the sea, in which have been deposited the
+chalk and other rocks composing the Sub-Apennines, was the scene of
+volcanic action on a grand scale. The matter ejected was heaped up in a
+line of volcanic cones, running in a direction nearly parallel with the
+Apennines and the coast of the Mediterranean. These cones are joined
+to each other by thick layers of tufa, which cover the whole of the
+plain as far as the foot of the calcareous mountains, and extend for
+a distance of nearly 120 miles, from Monte Amiata, in Tuscany, to the
+mountains of Albano, being interrupted only by the alluvial valley of
+the Tiber. Ponzi and other geologists are of opinion that this tufa was
+ejected from submarine volcanoes, carried away by the currents, and
+equally distributed over the depressions of the sea-bottom. No fossils
+have been discovered in it hitherto, which is accounted for by the
+presence of icebergs, which prevented a development of animal life.
+
+This volcanic region is remarkable on account of its numerous lakes.
+The largest of these, that of Bolsena, was formerly looked upon
+as an ancient crater. This crater would have exceeded by far the
+largest volcanic vents met with in the Andes or in Java, for it has a
+circumference of twenty-five miles, and covers an area of forty-four
+square miles. Modern geologists, however, look upon this crateriform
+lake as a basin of erosion, and though it occupies the centre of a
+plateau formed of ashes, scoriæ, and lava, these do not form a steep
+edge towards the lake, as in the case of veritable craters in the
+same district. One of the most remarkable of these latter is that of
+Latera, to the west of the lake, in the centre of which rises a cone of
+eruption, the Monte Spignano, which has a diameter of nearly five miles.
+
+The district of the Bolsena is likewise remarkable on account of
+its vertical precipices of tufa and lava. Its picturesque towns and
+villages are perched upon {260} bold promontories looking down on
+the valleys. The old town of Bagnorea occupies the extremity of an
+immense mole, and is joined to the new town by a giddy path, bounded by
+steep precipices, which timid travellers do not care to venture upon.
+Orvieto stands on an isolated rock resembling a fortress. Pittigliano
+is surrounded by precipices: by cutting away a few yards of the narrow
+isthmus which joins it to the rest of the plateau, access to it would
+be impossible to all but birds. In the Middle Ages, when nobles and
+towns were continually at war, the capture of one of these eyries was
+looked upon as a grand achievement.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 90.—THE LAKE OF BOLSENA.
+
+Scale 1 : 457,000.]
+
+Lake Bolsena discharges its surplus waters through the Marta into
+the Mediterranean. The fine Lake of Bracciano, to the south of it,
+gives rise to the Arrone. It, too, appears to be a basin formed by a
+subsidence of the ground or erosion, and not a crater. The Lake of
+Vico, on the other hand, clearly occupies an ancient volcano, though
+its rampart has been gutted towards the east. Close to the lake, and
+within the encircling rampart, rises Monte Venere, a perfect cone,
+the gentle slopes of which are luxuriantly wooded. Formerly the lake
+surrounded this cone, but the breach through which its emissary escapes
+to the Tiber having gradually been deepened, the waters of the lake
+subsided. Tradition says that an ancient city lies at its bottom.
+
+On crossing the Tiber we reach the beautiful volcanic group of Albano,
+within the great crater of which may still be traced the remains
+of several secondary craters, some of them occupied by lakes. The
+principal one of these, Monte Cavo (2,790 feet), rises in the very
+centre of the exterior rampart. Tradition points it out as one of
+Hannibal’s camps. The exterior slopes of the mountain consist of
+pozzuolana, small stones, and ashes, through which the torrents have
+dug out furrows in divergent directions. The diversity of these {261}
+volcanic products enables us to trace the phases of activity of this
+Roman Vesuvius, which was active at a much more recent epoch than the
+volcanoes farther north, and sent its streams of lava to the very gates
+of Rome.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 91.—VOLCANOES OF LATIUM.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 294,000.]
+
+The Lake of Albano discharges its surplus waters through a tunnel
+7,665 feet in length, which has been in existence for more than
+twenty-two centuries. The lake is famous on account of a small crab,
+large numbers of which are forwarded to Rome during Lent. It is the
+only species of this animal hitherto discovered in fresh water, and
+zoologists conclude from this that the crater now occupied by the lake
+formerly communicated with the sea, but was separated from it by slow
+upheavals and the ejection of volcanic products. Flint implements
+and vases of baked clay, discovered in the thick layers of volcanic
+peperino, prove that at the {262} period of the earliest eruptions
+the country was already inhabited by a civilised population. Some of
+the vases referred to are doubly precious, for they present us with
+delineations of the houses of that prehistoric epoch. Roman coins and
+clasps of bronze, discovered in the upper layers of lava, prove that
+these are comparatively recent. In fact, the most diverse developments
+of civilisation have left their traces in these ancient craters. Alba
+Longa and other towns of the Latins have been replaced by Roman cities;
+then came the castles of the popes, and of other high dignitaries of
+the Church; and at present these hills are one of the chief resorts of
+the crowds of strangers who flock to Rome from every quarter of the
+world. On the culminating point of Monte Cavo stood the famous temple
+of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latins celebrated their federal Feriæ.
+The last remains of this temple were swept away in 1783, to be used in
+the construction of a church. From its site the eye embraces a view
+extending to the hills of Sardinia.
+
+The Lake of Nemi no longer reflects in its bluish waters the foliage
+of luxuriant trees, or the walls of that dreaded temple of Diana whose
+priest was only allowed to assume office after he had killed his
+predecessor in a duel. It, too, has its subterranean emissary, like
+the Lake of Albano. As to the Regillus, famed for the defeat of the
+Latins by the Romans, it has dried up, whilst the incrustating Lake of
+Tartari and that of the Solfatara, with its floating islands, are more
+shallow ponds, which owe their fame almost exclusively to the vicinity
+of Tivoli.
+
+All these volcanic lakes are of considerable depths, whilst the lakes
+in the calcareous regions are shallow.[89] One amongst them, that of
+Fucino, has been drained recently, and the same fate is in store for
+that of Trasimeno. Lake Fucino originally occupied an area of 104
+square miles, and its surplus waters discharged themselves towards
+the north-west into the Salto, a tributary of the Tiber. At an epoch
+not known to us the dimensions of the lake became less. It no longer
+discharged an effluent, but its waters rose and fell according to
+whether the seasons were wet or dry. Occasionally they rose as much as
+50 feet, and two cities, Marruvium and Pinna, are said to have been
+swallowed up during one of these floods. At other times it was reduced
+to a swamp. The ancient Romans, desirous of suppressing a hotbed of
+fever, and of gaining fertile soil for agriculture, attempted to drain
+this lake. Claudius employed 30,000 slaves for eleven years in cutting
+a passage through the mountains from it to the Liri. This great work
+was carried on under the direction of the greedy Narcissus, but it
+turned out a failure, for after a short time the tunnel became choked.
+In the thirteenth century an attempt was made to reopen this tunnel,
+but the drainage of the lake has only been achieved quite recently,
+in accordance with plans designed by M. de Montricher, and carried
+out at the expense of Prince Torlonia. Between {263} 1855 and 1869 a
+new tunnel was excavated on the site of the ancient one, and nearly
+150,000,000 cubic yards of water were conveyed through it into the
+Liri, and thence to the sea. The whole of the ancient lake bed has been
+converted into smiling fields, traversed in all directions by carriage
+roads; houses have been erected on spots formerly covered with water;
+fruit and ornamental trees have been planted; and the salubrity of the
+country leaves nothing to be desired now. Some idea of the progress
+made in the art of engineering since the time of the Romans may be
+formed by comparing this new tunnel with the old one. The latter was
+18,500 feet in length, had an average section of 12 square yards, and
+cost (according to M. Rotrou) £9,840,000. The new tunnel has a length
+of 20,680 feet, a section of 24 square yards, and cost £1,200,000.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 92.—THE ANCIENT LAKE OF FUCINO.
+
+Scale 1 : 412,000.]
+
+The Lake of Perugia, better known as the Lake of Trasimeno, on account
+of the terrible memories which attach to it, still retains nearly the
+dimensions which it had at the dawn of history. If this lake were to
+rise only a few feet, its surplus waters would find their way into
+the Tresa, a tributary of the Tiber; but its basin is shallow, and
+evaporation suffices for carrying off the water conveyed into it by its
+tributary rivulets. Amongst these is the famous Sanguinetto, on the
+banks of which the armies of Hannibal and Flaminius were engaged in
+battle, when,
+
+ “beneath the fray,
+ An earthquake reeled unheededly away.”
+
+The lake, with its islands and charming contours, is beautiful to
+look upon, but the low hills surrounding it are sterile, the climate
+is insalubrious, its waters harbour but few fish, and the inhabitants
+on its shores look impatiently forward {264} to the time when the
+engineers will fulfil their promise of winning for agriculture 30,000
+acres of fertile land now covered by the waters of the lake.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 93.—LAKE OF TRASIMENO.
+
+From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 250,000.]
+
+But far more urgent, on sanitary and economical grounds, are the claims
+of the Roman Campagna; that is, of the region lying between the Tolfa
+of Cività Vecchia, Monte Soracte, the Sabine Hills, and the volcanoes
+of Latium. Slavery and maladministration have converted a fertile
+region into a desert extending to the very gates of Rome. Painters are
+enraptured with this Roman Campagna; they admire its melancholy aspect,
+its picturesque ruins hidden beneath brambles, its solitary pines, its
+pools reflecting the purple clouds, and visited by thirsty buffaloes.
+True, this region, bounded by hills of bold contours, is full of
+grandeur and sadness; but the air that hangs over it is deadly, the
+soil and climate of this _Agro Romano_ have deteriorated, and fever now
+reigns there supreme.
+
+Two thousand years ago the Roman Campagna, which covers an area of
+600,000 acres to the north of the Tiber, and extends from the sea to
+the mountains, was a fertile and carefully cultivated country. Then
+its inhabitants were reduced to the condition of serfs, the Roman
+patricians appropriated the land, and {265} covered it with villas
+and parks. When these magnificent residences were given up to pillage
+and to flames, the cultivators of the soil dispersed, and the country
+immediately became a desert. Since that epoch most of the Agro is held
+in mortmain by ecclesiastical corporations or princely families, and
+whilst all the rest of Europe has been making progress, the Campagna
+has become even more sterile and insalubrious. Swamps continually
+invade the lowlands, and an atmosphere charged with miasmata hangs even
+above the hills. Malaria has already knocked at the gates of Rome, and
+the fevers produced by it decimate the population of its suburbs.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 94.—THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA.]
+
+Not a village, not even a hamlet, is met with throughout this afflicted
+region. The only buildings are the wretched storehouses of the
+proprietors, whose wide domains are roamed over by herds of half-wild
+grey cattle, said to have been introduced into Italy by the Huns, and
+distinguished by immense horns, frequently suspended in the huts of
+the peasantry, who fancy that they keep off the “evil eye.” The soil
+of these neglected pastures consists of alluvium mixed with volcanic
+débris and marls, but only a few patches are cultivated. The farmers
+and labourers who engage in this labour carry their lives in their
+hands, and are frequently struck down by fever before they are able
+to regain their villages in {266} the hills. What can be done to
+restore to this region its fertility, salubrity, and population? No
+doubt it will be necessary to drain the marshes, and to plant trees
+capable, like the Eucalyptus, of absorbing the poisonous miasmata; and
+this has been done, with a considerable amount of success, since 1870,
+near the abbey of Tre Fontane. But, above all, it will be necessary
+to interest the cultivator of the soil in its productiveness. Even
+in the most salubrious districts of the ancient Papal dominions the
+population is being decimated by misery and the maladies following in
+its train. In the valley of Sacco, to the south-east of Rome, which
+abounds in cereals, vines, and fruit trees, the cultivator of the soil
+is restricted to a diet of maize, for proprietors and money-lenders eat
+up the rest of his produce.
+
+An uncultivated and insalubrious region extends, likewise, along
+the sea to the south of the Tiber. Poisonous vapours arise from the
+stagnant waters separated by dunes from the sea, and in order to escape
+them it is necessary to seek a refuge in the hills of the interior,
+or even on jetties built out into the sea, as at Porto d’Anzio. The
+palaces which formerly lined the shore from Ostia to Nettuno, and from
+the ruins of which have been recovered some of our most highly valued
+art treasures, such as the Gladiator and Apollo Belvedere, have been
+buried long ago beneath the dunes or in the swamps. The most dreaded
+of these malarial districts lies at the foot of the Monti Lepini, and
+extends from Porto d’Anzio to Terracina. It is known as the Pontine
+Marshes, from Pometia, a city said to have perished before historical
+times. No less than twenty-three cities formerly flourished in what is
+now a deserted and deadly country, but which was the most prosperous
+of the districts held by the confederation of the Volsci. The Roman
+conquerors created “peace and solitude” at the same time. Four hundred
+and forty years after the building of Rome, when Appius constructed
+his famous road to Terracina, the country was only a swamp. Various
+attempts have been made since to reclaim this region, but it still
+remains the haunt of boars, deer, and semi-savage buffaloes, whose
+ancestors were imported from Africa in the seventh century. The canals
+dug during the reign of Augustus appear to have been of little use;
+the works undertaken by Theodoric the Goth were more efficacious;
+but stagnant waters and malaria in the end regained the mastery. The
+engineers employed by Pius VI. towards the close of the eighteenth
+century failed likewise, and this district of 290 square miles remains
+a wilderness to the present day. If a brigand seeks refuge in it,
+pursuit is stopped, and he is allowed to die in peace.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 95.—THE PONTINE MARSHES.
+
+Scale 1 : 280,000.]
+
+In order to drain these marshes an accumulation of difficulties will
+have to be surmounted. A range of wooded dunes bounds the marshes on
+the west. Having crossed these, we enter a second zone of marshes,
+which are separated from the sea by a second range of dunes, extending
+northward from the Monte Circello, and likewise densely wooded. These
+two formidable barriers would have to be surmounted in order to drain
+the marshes towards the west. Nor are the prospects more promising in
+the direction of Terracina, for there, too, every outlet is stopped
+by dunes. The streams and canals crossing the marshes are, moreover,
+choked up with a dense {267} growth of aquatic plants, which impedes
+the circulation of the water, feeble though it be. Herds of buffaloes
+are sometimes driven into these streams to trample down the vegetation,
+but neither this barbarous procedure nor the more regular process
+of mowing has availed against its rapid and luxuriant growth, and
+the water remains stagnant. Rains are not only heavy in this portion
+of Italy, but the superabundant waters of neighbouring river basins
+actually find their way through subterranean channels into the
+depression occupied by the Pontine Marshes. This happens after heavy
+rains in the case of the Sacco, a tributary of the Garigliano, and of
+the Teverone, a tributary of the Tiber, and to this circumstance {268}
+must be ascribed the curious fact first ascertained by M. de Prony,
+viz. that the volume of water annually discharged by the Badino, which
+drains the marshes, exceeds by one-half the whole of the rain which
+annually descends upon them. When this happens the whole of the country
+is under water. Another danger arises during dry weather. It happens
+then occasionally that the parched vegetation is ignited through the
+carelessness of herdsmen; the fire communicates itself to the turfy
+soil, and the latter smoulders until the subsoil water is reached. In
+this manner tracts of land which were looked upon as secure against
+every inundation are converted into marsh. During the greater portion
+of the year the Pontine Marshes present the appearance of a plain
+covered with herbage and flowers, and it is matter for surprise that a
+country so fertile should be without inhabitants. The town of Ninfa,
+which was built in the eleventh century, near the northern extremity
+of the plain, has since been abandoned, its walls, houses, and palaces
+still remaining, covered with ivy and other creeping plants.
+
+There can be no doubt that our engineers would be able to reclaim this
+desolate region. The system adopted in the case of the valley of the
+Chiana may not be practicable, but other, if more costly, means may be
+devised. Whatever the outlay, it is sure to be productive, for even now
+the marshes yield rich harvests of wheat and maize.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The Tiber, or Tevere, the great river of the Romans, has defied all
+attempts at correction down to our own days, and its sudden floods are
+said to be even more formidable now than they were in the days of the
+Republic. Ever since the time of Ancus Martius there has been going on
+a struggle against the alluvium brought down by the river, and it will
+need all the skill of the Italian engineers to master this difficult
+problem.
+
+The Tiber is by far the most important river of the peninsular portion
+of Italy, and its basin is the most extensive.[90] It is, too, the only
+river that is navigable in its lower course, from Ostia to Fidenæ.
+The Tiber rises on the western slope of the Alpe della Luna, in the
+latitude of Florence. The valley through which it flows, whilst in
+the heart of the Apennines, is of surpassing beauty; at one time it
+expands into broad and fertile basins, at others it is hemmed in by
+precipitous rocks. Below the charming basin of Perugia the Tiber
+receives the Topino, formed by the confluence of several streams in the
+old lacustrine basin of Foligno, one of the most delightful districts
+of all Italy, situated at the foot of the Great Apennines and of the
+Col Fiorito, which leads across them. The Clituno (Clitumnus) debouches
+upon this plain, famous on account of its pellucid waters:―
+
+ “The most living crystal that was e’er
+ The haunt of the river nymph, to gaze and lave
+ Her limbs.”
+
+The ruins of a beautiful temple still remain near the source of this
+river, but the miraculous power of the latter of changing into a
+brilliant white the wool of the sheep grazing upon its sacred banks has
+gone for ever. {269}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 96.—ANCIENT LACUSTRINE BASINS OF THE TIBER AND
+TOPINO.
+
+Scale 1 : 294,000.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 97.—THE CASCADES OF TERNI.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 98.—THE DELTA OF THE TIBER.
+
+According to Darondeau (1861) and Desjardins.]
+
+The Nera is the most important tributary of the Tiber; “it gives it to
+drink,” as the Italian proverb says, and rivals it in volume. It is
+formed by the junction of several streams descending from the Sibylline
+Mountains, Monte Velino, and the Sabine Hills. About two thousand years
+ago, it is said, most of these rivulets did not reach the Tiber; they
+were intercepted in the plain of Rieti, where they formed the Lacus
+Velinus, represented at the present day by a few ponds and marshes
+scattered over the fertile fields of the “Garden of Roses.” A breach
+effected in the calcareous rocks, and several times enlarged since,
+allowed the pent-up waters of the Velino to escape to the Nera, and in
+doing so they formed those beautiful cascades of Marmora, above Terni,
+whose charms have been celebrated by poets and painters. The river
+falls down a perpendicular height of {270} 542 feet in a single sheet,
+and then rushes down, over heaped-up blocks of rock, until it joins the
+more placid waters of the Nera. Far less grand, but perhaps {271} more
+charming, are the numerous cascatellas of the Anio, or Teverone, the
+last affluent of any importance which the Tiber receives above Rome.
+Standing on the verdant hill upon which is built the picturesque town
+of Tivoli, silvery cascades may be seen to escape in every direction.
+Some of them glide down the polished rocks; others shoot forth from
+gloomy arches, remain suspended an instant in the air, and then
+disappear again beneath the foliage; but every one of them, whether a
+powerful jet or a mere thread of water, possesses some charm of its
+own, and, as a whole, they form one of the most delightful spectacles
+to be witnessed in Italy. It is these cascades which have rendered
+Tivoli famous throughout the world; and in spite of the popular rhyme—
+
+ “Tivoli di mal conforto,
+ O piove, o tira vento, o suona a morto !”— {272}
+
+modern residences have taken the place of the villas of the ancient
+Romans, amongst which that of Hadrian was the most sumptuous. Its
+ruins, to the west of Tivoli, cover an area of three square miles.
+Recently it has been proposed to {273} utilise the great water
+power of the Anio far more extensively than has been done hitherto.
+The ancients contented themselves with quarrying the concretionary
+limestone, or travertin, deposited by the calcareous waters of the
+river, sometimes to the depth of a hundred feet. They made use of this
+stone for the construction of their public buildings. Travertin, when
+first quarried, is white; after a certain time it turns yellow, and
+subsequently assumes a beautiful roseate hue, which imparts a character
+of majesty to the edifices constructed of it.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 99.—PEASANTS OF THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA.]
+
+Below their confluence with the Anio, the yellow waters of the Tiber,
+discoloured by the clay brought down from the plains of Umbria, rush
+beneath the bridges of Rome. Soon afterwards the river winds round
+the last hills, which formerly bounded an ancient gulf of the sea,
+now silted up. The influence of the tides makes itself felt. At the
+head of the Sacred Island, formerly dedicated to Venus, and famous for
+its roses, but now a dreary swamp, covered with reeds and asphodels,
+it bifurcates. The principal branch, the old Tiber, passes to the
+south of this island. Ostia, which was the port of the river during
+the early days of Rome, is buried now beneath fields of cereals and
+thistles, at a distance of five miles from the sea. Excavations made
+there since 1855 have laid bare several temples, tombs, and warehouses.
+The merchants of Rome were compelled to abandon that city two thousand
+years ago, on account of a bar formed at the mouth of the river.
+
+The Roman emperors, anxious to have an outlet into the sea, ordered
+a ship canal to be excavated to the north of Ostia. This is the
+Fiumicino, which the erosive action of the Tiber has converted into a
+small river. Claudius had huge docks excavated to the north of this
+canal, and a new Ostia arose near them. Trajan opened another port to
+the south-east of it, which remained for several centuries the port
+of Rome. But it, too, has been silted up for about a thousand years,
+and the alluvium brought down by the Tiber is continually encroaching
+upon the sea, the rate of progress being about three feet annually at
+the mouth of the Fiumicino, and ten feet at that of the old Tiber.
+Extensive ruins of palaces, baths, and storehouses exist near the
+ancient port of Trajan, and several works of art have recently been
+excavated there.
+
+The mouth of the Tiber is thus closed by a bar, like that of all other
+rivers which flow into the Mediterranean; and the Romans, instead
+of being able to make use of their river for communicating with the
+sea, are obliged to have recourse to more distant harbours. In former
+times they kept up this communication with Sicily, Greece, and the
+Orient through Antium, Anxur (Terracina), and even Puteoli; but since
+the countries of the North have risen into political and commercial
+importance, Cività Vecchia has become the great maritime entrepôt of
+the valley of the Tiber. It is well known that Garibaldi has conceived
+the stupendous project of converting Rome into a great maritime city.
+The stagnant waters of the Campagna are to be carried off by means of
+a huge sanitary canal, the bed of the Tiber is to be deepened, and an
+artificial harbour capable of receiving the largest vessels is to be
+constructed far out in the Mediterranean. {274}
+
+The execution of this vast scheme is no doubt attended with immense
+difficulties, not the least amongst which are the annual floods of the
+Tiber. Ancient writers tell us that these inundations were dreaded
+not only because of the damage done directly, but also because of the
+great quantities of animal and vegetable deposits which remained in the
+fields after the subsidence of the waters. The nature of these floods
+has continued the same down to the present time. At Rome, though its
+distance from the sea is only twenty-two miles, the river frequently
+rises forty or fifty feet, and in December, 1598, it rose sixty-five
+feet ! How is this huge volume of water to be disposed of after it has
+passed beneath the bridges of Rome? If the destruction of the forests
+in the Apennines is one of the principal causes of these floods, will
+it be sufficient to replant them? Or would it be preferable to restore
+some of those ancient lakes into which numerous rivers discharged
+themselves, which now take their course to the sea? The difficulties
+are great indeed, for the western slope of the Apennines is exposed
+to the rain-bearing westerly and south-westerly winds, and the floods
+of every one of the numerous tributaries of the Tiber take place
+simultaneously, and combine to form one vast inundation.
+
+It is by no means difficult to account for the great floods of the
+Tiber which take place in winter, but the condition of the river
+during summer has for a long time baffled inquiry. The level of the
+river during the dry season is far higher than could possibly be
+accounted for by the small quantity of rain which falls within its
+basin. Its volume in summer is never less than half its average volume,
+a phenomenon not hitherto observed in the case of any other river.
+The Seine has a basin five times larger than that of the Tiber, and
+its average volume is almost double; yet, after a continuance of dry
+weather, its volume is only a third or fourth of the Italian river.
+This perennity of the Tiber can only be accounted for by assuming
+that it is fed, during the dry season, from subterranean reservoirs,
+in which the water is stored up during winter. These reservoirs must
+be very numerous, if we are to judge by the numerous “sinks,” or
+“swallows,” met with on the calcareous plateaux of the Apennines. One
+of these sinks, known as the “Fountain of Italy,” near Alatri, close
+to the Neapolitan frontier, has the appearance of a huge pit, 160 feet
+in depth and 300 feet across. Its bottom is occupied by a forest, and
+numerous springs give rise to luxuriant herbage, upon which sheep
+lowered by means of ropes feed with avidity. It is from sinks like
+this that the rivers of the country, the Tiber and the Sacco, are fed.
+It has been computed by Venturoli and Lombardini, the engineers, that
+about three-fourths of the liquid mass of the Tiber during winter are
+derived from subterranean lakes hidden in the depths of the Apennines.
+The volume of water annually supplied from this source to the Tiber
+would fill a basin having an area of 100 square miles to a depth of 80
+feet ! [91]
+
+Primitive Rome is to a large extent indebted for her power to the
+Tiber, not {275} because that river is navigable, but because it
+traverses the centre of a vast basin, of which Rome is the natural
+capital. Rome, moreover, occupied a central position with regard to the
+whole of Italy and the world of the ancients; but, as has already been
+pointed out, Rome no longer lies upon any of the great high-roads of
+nations. That city certainly occupies not only the centre of Italy, but
+of all the countries surrounding the Tyrrhenian Sea; and its climate
+would leave little to be desired, if it were not for the insalubrity
+of the Campagna. Still Rome, though the residence of two sovereigns,
+the King of Italy and the Pope, is not even the principal city of the
+peninsula, and still less the capital of the Latin race. It is said
+that during the Middle Ages, when the popes resided at Avignon, the
+population of Rome was reduced to 17,000 souls. Gregorovius, than whom
+no one is better acquainted with that epoch in the history of Rome,
+doubts this; but there can be no doubt that after the sack ordered by
+the Constable of Bourbon its population was reduced to 30,000 souls.
+More recently Rome has increased rapidly, but it is still very inferior
+to Naples, and even to Milan.
+
+From the very first the Romans were a mixed race. The myth of Romulus
+and Remus, the rape of the Sabine women, and incessant internal
+conflicts bear evidence to this fact. The remains of ancient cities,
+cyclopean walls, burial-grounds, urns, vases, and ornaments prove
+that on the right bank of the Tiber the Etrurians were at least as
+strong as the Italians. Elsewhere the Gauls predominated, and from an
+intermixture of all these various peoples sprang the primitive Roman.
+
+When Rome had reached the zenith of her power things wore a different
+aspect, and thousands of foreigners became amalgamated with the Latins,
+Gauls, Iberians, Mauritanians, Greeks, Syrians, and Orientals of every
+race and climate; slaves, freemen, and citizens flocked towards the
+capital of the world, and modified the character of its inhabitants.
+Towards the close of the Empire there were more strangers within the
+walls of Rome than Romans, and when the empire of the West broke to
+pieces, and the empress-city was pillaged repeatedly by barbarian
+hordes, the Italians had already become mixed with the most diverse
+elements. This endless mixture between different races, victors and
+vanquished, masters and slaves, accounts, perhaps, more satisfactorily
+for the great changes which have taken place in the course of two
+thousand years in the character and spirit of the Romans. Still the
+Romans on the right bank of the Tiber, the so called Trasteverini, have
+preserved the old Roman type, as transmitted to us in statues and on
+medals.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 100.—ROME.]
+
+Rome is great because of its past, and its ruins are more attractive
+than its modern buildings; it is a tomb rather than a living
+city. These monuments, raised by the former masters of the world,
+strongly impress the imagination. The sight of the Coliseum arouses
+an admiration akin to terror, unless we look upon this formidable
+edifice as a mere heap of stones. The thought that this vast arena
+was crowded with men who sought to kill each other, that the steps
+surrounding it were occupied by 80,000 human beings who delighted
+in this butchery and {276} encouraged it by their shouts, calls up
+an amount of baseness, ferocity, and frenzy, whose existence could
+not fail to sap the foundations of Roman civilisation, and make it
+an easy prey to the barbarian. The Forum awakens memories of quite
+a different nature. Abominations were practised there, too, but its
+history as a whole exhibits it as the true centre of the Roman world.
+It was from this spot that the first impetus was given to the nations
+of the West; it was here that the ideas imported from every quarter
+of the world bore fruit. The walls, columns, temples, and churches
+which surround the Forum relate in mute language the principal events
+in the history of Rome; and if we search beneath existing edifices
+we meet with structures more ancient, which take us back to a period
+still more remote, for edifice has succeeded edifice on this spot,
+where pulsated the life of the Roman people. And thus it is throughout
+Rome. Every ancient monument, arcade, or broken column, every stone,
+bears witness to some {277} historical event, and though it may be
+difficult sometimes to interpret these witnesses of the past, the truth
+is elicited by degrees.
+
+In spite of pillage and wholesale destruction, there still exist
+numerous ancient monuments, of which the Pantheon of Agrippa is one
+of the most marvellous. The Vandals, who are usually charged with the
+work of destruction, pillaged the city, it is true, but they demolished
+nothing. The systematical destruction had begun long before their
+time, when the materials for building the first church of St. Peter
+were taken from the Circus of Caligula, and from other monuments near
+it. The same plan was pursued in the construction of innumerable other
+churches and buildings of every kind. Statues were broken to pieces and
+used for making lime, and in the beginning of the fifteenth century
+there only remained six of them in all Rome, five of marble and one
+of bronze. The invasion of the Normans in 1084, and the numerous wars
+of the Middle Ages, which were frequently attended by pillage and
+conflagrations, wrought further havoc, but so large had been the number
+of public buildings and monuments, that on the revival of art in the
+sixteenth century many still remained for study and imitation. Since
+that time the architectural collection enclosed by the walls of Rome
+has been guarded with the utmost care, and still further enriched by
+the masterpieces of Michael Angelo, Bramante, and others.
+
+On the Palatine Hill the most curious remains of ancient Rome,
+including the foundations of the palaces of the Cæsars and of the walls
+of _Roma Quadrata_, have recently been laid open. It was on this hill,
+so rich in precious relics, that the first Romans built their city,
+in order to afford it the protection of steep escarpments, and of the
+marshes on the Tiber and Velabro. When Rome grew more populous it
+became necessary to descend from this hill. The town spread over the
+valley of the Velabro, which had been drained by Tarquin the Etruscan,
+and then climbed up the surrounding hills. A small island in the Tiber
+occupied its centre. This the Romans looked upon as a sacred spot. They
+enclosed it by a masonry embankment, shaped like a ship, erected an
+obelisk in its centre to represent a mast, and a temple of Æsculapius
+upon the poop. This island was likened to a vessel bearing the fortunes
+of Rome.
+
+There is still another Rome, the subterranean one, which is well worth
+study, for we learn more from it about early Christianity than from
+all the books that have been written. The crypts of the Christian
+burying-places occupy a zone around the city a couple of miles in
+width, and embrace about fifty distinct catacombs. Signor Rossi
+estimates the length of the subterranean passages at 360 miles. They
+are excavated in the tufa, and are, on an average, a yard in width, but
+they include chambers which served as oratories, and numerous tiers of
+niches for the bodies. The inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and paintings of
+these cities of the dead were at all times respected by the pagans,
+and fortunately the entrances to them were closed up at the time the
+Barbarians invaded Rome. This saved their contents from destruction,
+and everything was found intact when they were first reopened towards
+the close of the sixteenth century. These tombs prove that the popular
+belief of the Christians of that time was very different from what it
+is {278} represented to have been by contemporaneous writers, who
+belonged to a different class of society from that of the majority of
+the faithful. A serene gaiety reigns throughout, and lugubrious emblems
+find no place there. We neither meet with representations of martyrdoms
+nor with skeletons or images of Death; even the cross, which at a later
+epoch became the great symbol of Christianity, is not seen there. The
+most common symbols met with are those of the Good Shepherd carrying
+a lamb upon his shoulders, and the vine decked with leaves. In the
+oldest catacombs, which date back to the second and third centuries,
+the figures are Greek in character, and abound in heathen subjects.
+One represents the Good Shepherd surrounded by the Three Graces. There
+are two Jewish catacombs, likewise excavated in the tufa, and they
+enable us to compare the religious notions which prevailed at that time
+amongst the followers of the two religions.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 101.—THE HILLS OF ROME.]
+
+By an absurd predilection for mystical numbers, Rome is even now spoken
+of as the “City of the Seven Hills,” although it lost all claim to such
+a designation {279} after it had outgrown the walls built by Servius
+Tullius. Independently of Monte Testaccio, which is merely a heap of
+potsherds, there are at least nine hills within the walls of actual
+Rome, viz. the Aventino, to which the plebeians retired during their
+feeble struggles for independence; the Palatino, the ancient seat of
+the Cæsars; the Capitolino, surmounted by the temple of Jupiter; Monte
+Celio (Cælius); the Esquilino; Viminale; Quirinale; Citorio; and the
+Pincio, with its public gardens. Besides these, there are two hills on
+the opposite bank of the Tiber, viz. Monte Gianicolo (Janiculum), the
+highest of all, and the Vatican, which derives its name from the Latin
+word _vates_, a soothsayer, it having once been the seat of Etruscan
+divination.
+
+Faithful to its traditions, the last hill has ever since remained the
+place of vaticinations. When the Christian priests left the obscurity
+of the catacombs they established themselves upon it, and thence they
+governed Rome and the Western world. The Papal palace, abounding
+in treasures of art, was built upon it, and close to it stands the
+resplendent basilica of St. Peter, the centre of Catholic Christendom.
+A long arcade connects the palace with the Castle of Sant’ Angelo,
+the ancient mausoleum of Hadrian. The guns of this fortress no longer
+defend the Vatican, for the temporal power of the pontiffs is a thing
+of the past; but their sumptuous church of St. Peter, with its dome
+rising high into the air, and visible even from the sea, its statues,
+marbles, and mosaics, bears witness to the fact that the riches of all
+Christendom formerly found their way to Rome. St. Peter’s alone cost
+nearly £20,000,000 sterling, and is only one out of the 365 churches
+of the city of the popes. At the same time, the admiration which their
+sumptuous edifice arouses is not without its alloy. A multiplicity of
+ornaments dwarfs the proportions of this colossal building, and, more
+serious still, instead of its being the embodiment of an entire epoch
+of its faith and ideas, it is representative only of a transitory phase
+in the local history of Catholicism, of an age of contradictions,
+when the paganism of the Renaissance and the Christianity of the
+Middle Ages allied themselves in order to give birth to a pompous and
+sensuous neo-Catholicism suited to the tastes and caprices of the
+century. How different is the impression we derive from this building
+from that which the sombre nave of a Gothic cathedral makes upon us !
+It is a remarkable fact that the quarter of Rome in which the church
+of St. Peter is built is the only portion of the city which was laid
+waste by the Mussulmans in 846, who are thus able to boast of having
+sacked Papal Rome and taken possession of Jerusalem, whilst the tomb
+of Mohammed has ever remained in the hands of the faithful. As to
+the Jews, they did not come to Rome as conquerors. Shut up in their
+filthy Ghetto near the swampy banks of the Tiber, and not far from
+that arch of Titus which reminded them of the destruction of their
+temple, they have been the objects of hatred and persecution during
+nineteen centuries. They have survived, thanks to the power of their
+gold, and since their liberation from bondage they contribute even more
+to the embellishment of the Italian capital than do their Christian
+fellow-citizens.
+
+Our nineteenth century is not favourable to the creation of edifices
+fit to rival {280} the Coliseum or St. Peter’s, but there are works of
+another nature, not less deserving of attention, which may distinguish
+this third era in the history of Rome. Above all, it will be necessary
+to protect the city against the floods of the Tiber, and to improve
+its sanitary condition. The bed of the river will have to be deepened,
+embankments constructed, and a system of drainage established.
+
+It is well known that the quantity of water supplied to the Rome of the
+ancients was prodigious. In the time of Trajan nine grand aqueducts,
+having a total length of 262 miles, supplied about 4,400 gallons of
+water per second, and this quantity was augmented to the extent of
+one-fourth by canals subsequently constructed. Even now, although
+most of these ancient aqueducts are in ruins, the water supply of the
+capital of Italy is superior to that of most other cities.[92] But if
+the time should ever come when Rome will occupy the whole of the space
+enclosed within its walls, if ever the Forum should again become the
+centre of the city, then the want of water will be felt there as much
+as in most of the other great towns of Europe.
+
+Irrespective of the insalubrity of the environs, there is another
+reason why modern Rome cannot compare with the ancient city. Its
+streets no longer radiate from a centre towards all the points of the
+compass, as they did of yore. The Appian Road, which on first leaving
+the city passes through a curious avenue of tombs, is typical of the
+old roads, constructed in straight lines, and shortening distances. It
+is true that these ancient highways have been superseded by railways,
+but they are still few in number, and Rome is not situated on a trunk
+line. Elsewhere railways were built from the capital of the country
+towards its periphery; in Italy, on the contrary, it was Florence,
+Bologna, and Naples which constructed lines converging upon Rome.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Rome is one of those large cities which are least able to exist upon
+their own resources, and having no port, and its immediate vicinity
+being rendered uninhabitable by miasmata, it has attached to it
+outlying places, and occupies a position similar to that of a spider
+in the centre of its web. Its gardens, rural retreats, and industrial
+establishments are all in the hill towns of Tivoli, Frascati (near
+which on a ridge are the ruins of Tusculum), Marino (near which the
+confederated nations of Latium held their meetings), Albano (joined
+by a magnificent viaduct to Ariccia), Velletri (the old city of the
+Volsci), and Palestrina (more ancient than either Alba Longa or Rome,
+and occupying the site of a famous temple of Fortune, the pride of
+ancient Præneste). Its watering-places are Palo, Fiumicino, and Porto
+d’Anzio, which adjoins the little town of Nettuno, so famous because
+of the {281} haughty beauty of its women. Its only seaport is Cività
+Vecchia, a dreary town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, with a magnificent
+harbour.[93] The ancient harbours to the south of the Tiber are very
+little resorted to in our day. Terracina, hidden amidst verdure at the
+foot of white cliffs, is only used by Rome-bound travellers coming by
+the coast road from the south.[94] Nearly every other town of Latium
+is built on one or other of the two great roads, of which one leads
+northward to Florence, whilst the other penetrates the valley of the
+Sacco towards the south-east, and finally issues upon the campagna of
+Naples. Viterbo, the “city of nice fountains and pretty girls,” is the
+principal town in the north. Alatri, on the slope of the Garigliano,
+and commanded by a superb necropolis enclosed by cyclopean walls,
+occupies a similar position in the south. In the east, in one of the
+most charming valleys of Sabina, traversed by the ever-cool waters of
+the Anio, lies Subiaco, the ancient Sublaqueum, thus named after the
+three reservoirs constructed by Nero, who used to fish trout in them
+with a golden net. It was in a holy cave (_sacro specu_) near Subiaco
+that St. Benedict established his famous monastery, which preceded the
+still more famous monastery of Monte Casino, and conjointly with that
+of Lérins, in Provence, became the cradle of monachism in the West.[95]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 102.—CIVITÀ VECCHIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 8,888.]
+
+{282}
+
+Perugia, the capital of Umbria, on the road from Rome to Ancona, is
+one of the ancient cities of the Etruscans, and excavations carried
+on in its vicinity have revealed tombs of the highest interest. After
+every war and disaster this city has arisen from its ruins, for its
+position in the midst of a fertile plain, and at the point of junction
+of several natural high-roads, is most favourable. It is both a Roman
+and a Tuscan city, and at the period of the Renaissance it gave birth
+to one of the great schools of painting. There still remain numerous
+monuments at Perugia which date back to that famous epoch, and although
+no longer one of the artistic head-quarters of Italy, it is still the
+seat of a university; its trade, especially in raw silk, is active;
+and its clean houses and streets, its pure atmosphere, and charming
+inhabitants annually attract to it a large number of the foreigners who
+spend the winter at Rome. Perugia has by far outstripped its rival,
+Foligno, which was formerly the great commercial mart of Central Italy,
+and still carries on a few branches of industry; amongst others, the
+tanning of leather. As to Assisi, it is justly famous because of its
+temple of Minerva, and its gorgeous monasteries decorated with the
+frescoes of Cimabue and his successor, Giotto, the last of the Greek
+and the first of the Italian painters. Assisi is only a small place
+now, but its environs are fertile and densely inhabited. It gave birth
+to Francesco d’Assisi, the founder of the order of St. Francis.
+
+Other towns of Umbria, though not now of much importance, may boast of
+having once played a great part in history, or of possessing beautiful
+monuments. Spoleto, the gates of which Hannibal sought in vain to
+force, has a superb basilica, a Roman viaduct carried across a deep
+ravine, and mountains clad with pines and chestnuts. Terni is proud of
+its famous cascade (see p. 270). Orvieto, to the north of the Tiber,
+near the frontier of Tuscany, is haughty and dirty, but justly famous
+on account of its marvellous cathedral, one of the most costly and
+tasteful buildings in the world. Città di Castello, on the Upper Tiber,
+and Gubbio, in the very heart of the mountains, are the two principal
+towns in the Umbrian Apennines. Both are delightfully situated, and
+possess efficacious mineral springs. At Gubbio are shown the famous
+“Eugubian Tables,” seven plates of bronze covered with Umbrian
+characters, and the only relics of that kind known to exist. The little
+town of Fratta, now known as Umbertide, half-way between Perugia and
+Città di Castello, is only of local importance.[96]
+
+Ancona is the Adriatic port of the Roman countries. It is an ancient
+city of the Dorians, which still retains the name given it by its
+founders, on account of its being situated at the “angle” formed by
+the coast between the Gulf of Venice and the Southern Adriatic. A
+fine triumphal arch near the mole attests the importance which Trajan
+attached to the possession of this port. Thanks to its favourable
+position and the labour bestowed upon the improvement of its harbour,
+Ancona is one of the three great places of commerce on the Adriatic;
+it ranks next to Venice, and is almost the equal of Brindisi, though
+not one of the stages on the road to India. Its commerce is fed by
+Rome, the Marches, and Lombardy; and {283} amongst its exports are
+fruits, oil, asphalt from the Abruzzos, sulphur from the Apennines,
+and silk, “the very best in the world,” if the native estimate of its
+quality can be accepted.[97] The other ports along this coast offer but
+little shelter, and their commerce is small. Pesaro, the native town
+of Rossini, is only visited by vessels of twenty or thirty tons. Fano
+merely admits barges. The small river port of Sinigaglia (Senigallia)
+was formerly much frequented during the fair, at which commodities
+valued at £1,000,000 sterling used to change hands, but since its
+abolition in 1870 it has been deserted.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 103.—VALLEYS OF EROSION ON THE WESTERN SLOPE OF THE
+APENNINES.
+
+Scale 1 : 403,000.]
+
+With the exception of Fabbriano, which occupies a smiling valley of the
+Apennines, and of Ascoli-Piceno, on the river Tronto, the inland towns
+of the Marches are built upon the summit of hills, but extend through
+their suburbs to the cultivable plains. The principal amongst them are
+Urbino, whose greatest glory consists in having been the birthplace
+of Raphael, and which, like its neighbour Pesaro, formerly produced a
+kind of faience much valued by connoisseurs; Jesi; Osimo; Maxerata;
+Recanati, the native place of Leopardi; and Fermo. One of the most
+famous of these hill towns is Loreto, formerly the most-frequented
+place of pilgrimage in the Christian world. Before the Reformation, and
+at a time when {284} travelling was far more difficult than now, as
+many as 200,000 devotees visited the shrines of Loreto every year. They
+were shown there the veritable house in which the Virgin Mary was born,
+and which was carried by angels to the spot it now occupies, where it
+is sheltered by a magnificently decorated dome. At Castelfidardo, close
+by, was fought the battle which cost the Pope the greater part of the
+“patrimony of St. Peter.”
+
+There are only a few towns in the uplands of the Abruzzos. The
+principal of these is Aquila, founded in the thirteenth century by the
+Emperor Frederick II. The other towns are difficult of access, and,
+far from attracting inhabitants from beyond, they send their vigorous
+sons to the lowlands, where they are known as _Aquilani_, and highly
+appreciated as terrace gardeners. The most populous places are met with
+in the lower valley of the Aterno, or command the road leading to the
+coast and the fertile fields of the Adriatic slope. Solmona is embedded
+in a huge garden, anciently a lake, and overlooked in the south by the
+steep scarps of Monte Majella. Popoli, at the mouth of a defile, where
+the Aterno assumes the name of Pescara, is one of the busiest places
+between the sea and the uplands. Chieti, lower down on the same river,
+is said to have been the first town in the old Neapolitan province to
+introduce steam into its spinning-mills and other factories. Teramo and
+Lanciano are likewise places of some importance, but the only ports
+along the coast, Ortona and Vasto, are merely frequented by small
+coasting vessels.[98]
+
+A small district in the Marches, joined to the coast by a single
+road, has maintained its independence through ages. Monte Titano,
+which rises in one of the most beautiful parts of the Apennines, and
+the base of which has been used as a quarry since time immemorial,
+bears upon its summit the old and famous city of San Marino. From its
+turreted walls the citizens can see the sun rise above the Illyrian
+Alps. San Marino, with some neighbouring hamlets, constitutes a “most
+illustrious” republic, and is now the only independent municipality
+of Italy. Named after a Dalmatian mason who lived as a hermit on
+Monte Titano, San Marino has existed as a sovereign state from the
+fourth century, its citizens having at all times known how to turn
+to advantage the jealousies of their neighbours. The constitution of
+this republic, however, is anything but democratic. The citizens, even
+though they be landed proprietors, have no votes, and are at most
+permitted to remonstrate. The supreme power is vested in a Council
+of sixty members, composed of nobles, citizens, and landowners. The
+title of councillor is hereditary in the family, and when a family
+becomes extinct the remaining fifty-nine choose another. The Council
+appoints the various officials, including a captain for the town and
+one for the country. San Marino has its little army, its budget, and
+its monopolies. A portion of its income is derived from the sale of
+titles and of decorations, and on the payment of £1,400 it has even
+created dukes, who take rank with the highest nobility of the kingdom.
+Taxation is voluntary. When the public chest is empty a drummer is
+sent round the town to invite {285} contributions. Though perfectly
+independent, this republic accepts a subsidy from Italy, and claims
+the special protection of the King. Its criminals are shut up in an
+Italian prison, its public documents are printed in Italy, and an
+Italian judge occupies the bench of the republican prætorium. There is
+no printing-office in the little state, for the Council is afraid that
+books objectionable to the surrounding kingdom might be issued from
+it.[99]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 104.—RIMINI AND SAN MARINO.
+
+Scale 1 : 250,000.]
+
+{286}
+
+
+VI.—SOUTHERN ITALY, NAPLES.
+
+Amongst the various states which have been welded into the modern
+kingdom of Italy, Naples, though second to others in population and
+industry, occupies the largest area.[100] It embraces the whole
+southern half of the peninsula, and its coast has a development of 995
+miles. Formerly the country was better known than any other portion of
+Italy as Magna Græcia, but now many parts of it are scarcely known at
+all.
+
+The Apennines of Naples can hardly be described as a mountain chain.
+They consist rather of distinct mountain groups joined by transverse
+ranges, or by elevated saddles. In the first of these groups the
+serrated crest of the Meta (7,364 feet) rises above the zone of trees,
+and is separated from the Abruzzos by the deep valley of the Sangro,
+which flows to the Adriatic. Farther to the south, beyond the valley
+of Isernia, which gives birth to the Volturno, rise the mountains of
+the Matese, culminating in the Miletto (6,717 feet), the last bulwark
+of the Samnites. Other summits, less elevated, but equally steep and
+imposing, rise near Benevento and Avellino. They abound in savage
+defiles, in which many a bloody battle has been fought. The valley of
+the “Furcæ Caudinæ,” where the Romans humbled themselves before the
+Samnites, and made promises which they never meant to keep, may still
+be recognised on the road from Naples to Benevento. The memory of this
+event lives in the Caudarola Road, and the village of Forchia d’Arpaia.
+This mountain region, which might fitly be called after its ancient
+inhabitants, is connected in the south with a transversal chain,
+running east and west, and terminating in Cape Campanello, to the south
+of the Bay of Naples. The beautiful island of Capri, with its white
+cliffs and caverns flooded by the azure waters of the Mediterranean,
+lies off this cape.
+
+The eastern slope of the cretaceous mountains of Naples is gentle,
+and gradually merges in argillaceous _tavolieri_, or table-lands,
+deposited during the Pliocene epoch. The _tavoliere de la Puglia_ is,
+perhaps, the most sterile and dreary portion of Italy. It is cut up
+into terraces by deep ravines, through which insignificant streams find
+their way to the Adriatic, and the centres of population must be looked
+for at the mouths of valleys or along the high-roads. The country
+itself is a vast solitude, deserted by all except nomad herdsmen. There
+are no shrubs, and a kind of fennel, which forms the hedges separating
+the pasturing grounds, is the largest plant to be seen. Hovels,
+resembling tombs or heaps of stone, rise here and there in the midst of
+these plains. Fortunately the old feudal customs which prevented the
+cultivation of these plains, and compelled the mountaineers to keep
+open wide paths, or _tratturi_, through their fields for the passage of
+sheep, have been abolished, and the aspect of the tavoliere improves
+from year to year.
+
+These tavolieri completely separate the mountains of the peninsula
+of Gargano—the “spur” of the Italian “boot”—from the system of the
+Apennines. The northern slopes of these rugged mountains are still
+clad with forests of beeches {287} and pines, which supply the best
+pitch of Italy, and by thickets of carob-trees and other plants, whose
+flowers are transformed by the bees into delicious honey; but the very
+name of the most elevated summit—Monte Calvo (5,150 feet), or “bald
+mountain”—proves that the deplorable destruction of forests has been
+going on here as in the rest of the peninsula. In former times the
+recesses of Monte Gargano were held by Saracen pirates, and they defied
+the Christians there for a long time, in spite of the many sanctuaries
+which had been substituted for the ancient heathen temples. The most
+famous of these was the church on Monte Sant’ Angelo, at the back of
+Manfredonia, which was frequently resorted to by the navigator about to
+leave the shelter of the bay for the dangerous coasts of Dalmatia or
+the open sea.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 105.—MONTE GARGANO.
+
+Scale 1 : 950,000.]
+
+The Neapolitan Apennines terminate in the south with the ancient
+volcano of Monte Vultur (4,356 feet). Farther south the country
+gradually sinks down into a table-land intersected by deep ravines,
+which discharge their waters in three directions—towards the Bay of
+Salerno, the Bay of Taranto, and the Adriatic. The Apennines, far from
+bifurcating, as shown on old maps, are cut in two by the low saddle
+of Potenza, and on the peninsula forming the “heel” of Italy only low
+ridges and terraces are met with.
+
+The peninsula of Calabria, however, is rugged and mountainous. The
+Apennines, near Lagonegro, again rise above the zone of forests.
+Monte Polino (7,656 feet) is the highest summit in Naples. The group
+of which it forms the {288} centre occupies the entire width of the
+peninsula, and along its western coast it forms a wall of cliffs even
+less accessible than those of Liguria. Towards the south it opens out
+into wooded valleys, where the inhabitants collect manna, an esteemed
+medicinal drug. The deep valley of the Crati separates these mountains
+from the Sila (5,863 feet), which is composed of granites and schists,
+and still retains its ancient forests, haunted by brigands. The
+shepherds who pasture their flocks in the clearings of these woods are
+said to be the descendants of the Saracens, who formerly occupied this
+“Country of Rosin,” by which name it was known to the Greeks.
+
+To the south of the isolated Sila the peninsula narrows to a neck of
+small elevation, where raised beaches attest the successive retreats
+of the sea. A third mountain mass, of crystalline formation, rises to
+the south of this depression, its furrowed slopes clad in forests.
+This is the Aspromonte (6,263 feet), or “rugged mountain.” One of its
+spurs forms the palm-clad promontory of Spartivento, or “parting of the
+winds.”
+
+Naples, like Latium, has its volcanic mountains, which form two
+irregular ranges, one on the continent, the other in the Tyrrhenian
+Sea, and are, perhaps, connected beneath the sea with the volcanic
+mountains of the Liparic Islands and Mount Etna. One of these is Mount
+Vesuvius, the most famous volcano of the world, not because of its
+height or the terror of its eruptions, but because its history is that
+of an entire population who have made its lavas their home.
+
+Scarcely have we left the defile of Gaeta and entered upon the
+paradisiacal Terra di Lavoro than we come upon the first volcano,
+the Rocca Monfina (3,300 feet), which rises between two calcareous
+mountains, one of which is the Massico, whose wines have been sung by
+Horace. No eruption of this volcano is on record, and a village now
+occupies its shattered crater. To judge from the streams of lava which
+surround its trachytic cone, its eruptions must have been formidable.
+The entire Campania is covered to an unascertained depth with ashes
+ejected from it, and the marine shells found in them prove that the
+whole of this region must have been upheaved at a comparatively recent
+epoch.
+
+[Illustration: THE BAY OF NAPLES]
+
+The hills which rise to the south of the Campania cannot boast of the
+grandeur of the Rocca Monfina, but they have been looked upon from
+the most remote times as one of the great curiosities of our earth.
+Standing upon the commanding height of the Camaldoli (518 feet), the
+Phlegræan Fields lie at our feet. Acquainted as we now are with the far
+more formidable volcanoes of Java and the Andes, this verdant sea-bound
+country may not strike us as a region of horrors. But our Græco-Roman
+predecessors looked upon it with very different eyes, and being unable
+to account for the phenomena they witnessed, they ascribed them to the
+gods. The quaking soil, the flames bursting forth from hidden furnaces,
+the gaping funnels communicating with unexplored caverns, lakes
+which disappeared at irregular intervals, and others exhaling deadly
+gases—all these things left their impress upon ancient mythology and
+poetry. At the time of Strabo the shores of the Bay of Baiæ had become
+the favourite resort of {289} voluptuaries, and sumptuous villas
+rose upon every promontory; but the terrors inspired by hidden flames
+and mysterious caverns had not yet departed. A dreaded oracle was
+said to have its seat there, guarded by Cimmerians, to whom strangers
+desirous of consulting the gods had to apply. These troglodytæ were
+doomed never to behold the sun, and only quitted their caverns during
+the night. The Phlegræan Fields were likewise supposed to have been the
+battle-ground of giants struggling for the possession of the fertile
+plains of the Campania. During the Middle Ages Pozzuoli was looked upon
+as the spot from which Christ descended into hell.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 106.—THE ASHES OF THE CAMPANIA.
+
+According to Carl Vogt. Scale 1 : 835,400.]
+
+The number of craters still distinguishable is twenty. If we were
+to suppose {290} the country to be deprived of its vegetation, its
+aspect would resemble that of the surface of the moon. Even the city of
+Naples occupies an ancient crater, the contours of which have become
+almost obliterated. To the west of it several old craters can still
+be traced, one of them occupying a promontory of tufa, surmounted by
+what is called the tomb of Virgil. Passing through the famous grotto of
+Posilippo, we find ourselves in the Phlegræan Fields. On our left rises
+the small conical island of Nisita, its ancient crater invaded by the
+sea. Farther on we reach the crater known as the Solfatara, the Forum
+Vulcani of the ancients. Its last eruption took place in 1198, but it
+still exhales sulphuretted hydrogen. The Park of Astroni lies to the
+north. The interior slope of its enclosing wall is exceedingly steep,
+so as to render impossible the escape of the deer and boars which are
+kept within. The only access is through an artificial breach. Another
+crater, less regular in shape, is now filled with the bubbling waters
+of the Lake of Agnano. Near it is the famous Grotto of Dogs, with its
+spring of carbonic acid. Other springs of gas and sulphurous water
+rise in the neighbourhood, and to them Pozzuoli is indebted for its
+name, which is said to mean the “town of stinks.” The town, in turn,
+has given its name to the earth known as pozzuolana, which supplies an
+excellent material for the manufacture of cement.
+
+The coast of the bay of Pozzuoli has undergone repeated changes of
+level, in proof of which the three columns of the temple of Serapis
+are usually referred to. At a time anterior to the Romans this temple,
+together with the beach upon which it stands, sank beneath the waters
+of the sea, and its columns must have been exposed to their action
+for many years, perhaps centuries, for up to a height of twenty feet
+they are covered with tubes of serpulæ, and perforated by innumerable
+holes bored by pholadidæ. In the course of time it rose again slowly
+above the waters. This happened, perhaps, in 1538, when the Monte
+Nuovo sprang into existence. In the short period of four days this new
+volcano, 490 feet in height, rose above the surrounding plain, and
+buried the village of Tripergola beneath its ashes. A beach now known
+as La Starza was formed at the foot of the cliffs, and two sheets
+of water to the west of Monte Nuovo were cut off from the sea. One
+of these, the Lago Lucrino, is famous for its oysters; the other is
+the Lago d’Averno, which Virgil, in conformity with antique legends,
+described as the entrance to the infernal regions. It occupies an
+ancient crater, and its pellucid waters abound in fish. There are no
+exhalations of poisonous gases now, and birds fly over the lake with
+impunity. Still its vicinity is haunted by the memories of the old
+pagan mythology. Lake Fusaro is referred to by the ciceroni as the
+Acheron; close to it they point out the den of Cerberus; the sluggish
+stream of Acqua Morta has been identified with the Cocytus; Lake
+Lucrino, or rather a spring near it, with the Styx; and the remains
+of a subterranean passage which connected the Averno with the sea are
+pointed out as the whilom grotto of the Sibyl. The inhabitants of
+Cumæ, which was founded by a colony from Chalcis, and the ruins of
+which still exist on the Mediterranean coast, to the east of Pozzuoli,
+brought with them the myths of Hellas, and Grecian poetry, which took
+possession of them, has kept their memory alive.
+
+It is quite proper that this region of Tartarus should have its
+contrast in Elysian {291} Fields, and this name has actually been
+bestowed upon a portion of the peninsula of Baiæ, which formed the
+chief attraction of the voluptuous Romans, and where Marius, Pompey,
+Cæsar, Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Agrippina, Nero, and others
+had their palaces. Many a fearful tragedy has been enacted in these
+sumptuous buildings. But hardly a trace of them exists now; nature has
+resumed possession of the country, and the hills of tufa and volcanoes
+are the only curiosities of the peninsula. Cape Miseno is one of these
+old volcanoes, and from its summit may be enjoyed one of the most
+delightful prospects in the world. The whole of the Bay of Naples—“a
+bit of heaven fallen upon our earth”—lies spread out beneath us, and
+Ischia the joyous, formidable Capri, the promontory of Sorrento, Mount
+Vesuvius, and the houses and villas of Naples fill up the space bounded
+by the sea and the distant Apennines.
+
+The island of Procida joins the Phlegræan Fields to the chain of island
+volcanoes lying off the Bay of Gaeta. Ischia is the most important of
+these, and its volcano, the Epomeo (2,520 feet), almost rivals Mount
+Vesuvius in height. One of its most formidable eruptions occurred in
+1302, at a time when Mount Vesuvius was quiescent, but after the latter
+resumed its activity Ischia remained in repose. Similarly, when the
+Monte Nuovo was ejected from the earth, the huge volcano went to sleep
+for no less a period than one hundred and thirty years. Ischia has
+known no eruption for five centuries and a half, and the gases escaping
+from its thirty or forty hot springs are now the only signs of volcanic
+activity.
+
+Ischia has certainly been upheaved during a comparatively recent epoch,
+for its trachytic lavas rest in many places upon clays and marls
+containing marine shells of living Mediterranean species. Some of these
+have been found at a height of nearly 2,000 feet. At the present time
+the tufa rocks of Ischia, and of the other volcanic islands to the
+west of it, are being washed away by the sea. Ventotene, the ancient
+Pandataria, to which the Roman princesses were exiled, is hardly more
+now than a heap of scoriæ. Ponza, likewise a place of exile of the
+Romans, has been separated by the erosive action of the sea into a
+number of smaller islands. Its lavas overlie Jurassic rocks, similar in
+all respects to those of Monte Circello on the coast nearest to it.
+
+Mount Vesuvius (4,100 feet), the pride and dread of the Neapolitans,
+was likewise an island during prehistoric times. The marine shells
+found in the tufa of Monte Somma prove this, and on the east the
+volcano is still surrounded by plains but little elevated above the
+sea. Formerly the mountain was covered with verdure to its very summit,
+but the explosion of A.D. 79 shattered its cone, and the ashes thrown
+up into the air shrouded the whole of the country in darkness. Even at
+Rome the sun was hidden, and an age of darkness was believed to have
+set in. When at length the light reappeared, the face of the country
+was found to have undergone a marvellous change. The mountain had lost
+its shape, the fertile fields were hidden by masses of débris, and
+entire towns had been buried beneath ashes.
+
+Since that terrible event Mount Vesuvius has vomited lavas and ashes on
+many occasions. No periodicity has been traced in these outbursts, and
+the intervals {292} of repose were generally of sufficient duration to
+enable vegetation to resume its sway. But these eruptions have become
+more frequent since the seventeenth century, and hardly a decade passes
+by without one or more of them. Each of them modifies the contours of
+the mountain, whose great central vent has undergone many changes. The
+crescent-shaped mass of débris which surrounds the old crater, known
+as the Atrio del Cavallo, was undoubtedly of loftier height previously
+to the great outburst of 79 than it is now. The vicinity of Naples has
+facilitated a study of the phenomena attending volcanic eruptions, and
+an observatory, permanently occupied, has been built close to the cone
+of eruption.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 107.—ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS, APRIL 26TH, 1872.]
+
+The neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius, like that of all other volcanoes,
+abounds in hot and gas springs, but there are no subsidiary craters.
+The nearest volcano is Monte Vultur (4,356 feet), a regular cone on the
+eastern slope of the peninsula. Its dimensions are larger than those
+of Vesuvius, but no eruptions are on record, though a slight escape of
+carbonic acid is still going on from the two lakes which occupy the
+bottom of its vast crater. On a line connecting Ischia, Vesuvius, and
+Monte Vultur, and about half-way between the two latter, we meet with
+the most abundant carbonic acid spring of Italy. The gas escapes with
+a hissing noise from the pond of Ansanto, and the ground around the
+spring is covered with the remains of insects, killed in myriads on
+coming within the influence of the poisonous air. Near it the Romans
+erected a temple in honour of Juno the Mephitic.
+
+The disasters resulting from volcanic eruptions are great, no doubt,
+but they {293} are exceeded by those caused by earthquakes. Some of
+these are unquestionably caused by a subterranean displacement of lava,
+and thus, when Vesuvius begins to stir, Torre del Greco and other
+towns at its foot incur the risk of being buried beneath ashes or
+destroyed by earthquakes. But the Basilicata and Calabria—that is to
+say, the two provinces lying between the volcanic foci of Vesuvius and
+Etna—have many times been shaken by earthquakes whose origin cannot be
+traced to volcanic agencies. Out of a thousand earthquakes recorded in
+Southern Italy during the last three centuries, nearly all occurred in
+the provinces named, and they were occasionally attended by the most
+disastrous results. The earthquake of 1857 cost the lives of 10,000
+persons at Potenza and its vicinity, but the most disastrous of these
+events happened in 1785 in Southern Calabria. The first shock, which
+proceeded from a focus beneath the town of Oppido, in the Aspromonte
+Mountains, only lasted a hundred seconds, but within that short space
+of time 109 towns and villages were overthrown, and 32,000 of their
+inhabitants buried beneath their ruins. Crevasses opened in the ground;
+rivers were swallowed up, to reappear again lower down as lakes;
+liquid clay flowed down the hill-slopes like lava, converting fertile
+fields into unproductive wastes. The commotion of the sea added to
+these horrors. Many of the inhabitants of Scilla, afraid to remain on
+the quaking land, fled to their boats, when an enormous mass of rock
+detached itself from a neighbouring mountain, and, tumbling into the
+sea, produced a wave which upset the boats and cast their fragments
+upon the shore. Want of food brought on famine, and typhus, as usual,
+came in its train.
+
+We are not yet able to predict earthquakes, and can only provide
+against them by a suitable construction of our dwellings. There exists,
+however, another cause of misery and depopulation which the Neapolitans
+might successfully combat, as was done by their ancestors. In the time
+of the Greeks the swamps along the coast were certainly less extensive
+than they are now. War, and a return towards barbarism, have caused the
+rivers to be neglected, and to produce a deterioration in the climate.
+Baia, a place once famous on account of its healthiness, has become the
+home of malaria. Sybaris, the town of luxury and pleasure, has been
+supplanted by a fever-plain “which eats more men than it is able to
+nourish.” These paludial miasmata, poverty, and ignorance decimate the
+population of La Puglia, Basilicata, and Calabria. Even certain Asiatic
+diseases, such as elephantiasis and leprosy, ravage the country, which,
+from its rare fertility and fine climate, ought to be in the enjoyment
+of the greatest prosperity.
+
+Continental Sicily is indeed a favoured region, and its eastern slopes
+more especially might be converted into one huge garden, for the
+rainfall there is abundant. Naples enjoys a semi-tropical climate, and
+its winter temperature is hardly inferior to the annual mean of London.
+Snow very rarely falls, and only remains on the tops of the hills
+for a few weeks.[101] The vegetation along the coast is of tropical
+luxuriance. Oranges and lemons bear excellent fruit; date-palms uplift
+their fan-shaped leaves, and sometimes bear fruit; the American agave
+{294} stretches forth its candelabra-like branches; sugar-cane,
+cotton, and other industrial plants, which elsewhere in Europe are
+scarcely ever met with outside hothouses, grow in the fields. In the
+forests of Calabria the olive-tree affords as much shade as does the
+beech with us. Even the bare rocks on the coast yield excellent grapes
+and garden fruits. Naples, Sicily, Andalusia, and certain districts of
+Greece and Asia Minor realise our beau idéal of the sub-tropical zone,
+and only the heaths on the Adriatic slope and the upper valleys of the
+Apennines remind us that we are still in Central Europe.
+
+This delightful country is inhabited by a people having the most
+diverse origin. It is now 2,300 years since the Samnites occupied the
+whole of it from sea to sea. They were more numerous than the Romans,
+and might have conquered the whole of Italy had there been more
+cohesion amongst them, and some of that talent for organization which
+constituted the strength of their adversaries. But they were split into
+five tribes, each speaking a different dialect; and whilst the Samnites
+of the hills quarrelled with their kinsmen in the plains, the latter
+were at enmity with the Hellenized Samnites who lived near the Greek
+towns on the coast.
+
+The whole of the coast of Southern Italy, from Cumæ—founded more than
+a thousand years before our era—to Sipuntum, of which some ruins
+remain near the modern Manfredonia, was dotted with Greek colonies.
+In these districts of Southern Italy the bulk of the population is
+of very different origin from that of other parts of the peninsula.
+To the north of Monte Gargano, Celtic, Etruscan, and Latin elements
+preponderate, whilst Hellenes, Pelasgians, and kindred races dominate
+in the south. Not only did civilised Greeks found their colonies there,
+but the aboriginal population, the Iapygians, spoke a dialect akin to
+the Hellenic, and Mommsen may be right when he conjectures that these
+Iapygians were of the same origin as the modern Albanians.
+
+At a subsequent date these southern Italians had to bow down before
+the Romans, who founded military colonies amongst them, but never
+succeeded in completely Latinising them. When the Roman Empire fell to
+pieces the Cæsars of Byzantium still maintained themselves for a long
+time in Southern Italy, and the Greek language again preponderated,
+but gradually Romance dialects gained the upper hand. The inhabitants
+returned to a state of barbarism, but they retained to a great extent
+their language and customs, and even now there are districts in the
+south which are Italian in appearance rather than in reality, and in
+eight villages of the Terra d’Otranto the Hellenic dialect of the
+Peloponnesus is still spoken. Towns like Naples, Nicastro, Taranto,
+Gallipoli, Monopoli, and others, whilst preserving their sonorous Greek
+names, have also retained many features which recall the times of Magna
+Græcia.
+
+Reggio—that is, the “city of the strait”—appears to have retained the
+use of Greek much longer than any other town, and its patricians,
+who boasted of being pure Ionians, still spoke the language of their
+ancestors towards the close of the thirteenth century. In several
+remote towns of the interior Greek was formerly in common use. The old
+popular songs of Bova, a small town near the southern {295} extremity
+of Italy, are in an Ionian dialect more like the language of Xenophon
+than is modern Greek. Down to a very recent date the peasants near
+Roccaforte del Greco, Condofuri, and Cardeto spoke Greek, and when
+they appeared before a magistrate they required an interpreter. At the
+present day all young people speak Italian; the old language has been
+forgotten, but the Greek type remains. The men and women of Cardeto
+are famous for their beauty, more especially the latter. “They are
+Minervas,” we are told by a local historian. Their principal livelihood
+consists in acting as wet nurses to the children of the citizens of
+Reggio. The women of Bagnara, between Scilla and Palmi, are likewise of
+wondrous beauty, but their features are stern, betraying Arab blood,
+and they are destitute of the noble placidity of the Greek.
+
+It is said that the women of the Hellenic villages of Calabria are
+still in the habit of executing a sacred dance, which lasts for hours,
+and resembles the representations we meet with on ancient vases,
+only they dance before the church instead of the temple, and their
+ceremonies are blessed by Christian priests. Funerals are accompanied
+by weeping women, who collect their tears in lachrymatories. Elsewhere,
+as in the environs of Tarento, the children consecrate the hair of
+their head to the manes of their ancestors. Old morals, no less than
+old customs, have been preserved. Woman is still looked upon as an
+inferior being, and even at Reggio the wives of citizens or noblemen
+who respect ancient tradition confine themselves to the gynæceum. They
+do not visit the theatre, go out but rarely, and when they walk abroad
+are attended by barefooted servants, and not by their husbands.
+
+In addition to Samnites, Iapygians, and Greeks, who form the bulk
+of the population of Southern Italy, we meet with Etruscans in the
+Campania; Saracens in the peninsula of Gargano, in the Campania,
+the marina of Reggio, Bagnara, and other coast towns; Lombards in
+Benevento, who retained their language down to the eleventh century;
+Normans, from whom the shepherds on the hills are supposed to be
+descended; and Spaniards in several coast towns, especially at
+Barletta, in Apulia. The Albanians have probably furnished the largest
+contingent of all the strangers now domiciled in Southern Italy. They
+are numerous on the whole of the eastern slope of the peninsula, from
+the promontory of Gargano to the southernmost point of Calabria.
+One of their clans came to Italy in 1440, but the bulk of them only
+arrived during the second half of the fifteenth century, after the
+heroic resistance made by Scanderbeg had been overcome by the Turks.
+The conquered Skipetars were then compelled to expatriate themselves
+in order to escape the yoke of the Turks, and they were received with
+open arms by the Kings of Naples, who granted them several deserted
+villages, which are now amongst the most flourishing of Southern Italy.
+The descendants of these Skipetars, who are principally domiciled in
+the Basilicata and Calabria, rank among the most useful citizens of
+the country. They take the lead in the intellectual regeneration of
+the old kingdom of Naples, and were the first to join the liberating
+army of Garibaldi. Many have become Italianised, but there are still
+over 80,000 who have neither forgotten their origin nor their language.
+{296}
+
+The Neapolitans are undoubtedly one of the finest races of Europe.
+The Calabrians, the mountaineers of Molise, and the peasants of the
+Basilicata are so well proportioned, erect, supple of limb, and agile,
+that their low stature, as compared with the races of the North, can
+hardly be a subject of reproach; and the nobility and expression of
+the faces of Neapolitan women fully compensate for the irregularity we
+frequently meet with. The faces of the children, with their large black
+eyes and well-formed lips, beam with intelligence, but the wretched
+existence to which too many of them are condemned soon degrades their
+physiognomy. Supremely ignorant, the Neapolitan is, nevertheless,
+most admirably gifted by nature. The country which has produced so
+many great men since the days of Pythagoras is in nowise inferior to
+any other; its philosophers, historians, and lawyers have exercised a
+powerful influence upon the march of human thought; and the number of
+great musicians which it has produced is proportionately large.
+
+Still, in many respects, the inhabitants of Southern Italy hold the
+lowest rank amongst the nations of Europe. Ever since the annihilation
+of the Greek republican cities the country has been subjected to
+foreign masters, who have either devastated it or systematically
+oppressed its inhabitants. With the exception of Amalfi, no other town
+was granted the privilege of governing itself for any length of time.
+The very position of the country exposed it to dangers. Placed in the
+centre of the Mediterranean, it was on the high-road of every pirate
+or invader, whether Saracen or Norman, Spaniard or Frenchman, and the
+absence of any natural cohesion between its various districts prevented
+its population from organizing a united resistance against the attacks
+of foreign invaders. Southern Italy has not the river basins of
+Lombardy, Tuscany, Umbria, or Rome; there exists no centre of gravity,
+so to say, and the country is split up into separate sections having
+nothing in common.
+
+The government under which the Neapolitans lived until quite recently
+was most humiliating. “I do not require my people to think,” said King
+Ferdinand II. of Naples. Ideas which did not commend themselves to
+the authorities were punished as crimes, and only mendicity and moral
+depravity were allowed to flourish. Science was compelled to live in
+retirement; history to seek a refuge in the catacombs of archæology;
+and literature was corrupt or frivolous. Of the Neapolitans who did
+not expatriate themselves only a very small number became eminent.
+Schools were hardly known outside the large towns, and where they
+did exist they were placed under the supervision of the police. Men
+able to read and write were looked at askance, and, to escape being
+accused of belonging to some secret society, they were compelled to
+turn hypocrites. Old superstitions exist in full force, and the heathen
+hallucinations of Greeks and Iapygians still survive. The idolatrous
+Neapolitan casts himself down before the statue of St. Januarius, but
+heaps imprecations upon the head of his saint if his miraculous blood
+does not quickly liquefy. Similar superstitions exist in nearly every
+town of Naples. Every one of them has its patron saint or deity, who,
+if he should fail to protect his people, is treated as a common enemy.
+As recently as 1858 the villagers of Calabria, irritated by a drought,
+put their venerated saints into prison; and Barletta, {297} about the
+same period, had the melancholy honour of being the last town in Europe
+in which Protestants were burned alive. Such is the fanaticism still
+met with in the second half of the nineteenth century ! [102]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 108.—EDUCATIONAL MAP OF ITALY.]
+
+{298}
+
+One of the great superstitions of the Neapolitans refers to the
+“evil eye.” The unfortunate being who happens to have a nose like a
+battle-axe and large round eyes is looked upon as _jettatore_, and is
+avoided as a fatal being. If by any evil chance his glance happens
+to fall upon any unfortunate person, it is considered necessary to
+counteract it by the influence of an amulet resembling the _fascinum_
+of the ancients, or by some other means no less potent. Coral amulets
+are looked upon as most efficient, and many who pretend not to believe
+in their virtues are the first to make use of them. The peasants of
+Calabria wear an image of their patron saint upon the chest, and shield
+their cattle and houses by means of the images of saints or household
+gods. At Reggio a cactus may be seen near the door or on the balcony of
+every house, which has been placed there to keep off evil influences,
+and is universally known as _l’albero del mal’ occhio_ (the tree of the
+evil eye).
+
+Next to superstition, the great scourge of Southern Italy is
+brigandage. The very name of Calabria conjures up in our imagination
+picturesque brigands armed with carbines. Unfortunately this Calabrian
+brigand is no myth, invented to serve the purposes of the stage. He
+really exists, and neither the severity of the laws put in motion
+against him nor political changes have brought about his extermination.
+On many occasions, after a successful hunt for brigands had been
+carried on, the authorities felicitated themselves upon having rid the
+country of this scourge, but it regularly revived.
+
+In Sardinia and Corsica the peasant takes up arms from a desire for
+vengeance, but in Calabria from poverty. Feudalism, though abolished in
+name, still flourishes in that country. Nearly the whole of the soil
+belongs to a few great landowners, and the peasant, or _cafore_, is
+condemned to a life of ill-remunerated toil. In years of plenty, when
+the rye, chestnuts, and wine suffice for the wants of his family, he
+works without grumbling, but in years of dearth brigandage flourishes.
+The brigand, or _gualano_, looks upon the feudal lord as the common
+enemy, steals his cattle, sets fire to his house, and even takes him
+prisoner, releasing him only on payment of a heavy ransom. Some of
+these bandits become veritable wild beasts, thirsting after blood;
+but, as long as they confine themselves to avenging wrongs, they
+may count upon the complicity of all other peasants. The herdsmen
+of the mountains supply them with milk and food, furnish them with
+information, and mislead the carabiniers sent in pursuit of them.
+All the poor are leagued in their favour, and refuse to bear witness
+against them. Moreover, most of these Neapolitan bandits, conscientious
+in their own way, are extremely pious. They swear by the Virgin or
+some patron saint, to whom they promise a portion of their booty, and
+religiously place the share promised upon the altar. Not content with
+wearing amulets all over the body to turn aside bullets, they are
+said sometimes to place a consecrated wafer in an incision they make
+in their hand, in the belief that this will render deadly their own
+bullets.
+
+The fearful poverty of the South Italian peasantry has led to another
+practice, even worse than brigandage. Foreign speculators, Christians
+as well as Jews, travel the country, and particularly the Basilicata,
+in order to purchase children, whom {299} their poverty-stricken
+parents are ready to part with for a trifle. The more intelligent and
+prettier the child, the greater the likelihood of its passing into the
+hands of these dealers in human flesh. The latter are threatened with
+the penalties of the law, but custom and ignoble accomplices enable
+them to evade them, and to carry their living merchandise to France,
+England, Germany, and even America, where the children are converted
+into acrobats, street musicians, or simple mendicants. The chances of
+this shameful commerce have been carefully calculated, and the losses
+arising from deaths and the cost of travelling are more than covered by
+the earnings of the children. Viggiano, a small town of the Basilicata,
+is more especially haunted by these traffickers, for its inhabitants
+possess a natural gift for music.
+
+Voluntary emigration is on the increase, and if it were not for the
+obstructions placed in the way of young men liable to the conscription,
+certain districts would become rapidly depopulated in favour of South
+America. Only the poorest peasants remain behind. This emigration
+influences in a large measure the customs of the country, and,
+conjointly with railways and factories, will no doubt bring about
+an assimilation of Southern Italy to the rest of the peninsula.
+Brigandage and the traffic in children will doubtless disappear, but
+the proletarianism of manufacturing towns is likely to be substituted
+for them.
+
+For the present Naples is almost exclusively an agricultural country.
+The tavolieri of Puglia, and the hills which command them, remain
+for the most part a pastoral country, but the greater portion of the
+productive area of Naples is under cultivation. As in the time of the
+Romans, cereals, with oil and wine, form the principal produce; but, in
+addition to these, tobacco, cotton, madder, and several other plants
+used in manufactures, are grown. With some care these products might
+attain a rare degree of excellence. Even now the oil of the Puglia
+competes successfully with that of Nice, and the wines grown on the
+scoriæ of Mount Vesuvius enjoy their ancient celebrity, the Falernian
+of Horace, grown in the Phlegræan Fields, disputing the pre-eminence
+with the Lachrymæ Christi of Vesuvius and the white wine of Capri.
+
+The agricultural products of Naples are almost exclusively derived from
+the coast region, and commerce is principally carried on in coasting
+vessels. The interior is sterile to a great extent, and there are no
+metalliferous veins to attract population.
+
+Southern Italy has no natural centre, and, as its life has at all times
+been eccentric and maritime, it is but natural that all the large
+towns should have sprung up on the coast. Two thousand years ago, when
+Greece was a civilised country and Western Europe sunk in barbarism,
+the most important towns lay on the Ionian Sea facing the east. But,
+when Rome became the mistress of the world, Magna Græcia was forced to
+face about, and Naples became the successor of Sybaris and Tarentum.
+This position of vantage it has retained even to the present day,
+when Western Europe has become the focus of civilisation. The wave of
+history has passed over Tarentum and Sybaris, and whilst the fine port
+of the former is now deserted, the latter, at one time the largest city
+of all Italy, has entirely disappeared. {300}
+
+Naples, the “new town” of the Cumæans, has for centuries been the most
+populous town of Italy, and even now the number of its inhabitants is
+double that of Rome. In the days of Strabo Naples was a large town.
+Greeks who had made money by teaching or otherwise, and who desired to
+end their days in peaceful repose, used to retire to that beautiful
+town, where Greek manners predominated, and the climate resembled
+that of their native country. Many Romans followed their example, and
+Naples, together with the numerous smaller towns dotting the shores
+of its magnificent bay, thus became a place of repose and pleasure.
+At the present day it attracts men of leisure from every part of the
+world, who revel in its beauties and enjoy the noisy gaiety of its
+inhabitants—“masters in the art of shouting,” as Alfieri called them.
+The prospect from the heights of Capodimonte and the other hills
+surrounding the immense city is full of beauty: promontories jut out
+into the blue waters, islands of the most varied colours are scattered
+over the bay, shining towns stretch along the foot of verdant hills,
+and vessels ride upon the waves. Looking inland, we behold the grey
+summit of Vesuvius, which, lurid at night, and always threatening,
+imparts a modicum of danger to the voluptuous picture.
+
+The Neapolitans are indeed a happy people, if such a term may be
+applied to any fraction of mankind. They know how to enjoy the gifts
+of nature, and are content, if need be, with very little. Naturally
+intelligent, they are equal to any enterprise; but, as they hate work,
+they soon give up what they have begun, and make short of their want
+of success. Travellers were formerly fond of describing that curious
+type, the _lazzarone_, the idle man of pleasure, who, enveloped in a
+rag, slept on the beach or in the porch of a church, and disdained
+to work after he had earned the pittance sufficing for his simple
+wants. There still remain a few representatives of this type, but the
+material exigencies of our time have absorbed the majority of these
+idle tatterdemalions, and converted them into labourers. Others have
+succumbed to disease, for they knew nothing of sanitary laws, and
+dwelt in damp cellars, or _bassi_, beneath the palaces of the wealthy.
+Naples contributes her fair share towards the industrial products of
+the peninsula. The principal articles manufactured are macaroni and
+other farinaceous pastes, cloth, silks known as _gros de Naples_,
+glass, china, musical instruments, artificial flowers, ornaments,
+and everything entering into the daily consumption of a large city.
+Its workers in coral are famous for their skill; and Sorrento, near
+Naples, supplies the much-prized workboxes, jewel cases, and other
+articles carved in palm-wood. The ship-yards of Castellamare di Stabia
+are more busy than any others in Italy, those of Genoa and Spezia
+alone excepted. The sailors of the bay are equal to the Ligurians
+in seamanship, and surpass them as fishermen. The inhabitants of
+Torre del Greco, who engage in coral-fishing, are well acquainted
+with the submarine topography of the coasts of Sardinia, Sicily, and
+Barbary, and the least movement of the air or water reveals phenomena
+to them which remain hidden to all other eyes. They own about 400
+fishing-boats, which depart in a body, and their return after a
+successful season presents a spectacle which even Italy but rarely
+affords.[103]
+
+[Illustration: NAPLES.]
+
+{301}
+
+Naples, with its magnificent bay, and the fertile tracts of the
+Campania and the Terra di Lavoro near it, could hardly fail to become
+a great commercial city, and if it holds an inferior rank in that
+respect to Genoa, this is owing to its not being placed upon a great
+high-road of international commerce. The country depending upon it is
+of comparatively small extent; only a single line of rails crosses
+the Apennines; and travellers who follow the mountain road to Taranto
+are not, even now, quite safe from brigands. The foreign commerce of
+the city is carried on principally with England and France, and the
+coasting trade is comparatively of great importance.[104]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 109.—POMPEII.
+
+From the Neapolitan Staff Map. Scale 1 : 35,000.]
+
+The university is one of the glories of Naples. Founded in the first
+half of {302} the thirteenth century, it is one of the oldest of
+Italy, but has had its periods of disgraceful decay. Up to a recent
+period, when archæology and numismatics were the only sciences not
+suspected of revolutionary tendencies, it was a place of intellectual
+corruption, but its regeneration has been brought about with marvellous
+rapidity. The young Neapolitans now study science with a zest sharpened
+by abstinence; and, if the rather gushing eloquence of the South could
+be trusted, Naples has become the greatest seat of learning in the
+world. Thus much is certain, that the 2,000 students of the university
+will give a great impulse to the “march of ideas.”
+
+Naples possesses an admirable museum of antiquities, open to all the
+world, and, more precious still, the ruins of Pozzuoli, Baiæ, and Cumæ,
+and catacombs no less interesting than are those of Rome; and, above
+everything else, the Roman city of Pompeii, which has been excavated
+from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius, beneath which it lay buried for
+seventeen centuries. It is not merely a City of the Dead, with its
+streets and tombs, temples, markets, and amphitheatres, which these
+excavations have restored to us, but they have likewise given us an
+insight into the life of a provincial Roman city. When we gaze upon
+inscriptions on walls and waxed tablets, at work interrupted, at
+mummified corpses in the attitude of flight, we almost feel as if we
+had been present at the catastrophe which overwhelmed the town. No
+other buried city ever presented us with so striking a contrast between
+the tumult of life and the stillness of death. In spite of a hundred
+years of excavation, only one-half of the city has yet been revealed
+to us. Herculaneum is buried beneath a layer of lava sixty feet in
+thickness, upon which the houses of Resina, Portici, and other suburbs
+of Naples have been built, and but very few of its mysteries have
+been revealed to us. Of Stabiæ, which lies hidden beneath the town of
+Castellamare, close to the beach, we know hardly anything.
+
+[Illustration: CAPRI, SEEN FROM MASSA LUBRENSE.]
+
+Numerous populous towns cluster around Naples, rivalling it in beauty.
+To the south, on the shores of the bay, are Portici, Resina, Torre del
+Greco, Torre dell’ Annunziata, Castellamare, and sweet Sorrento, with
+its delicious climate, its delightful villas and olive groves. Off Cape
+Campanella, facing the volcanic islands of Ischia and Procida, at the
+other extremity of the bay, rise the bold cliffs of Capri, full of the
+memories of hideous Tiberius, the _Timberio_ of the natives. Another
+bay opens to the south of that barren mass of limestone, its entrance
+guarded by the islets of the Sirens, who sought in vain to cast their
+spell over sage Ulysses. This bay is hardly inferior in beauty to that
+of Naples; its shores are equally fertile, but neither of the three
+cities, Pæstum, Amalfi, and Salerno, which successively gave a name
+to it, has retained its importance for any length of time. Amalfi,
+the powerful commercial republic of the Middle Ages, whose code was
+accepted by all maritime nations, is almost deserted now, and only
+shelters a few fishing-smacks within its rocky creek. In a delightful
+valley near it stands the old Moorish city of Ravello, almost as rich
+as Palermo in architectural monuments. Salerno is much more favourably
+situated than Amalfi, for the road of the Campania debouches upon it.
+The town is said to have been founded by a son of Noah, and when the
+Normans occupied the country in the eleventh century {303} they made
+it their capital. But its ancient splendours have gone. Its university,
+at one time the representative of Arab science, and the most famous
+in Europe for its medical faculty, has made no sign for ages, and
+Salerno has now no claim whatever to the title of “Hippocratic town.”
+It aspires, however, to rise into importance through commerce and
+industry, and a breakwater and piers might convert it into a formidable
+rival of Naples. The inhabitants are fond of repeating a local proverb―
+
+ “When Salerno a port doth obtain
+ That of Naples will be inane.”
+
+Pæstum, or Posidonia, the ancient mistress of the bay, stood to the
+south-east of Salerno. It was founded by the Sybarites on the ruins
+of a more ancient town of the Tyrrhenians. The Roman poets sang this
+“city of roses” on account of its cool springs, shady walks, and mild
+climate. It was destroyed by the Saracens in 915, and its ruins, though
+amongst the most interesting of all Italy, dating as they do from a
+period anterior to that of Rome, were known only to shepherds and
+brigands up to the middle of last century. Its three temples, the most
+important of which was dedicated to Neptune, or Poseidon, are amongst
+the most imposing of continental Italy, their effect being heightened
+by the solitude which surrounds them and the waves which wash their
+foundations. The traveller, however, cannot afford to remain for any
+length of time within their vicinity, for the site of the ruins is
+surrounded by marshes, the exhalations from which sadly interfere with
+the excavations going on.
+
+Numerous towns and villages are dotted over the champaign country
+separating Mount Vesuvius from the foot-hills of the Apennines.
+Starting from Vietri, a suburb of Salerno on the banks of a narrow
+ravine, we ascend to Cara, a favourite summer retreat, abounding in
+shade-trees. Near it is a monastery famous amongst antiquaries on
+account of its ancient parchments and diplomas. On descending to the
+plain of the Sarno we pass Nocera, a country residence of the ancient
+Romans; Pagani, still situated within the region of woods; Angri, which
+manufactures yarns from cotton grown in its environs; and Scafati, more
+industrious still. Near it may be seen the ruins of Pompeii, the town
+of Torre dell’ Annunziata, and, on the southern slope of Vesuvius, the
+houses of Bosco Tre Case and Bosco Reale. There are savants who believe
+they can trace in the veins of the inhabitants of Nocera and the
+neighbourhood the Arab and Berber blood of the 20,000 Saracens who were
+settled here by the Emperor Frederick II.
+
+The valley of the Sarno, above Nocera, is densely peopled as far as the
+foot of the Apennines, and another chain of villages extends northwards
+to the town of Avellino, the fields of which are enclosed by hedges
+of filbert-trees (_avellana_ in Italian), and which is important on
+account of its intermediary position between the mountains and the
+plain. The population, however, is densest in that portion of the
+Campania known as the “Happy” (Felice), which extends between Vesuvius
+and Monte Vergine. Sarno, named after the river, though far away from
+it, abounds in cereals, vines, fruit, and vegetables, and manufactures
+cotton stuffs and raw silk. Palma stands in the midst of fertile
+fields; Ottajano, the {304} town of Octavius, on the lower slope of
+the Somma of Vesuvius, is famous for its wines; Nola, where Augustus
+died, and which gave birth to Giordano Bruno, has fertile fields, but
+is better known through the fine Greek vases found in its ruins, and
+on account of the remains of an amphitheatre built of marble, and of
+greater size than that of Capua.
+
+Famous Capua, the ancient metropolis of the Campania, at one time the
+rival of Rome, with half a million inhabitants dwelling within its
+walls, has been completely stripped of its former splendours. Its name
+is applied now to a sullen fortress on the Volturno, the _Casilinum_
+of the Romans; and Santa Maria, which is the representative of the
+veritable Capua, offers no “delights” other than those of a large
+village. In its environs, however, may still be seen the ruins of a
+fine amphitheatre, a triumphal arch, and other remains of a vast city.
+Caserta, the “town of pleasure” of the modern Campania, lies farther to
+the south. It boasts of a large palace, shady parks, and vast gardens
+ornamented with statues and fountains, and was the Versailles of the
+Neapolitan Bourbons. An aqueduct supplies it with water from a distance
+of twenty-five miles, and crosses the valley near Maddaloni by means
+of a magnificent bridge, built about the middle of last century by
+Vanvitelli, and one of the masterpieces of modern architecture.
+
+The great Roman highway bifurcates to the north of Capua and the
+Volturno. One branch turns towards the coast; the other, along which a
+railway has been built, skirts the volcano of Rocca Monfina, follows
+the valley of the Garigliano and of its tributary the Sacco as far
+as the eastern foot of the volcano of Latium, and then descends into
+the Campagna of Rome. Historically the coast road is the more famous
+of the two. It first passes close to Sessa, the ancient city of the
+Aurunci, whose acropolis stood in the crater of the Rocca Monfina. It
+then turns towards the coast, and having crossed the Garigliano near
+its mouth, where it is bounded by insalubrious marshes, it penetrates
+the defile of Mola di Gaeta, officially called Formia, in memory of
+ancient Formiæ, where Cicero lived and died. Travellers coming from
+Rome first look down from this spot upon the beauties of the Campania,
+and see stretched out before them the Bay of Gaeta, with the volcanic
+islands of Ponza, Ventotene, and Ischia in the distance. Gaeta, a
+fortress which guards this gateway to the Neapolitan paradise, is built
+on the summit of Monte Orlando, occupying a small peninsula attached to
+the mainland by an isthmus only 300 yards in width. The port of Gaeta
+is well sheltered against westerly and northerly winds, and is much
+frequented by coasting vessels and fishing-smacks; but Gaeta itself is
+better known as a fortress. It was here the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
+was put an end to by the surrender of Francis II. in 1861.
+
+[Illustration: AMALFI.]
+
+Towns of some importance are likewise met with on following the eastern
+road from Naples to Rome. The most considerable amongst them is San
+Germano, the name of which has recently been changed into Casino,
+in honour of the famous monastery of that name occupying a terrace
+to the west of the town, and affording a glorious prospect of hills
+and valleys. This monastery was founded in the sixth century by St.
+Benedict, or Bennet, and its rules have been accepted throughout {305}
+the Eastern Church. No body of men has ever exercised a greater
+influence upon the history of Catholicism than these Benedictine
+monks of Monte Casino. At the height of its power the order held vast
+estates throughout Italy, and many popes and thousands of Church
+dignitaries have been furnished from its ranks. The library of Monte
+Casino is one of the most valuable in Europe, and the services formerly
+rendered to science by the Benedictines have saved this monastery from
+disestablishment, a favour likewise extended to the monastery of La
+Cava and the Certosa of Pavia.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 110.—THE MARSHES OF SALPI.
+
+Scale 1 : 225,000.]
+
+There are but few towns of importance in the mountain region of Naples.
+Arpino, the ancient Arpinum, the birthplace of Cicero and Marius, with
+cyclopean walls built by Saturn, is the most populous place in the
+upper valley of the Liri, to the south of the mountains of Mantese.
+Benevento occupies a central position on the Calore, the principal
+tributary of the Volturno, and several roads diverge from it. The
+ancient name of this place was _Maleventum_, but in spite of its change
+of name the town has frequently suffered from sieges and earthquakes,
+and of all the great edifices of its past there now remains only a fine
+triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan. The city walls, nearly four
+miles in circumference, have for the most part been constructed from
+the fragments of ancient monuments.
+
+Ariano, to the east of Benevento, and also in the basin of the
+Volturno, is built upon three hills commanding a magnificent prospect,
+extending from the {306} often snow-clad Matese Mountains to the cone
+of the Vultur. It lies on the railroad connecting Naples with Foggia
+and the Adriatic, and carries on a considerable trade. Campobasso, the
+capital of Molise, is likewise an important commercial intermediary,
+though still without a railway.
+
+The commercial towns on the Adriatic slope of the Apennines are of
+greater importance than those to the east. Foggia, on the Tavoglieri
+di Puglia, upon which converge four railways and several high-roads,
+is a great mart for provisions, and in importance and wealth, though
+not in population, is the second city of Naples. Several smaller
+towns surround it like satellites, such as San Severo, Cerignola,
+and Lucera, which became wealthy in the thirteenth century, when the
+Saracens, exiled from Sicily by Frederick II., settled here. Foggia,
+however, and its sister cities, in spite of the proximity of the Bay
+of Manfredonia, have no direct outlet to the sea, for the coast for a
+distance of thirty miles, from Manfredonia to the mouth of the Otranto,
+is fringed by insalubrious lagoons and marshes. The reclamation of
+these is absolutely necessary to enable Southern Italy to develop its
+great natural resources. The largest of these lagoons or marshes, that
+of Salpi, has been reduced to the extent of one-half by the alluvium
+conveyed into it by the rivers Carapella and Ofanto, but as long as the
+new land remains uncultivated deadly miasmata will not cease. At the
+eastern extremity of this marsh stood the ancient city of Salapia.
+
+At the extremity of the peninsula of Gargano, to the north of these
+marshes, are the harbours of Manfredonia and Vieste, very favourably
+situated for sailing vessels compelled by stress of weather to put into
+port. The first harbour to the south of the marshes is Barletta, near
+which is the “Field of Blood,” recalling the battle of Cannæ. Barletta
+exports cereals, wines, oil, and fruit, partly grown on the old feudal
+estates near the inland towns of Andria, Corata, and Ruyo. The latter,
+the ancient _Rubi_, has yielded a rich harvest of antiquities of every
+kind. The other coast towns to the south-east of Barletta are—Trani,
+which carried on a considerable Levant trade towards the close of
+the Middle Ages; Bisceglia; Molfetta; Bari, the most populous town
+on the Adriatic slope of Naples; and Monopoli, all of which are much
+frequented by coasting vessels. Tasano, near Monopoli, occupies the
+site of the ancient port of Gnatia, and, like Rubi, has well repaid the
+search for archæological remains.
+
+Brindisi, at the northern extremity of the peninsula of Otranto, in
+the time of the Romans and during the Crusades, was one of the great
+stations on the route from Western Europe to the East, and is likely
+again to occupy that position. It lies at the very entrance to the
+Adriatic. Its roadstead is excellent, and its harbour one of the best
+on the Mediterranean. The entrance is narrow, and was formerly choked
+up with the remains of wrecks and mud, but is now practicable for
+steamers of the largest size. The two arms of the harbour bear some
+resemblance to the antlers of a stag, and to this circumstance the
+town is indebted for its name, which is of Messapian origin, and means
+“antler-shaped.” Brindisi has recently become the European terminus
+of the overland route to India, and many new buildings have risen
+in honour of this event, which it {307} was expected would convert
+the town into an emporium of Eastern trade. These expectations have
+not been realised. Several thousand hurried travellers pass that way
+every year, but Marseilles, Genoa, and Trieste have lost none of their
+importance as commercial ports in consequence. Moreover, when the
+Turkish railways are completed, the position now held by Brindisi will
+most likely be transferred to Saloniki or Constantinople.[105]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 111.—THE HARBOUR OF BRINDISI IN 1871.
+
+Scale 1 : 86,000.]
+
+Taranto, on the gulf of the same name, is making an effort, like its
+neighbour Brindisi, to revive its ancient commercial activity. Its
+harbour, the _Piccolo Mare_, or “little sea,” is deep and perfectly
+sheltered, and its roadstead, or _Mare Grande_, is fairly protected by
+two outlying islands against the surge. As at Spezia, springs of fresh
+water, known as Citro and Citrello, rise from the bottom of the harbour
+as well as in the roadstead. The geographical position of Taranto
+enables it successfully to compete with Bari and the other ports of the
+Adriatic for the commerce of inland towns like Matera, Gravina, and
+Altamura, and it appears to be destined to become the great emporium
+for the Ionian trade. No other town of Italy offers equal facilities
+for the construction of a port, but the two channels, one natural and
+the other artificial, which join the two “seas” have become choked,
+and only small craft are now able to reach the harbour. Modern Taranto
+is a small town, with narrow streets, built to the east of the Greek
+city of Tarentum, on the {308} limestone rock bounded by the two
+channels. Its commerce has been slowly increasing since the opening of
+the railway, its industry being limited to fishing, oyster-dredging,
+and the manufacture of bay-salt; and the Tarantese enjoy the reputation
+of being the most indolent people in Italy. The heaps of shells on
+the beach no longer supply the purple for which the town was formerly
+famous; but the inhabitants still make use of the byssus of a bivalve
+in the manufacture of very strong gloves.
+
+The only towns of any importance in the peninsula stretching
+southwards from Brindisi and Taranto are Lecco and Gallipoli, the
+former surrounded by cotton plantations, the latter—the Kallipolis,
+or “beautiful city,” of the Greeks—picturesquely perched on an islet
+attached by a bridge to the mainland. The surrounding country, owing to
+the want of moisture, is comparatively barren.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 112.—THE HARBOUR OF TARANTO.
+
+Scale 1 : 208,000.]
+
+The western peninsula of Naples is far better irrigated than that of
+Otranto, but this advantage is counterbalanced to a large extent by the
+mountainous nature of the country, and by its frequent earthquakes.
+Potenza, a town at the very neck of this peninsula, half-way between
+the Gulf of Taranto and the Bay of Salerno, most happily situated as a
+place of commerce, has repeatedly been destroyed by earthquakes, and
+its inhabitants have only ventured to rebuild it in a temporary manner.
+
+The famous old cities of Calabria, such as Metapontum and Heraclea,
+have ceased to exist. Sybaris the powerful, with walls six miles in
+circumference, and suburbs extending for eight miles along the Crati,
+is now covered with alluvium and shrubs—“its very ruins have perished.”
+The city of the Locri, to the south of Gerace, which existed until the
+tenth century, when it was destroyed by the Saracens, has at least
+retained ruins of its walls, temples, and other buildings. {309} The
+only one of these old cities still in existence is Cotrone, the ancient
+Crotona, the “gateway to the granary of Calabria.” In travelling along
+the coasts of Greater Greece we feel astonished at the few ruins of
+a past which exercised so powerful an influence upon the history of
+mankind.
+
+The existing towns of Calabria cannot compare in importance with
+those of a past age. Rossano, near the site of Sybaris, is the small
+capital of a district, and is visited only by coasters. Cosenza, in the
+beautiful valley of the Crati, at the foot of the wooded Sila, keeps
+up its communications with Naples and Messina through the harbour of
+Paola. Catanzaro exports its oil, silk, and fruit either by way of the
+Bay of Squillace, on the shores of which Hannibal once pitched his
+camp, or through Pizzo, a small port at the southern extremity of the
+Bay of Santa Eufemia. Reggio, nestling in groves of lemon and orange
+trees at the foot of the Aspromonte, is the most important town of
+Calabria. It stands on the narrow strait separating the mainland from
+the island of Sicily, and could not fail to absorb some of the commerce
+passing through that central gateway of the Mediterranean. Messina and
+Reggio mutually complement each other, and the prosperity of the one
+must result in that of the sister city.[106]
+
+
+VII.—SICILY.
+
+The Trinacria of the ancients, the island with the “three
+promontories,” is clearly a dependency of the Italian peninsula,
+from which it is separated by a narrow arm of the sea. The Strait of
+Messina, where narrowest, is not quite two miles in width. It can be
+easily crossed in barges, and, with the resources at our command, a
+bridge might easily be thrown across it, similar enterprises having
+succeeded elsewhere. It can hardly be doubted that before the close
+of this century either a tunnel or a bridge will join Sicily to the
+mainland, and human industry will thus restore in some way the isthmus
+which formerly joined the Cape of Faro to the Italian Aspromonte. We
+know nothing about the period when this rupture took place, but to
+judge from the ancient name of the strait—Heptastadion—it must have
+been much narrower in former times.[107] {310}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 113.—THE STRAIT OF MESSINA.
+
+Scale 1 : 156,000.]
+
+From an historical point of view Sicily may still be looked upon as a
+portion of the mainland, for the strait can be crossed almost as easily
+as a wide river. On the other hand, it enjoys all the advantages of a
+maritime position. Situate in the very centre of the Mediterranean,
+between the Tyrrhenian and the eastern basin, it commands all the
+commercial high-roads which lead from the Atlantic to the East. Its
+excellent harbours invite navigators to stay on its coasts; its soil is
+{311} exceedingly fertile; the most varied natural resources insure
+the existence of its inhabitants; and a genial climate promotes the
+development of life. Hardly a district of Europe appears to be in a
+more favourable position for supporting a dense population in comfort.
+Sicily, indeed, is more densely populated and wealthier than the
+neighbouring island of Sardinia or either of the Neapolitan provinces,
+the Campania alone excepted, and rivals in importance the provinces of
+Northern Italy.[108]
+
+Sicily, whenever it has been allowed to rejoice in the possession of
+peace and freedom, has always recovered with wonderful rapidity; and it
+would certainly now be one of the most prosperous countries if wars had
+not so frequently devastated it, and the yoke of foreign oppressors had
+not weighed so heavily upon it.
+
+The triangular island of Sicily would possess great regularity of
+structure if it were not for the bold mass of Mount Etna, which
+rises above the shores of the Ionian Sea at the entrance of the
+Strait of Messina. From its base to the summit of its crater, that
+huge protuberance forms a region apart, differing from the rest of
+Sicily not only geologically, but also with respect to its products,
+cultivation, and inhabitants.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 114.—PROFILE OF MOUNT ETNA.]
+
+Ancient mariners mostly looked upon the Sicilian volcano as the highest
+mountain in the world; nor did they err much as respects the world
+known to them, for only at the two extremities of the Mediterranean,
+in Spain and Syria, do we meet with mountains exceeding this one
+in height; and Mount Etna is not only remarkable from its isolated
+position, but likewise by the beauty of its contours, the lurid sheen
+of its incandescent lavas, and the column of smoke rising from its
+summit. From whatever side we approach Sicily, its snowy head is seen
+rising high above all the surrounding mountains. Its position in the
+very centre of the Mediterranean contributed in no small measure to
+secure to it a pre-eminence amongst mountains. It was looked upon as
+the “pillar of the heavens,” and at a later epoch the Arabs only spoke
+of it as _el Jebel_, “_the_ mountain,” which has been corrupted by the
+people dwelling near it into “Mongibello.”
+
+The mean slopes of Mount Etna, prolonged as they are by streams of lava
+extending in every direction, are very gentle, and on looking at a
+profile of this mountain it will hardly be believed that its aspect is
+so majestic. It occupies, in fact, an area of no less than 460 square
+miles, and its base has a development of about 80 miles. The whole of
+this space is bounded by the sea, and by the valleys of the Alcantara
+and Simeto. A saddle, only 2,820 feet in height, connects it in the
+north-west with the mountain system of the remainder of Italy. Small
+cones of eruption are met with beyond the mass of the volcano to the
+north {312} of the Alcantara, and streams of lava having filled up the
+ancient valley of the Simeto, that river was forced to excavate itself
+another bed through rocks of basalt, and now descends to the sea in
+rapids and cascades.
+
+An enormous hollow, covering an area of ten square miles, and more than
+3,000 feet in depth, occupies a portion of the western slope of the
+volcano. This is the Val di Bove, a vast amphitheatre of explosion,
+the bottom of which is dotted over with subsidiary craters, and which
+rises in gigantic steps, over which, when the mountain is in a state of
+eruption, pour fiery cascades of lava. Lyell has shown that this Val
+di Bove is the ancient crater of Mount Etna, but that, at some period
+not known to us, the existing terminal vent opened a couple of miles
+farther west. The steep sides of the Val di Bove enable us to gain a
+considerable insight into the history of the volcano, for the various
+layers of lava may be studied there at leisure. The cliffs upon which
+stands the town of Aci Reale afford a similar opportunity for embracing
+at one glance a long period of its history. These cliffs, over 300
+feet in height, consist of seven distinct layers of lava, successively
+poured forth from the bowels of Mount Etna. Each layer consists nearly
+throughout of a compact mass, affording no hold for the roots of
+plants, but their surfaces have invariably been converted into tufa, or
+even mould, owing to atmospheric agencies which operated for centuries
+after each eruption. It has likewise been proved not only that these
+cliffs increased in height in consequence of successive eruptions, but
+that they were also repeatedly upheaved from below. Lines of erosion
+resulting from the action of the waves can be distinctly traced at
+various elevations above the present level of the Mediterranean. The
+lavas, too, have undergone a change of structure since they were poured
+forth, as is proved by beautiful caverns enclosed by prismatic columns
+of basalt, and by the islet of the Cyclops, near Aci Trezza.
+
+During the last two thousand years Mount Etna has had more than a
+hundred eruptions, some of them continuing for a number of years.
+Hitherto it has not been possible to trace any regularity in these
+eruptions. They appear to occur at irregular intervals, and the
+quantity of lava poured forth from the principal or any subsidiary
+cone varies exceedingly. The most considerable stream of lava of which
+we have any record was that which overwhelmed the city of Catania in
+1669. It first converted the fields of Nicolosi into a fiery lake,
+then enveloped a portion of the hill of Monpilieri, which for a time
+arrested its progress, and finally divided into three separate streams,
+the principal of which descended upon Catania. It swept away a part of
+that town, filled up its port, and formed a promontory in its stead.
+The quantity of lava poured forth on that occasion has been estimated
+at 3,532 millions of cubic feet; and nearly 40 square miles of fertile
+land, supporting a population of 20,000 souls, were converted into a
+stony waste. The double cone of Monti Rossi, with its beautiful crater
+now grown over with golden-flowered broom, was formed by the ashes
+ejected during that great eruption. More than 700 subsidiary cones,
+similar to the Monti Rossi, are scattered over the exterior slopes of
+Mount Etna, and bear witness to as many eruptions. The most ancient
+amongst them have been nearly obliterated in the {313} course of ages,
+or buried beneath streams of lava, but the others still retain their
+conical shape, and rise to a height of many hundred feet. Several
+amongst them are now covered with forests, and the craters of others
+have been converted into gardens—delightful cup-shaped hollows, where
+villas shine like gems set in verdure.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 115.—THE LAVA STREAM OF CATANIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+Most of these subsidiary cones lie at an elevation of between 3,300
+and 6,500 feet above the sea, and it is there the internal forces make
+themselves most strongly felt. As a rule the subterranean activity
+is less violent near the summit, and during most of the eruptions
+the great terminal crater merely serves as a vent, through which the
+aqueous vapours and gases make their escape. Fumaroles surrounding it
+convert the soil into a kind of pap, and the substances which escape
+from them streak the scoriæ with brilliant colours—scarlet, yellow,
+and emerald green. The internal heat makes itself felt on many parts
+of the exterior slopes. It converts loose rocks into a compact mass,
+far less difficult to climb than are the loose cinders of Mount
+Vesuvius. Travellers ascending the mountain need fear nothing from
+volcanic bombs. Showers of stone are occasionally ejected from the
+principal vent, but this is quite an exceptional occurrence. If it were
+not so, the small structure above the precipices of the Val di Bove,
+which dates from the {314} time of the Romans, and is known as the
+“Philosopher’s Tower,” would long ago have been buried beneath débris.
+A meteorological observatory might therefore be established with safety
+on the summit of this mountain, and no better station could be found
+for giving warning of approaching storms.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 116.—SUBSIDIARY CONES OF MOUNT ETNA.]
+
+The summit of Mount Etna, 10,866 feet in height, does not penetrate
+the zone of perennial snow, and the heat emitted from the subterranean
+focus soon melts the incipient glaciers which accumulate in hollows.
+Nevertheless the upper half of the mountain is covered with a shroud of
+white during a great part of the year. It might be imagined that the
+snow and copious rains would give birth to numerous rivulets descending
+from the slopes of the volcano; but the small stones and cinders which
+cover the solid beds of lava promptly absorb all moisture, and springs
+are met with only in a few favoured spots. They are abundant on the
+lower slopes, or in the immediate vicinity of the sea. One of these
+is the fountain of Acis, which issues from the chaos of rocks which
+Polyphemus is said to have hurled at the ships of sage Ulysses. Another
+gives birth to the river Amenano, which rises in the town of Catania,
+and hastens in silvery cascades towards its port. When we look at these
+clear springs in the midst of black sands and burnt rocks we are able
+to comprehend the fancy of the ancient Greeks, who regarded them as
+divine beings, in whose honour they struck medals and raised statues.
+
+Though running streams are scarcely met with on the slopes of Mount
+Etna, its cinders retain a sufficient quantity of moisture to support
+a luxuriant vegetation. The mountain is clad with verdure except where
+the surface of the lava is too compact to be penetrated by the roots of
+plants. Only the highest regions, which are covered with snow during
+the greater part of the year, are barren. It is {315} a remarkable
+fact that the flora of the Alps should not be met with on Mount Etna,
+although the temperature suits it exactly.
+
+Formerly the volcano was surrounded by a belt of forests occupying the
+zone between the cultivated lands and the region of snow and cinders.
+Such is the case no longer. On the southern slope, which is that
+usually ascended by tourists, there are no forests at all, and only
+the trunk of some ancient oak is occasionally met with. On the other
+slopes groves of trees are more frequent, particularly in the north,
+where there remain a few lofty trees, which impart quite an alpine
+character to the scenery. But the wood-cutters prosecute their work of
+extermination without mercy, and it is to be feared that the time is
+not very distant when even the last vestiges of the ancient forests
+will have disappeared. The magnificent chestnuts on the western slopes,
+amongst which could be admired until recently the “tree of the hundred
+horses,” bear witness to the astonishing fertility of the lava. If the
+cultivators of the soil only desired it, a few years would suffice to
+restore to Mount Etna its ancient covering of foliage.
+
+The cultivated zone occupying the lower slopes of the mountains
+presents in many places the appearance of a beautiful garden. There are
+groves of olive, orange, lemon, and other fruit trees, in the midst
+of which rise clumps of palms, and villas, churches, and monasteries
+peep out from this mass of verdure. The fertility of the soil is so
+great that it supports a population three or four times more numerous
+than that in any other part of Italy. More than 300,000 inhabitants
+dwell on the slopes of a mountain which might be supposed to inspire
+terror, and which actually bursts at intervals, burying fertile fields
+beneath a fiery deluge. Town succeeds town along its base like pearls
+in a necklace, and when a stream of lava effects a breach in this
+chain of human habitations it is closed up again as soon as the lava
+has had time to cool. From the rim of the crater the mountain climber
+looks down with astonishment upon these human ant-hills. The concentric
+zones of houses and verdure contrast curiously with the snows and ashes
+occupying the centre of the picture, and with the barren limestone
+rocks beyond the Simeto. And this is only a small portion of the vast
+and marvellous prospect, embracing a radius of 124 miles. Well may the
+beholder be enchanted by the unrivalled spectacle of three seas, of a
+deeper blue than the skies, washing the shores of Sicily, of Calabria,
+and of the Æolian Islands.
+
+Mount Pelorus, which forms a continuation of the chain of the
+Aspromonte of Calabria, is of very inferior height to Mount Etna, but
+it had existed for ages when the space now occupied by the volcano was
+only a bay of the sea. It was formerly believed that a crater existed
+on the highest summit of Pelorus dedicated to Neptune, and now to the
+“Mother of God,” or _Dinna Mare_ (3,600 feet), but such is not the
+case. These mountains consist of primitive and transition rocks, with
+beds of limestone and marble on their flanks. They first follow the
+coast of the Ionian Sea, where they form numerous steep promontories,
+and then, turning abruptly towards the west, run parallel with that of
+the Æolian Sea. Their culminating point, near the centre, is known as
+Madonia (6,336 feet), and the magnificent forests which still clothe
+it impart to that part of the island {316} quite a northern aspect,
+and we might almost fancy ourselves in the Apennines or Maritime Alps.
+Limestone promontories of the most varied profile advance into the blue
+waters of the sea, and render this coast one of the most beautiful of
+the Mediterranean. We are seized with admiration when we behold the
+enormous quadrangular block of Cefalù, the more undulating hill of
+Termini, the vertical masses of Coltafano, and above all, near Palermo,
+the natural fortress of Monte Pellegrino (1,970 feet), an almost
+inaccessible rock, upon which Hamilcar Barca resisted for three years
+the efforts of a Roman army to dislodge him. Monte San Giuliano (2,300
+feet), an almost isolated limestone summit, terminates this chain in
+the west. It is the Eryx of the ancients, who dedicated it to Venus.
+
+The mountains which branch off from this main chain towards the south
+gradually decrease in height as they approach the sea. The principal
+slopes of the island descend towards the Ionian and Sicilian Seas,
+and all its perennial rivers—the Platani, Salso, and Simeto—flow in
+these directions. The rivers on the northern slope are mere _fiumare_,
+formidable after heavy rains, but lost in beds of shingle during the
+dry season. The lakes and swamps of the island are likewise confined to
+the southern slope of the mountains. Amongst them are the _pantani_,
+and the Lake, or _biviere_, of Lentini, which is the most extensive
+sheet of water in Sicily; the Lake of Pergusa, or Enna, formerly
+surrounded by flowery meadows in which Proserpine was seized by Pluto;
+the _biviere_ of Terranova; and several marshy tracts, the remains of
+ancient bays of the sea. This southern coast of the island contrasts
+most unfavourably with the northern, for, in the place of picturesque
+promontories of the most varied outline, we meet with a monotonous
+sandy shore, devoid of all shade. Natural harbours are scarce there,
+and during the winter storms vessels frequenting it are exposed to much
+danger.
+
+The southern slope of Sicily, to the south of the Madonia, consists
+of tertiary and more recent rocks, abounding in fossil shells mostly
+belonging to species still living in the neighbouring sea. In the hills
+to the south of Catania these tertiary rocks alternate with strata of
+volcanic origin, which are evidently derived from submarine eruptions.
+This process is still going on between Girgenti and the island of
+Pantellaria, where the submarine volcano of Giulia or Ferdinandea
+occasionally rises above the surface of the sea. It was seen in 1801,
+and thirty years later it had another eruption, resulting in the
+formation of an island four miles in circumference, which was examined
+by Jussieu and Constant Prévost. In 1863 it appeared for the third
+time. But the waves of the sea have always washed away the ashes and
+cinders ejected on these occasions, spreading them in regular layers
+over the bottom of the sea, and thus producing an alternation of
+strata similar to that observed at Catania. In 1840 the summit of this
+submarine volcano was covered with only six feet of water, but recently
+no soundings were obtained at a depth of fifty fathoms.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 117.—THE MACCALUBAS AND GIRGENTI.
+
+Scale 1 : 100,000.]
+
+This submarine volcano is not the only witness to the activity of
+subterranean forces in Southern Italy. We meet there with mineral
+springs discharging carbonic acid and other gases, which prove fatal
+to the smaller animals venturing within their influence, and with
+a naphtha lake near Palagonia, from which escape, {317} likewise,
+irrespirable gases. A similar phenomenon may be witnessed in connection
+with the Lake of Pergusa, which occupies an ancient crater about
+four miles in circumference, and usually abounds in tench and eels.
+From time to time, however, an escape of poisonous gases appears to
+take place from the bottom of the lake, which kills the fish, whose
+carcasses rise to the surface. Another of these _salses_ has made its
+appearance farther west, near the Palazzo Adriano, {318} and, indeed,
+the whole of underground Sicily appears to be in a state of chemical
+effervescence.
+
+Next to Mount Etna the great centre of volcanic activity in Sicily
+appears to be near Girgenti, at a place known as the _Maccalubas_.
+The aspect of this spot changes with the seasons. In summer bubbles
+of gas escape from small craters filled with liquid mud, which
+occasionally overflows, and runs down the exterior slopes. The rains
+of winter almost obliterate these miniature volcanoes, and the plain
+is then converted into one mass of mud, from which the gases escape.
+At the beginning of this century the soil was occasionally shaken by
+earthquakes, and on these occasions jets of mud and stones were ejected
+to a height of ten or twenty yards. The Maccalubas appear now to be in
+a state of quiescence, for these mud volcanoes also seem to have their
+regular periods of rest and activity.
+
+The deposits of sulphur, which constitute one of the riches of Sicily,
+undoubtedly owe their existence to these subterranean lakes of seething
+lava. These sulphur beds are met with in the tertiary strata extending
+from Centorbi to Cattolica, in the province of Girgenti. They date from
+the epoch of the Upper Miocene, and are deposited upon layers of fossil
+infusoria exhaling a bituminous odour. Geologists are not yet agreed on
+the origin of these sulphur beds, but it is most likely that they are
+derived from sulphate of lime carried to the surface by hot springs. In
+the same formation beds of gypsum and of rock-salt are met with, and
+the latter may frequently be traced from a saline effervescence known
+as _occhi di sale_ (“eyes of salt”).
+
+Sicily, like Greece, enjoys one of the happiest climates. The heat
+of summer is tempered by sea breezes which blow regularly during the
+hottest part of each day. The cold of winter would not be felt at all
+if it were not for the total absence of every comfort in the houses,
+for ice is not known, and snow exceedingly rare. The autumn rains
+are abundant, but there are many fine days even during that season.
+The prevailing winds from the north and west are salubrious, but the
+_sirocco_, which usually blows towards the south-east, is deadly,
+especially when it reaches the northern coast. It generally blows for
+three or four days, and during that time no one thinks of clarifying
+wine, salting meat, or painting houses or furniture. This wind is the
+great drawback to the climate. In some parts of Sicily the exhalations
+from the swamps are dangerous, but this is entirely the fault of man.
+It is owing to his neglect that Agosta and Syracuse suffer from fevers,
+and that death forbids the stranger to approach the ruins of ancient
+Himera.[109]
+
+Temperature and moisture impart to the vegetation of the plains and
+lower valleys a semi-tropical aspect. Many plants of Asia and Africa
+have become acclimatized in Sicily. Groups of date-palms are seen in
+the gardens, and the plains around Sciacca, almost African in their
+appearance, abound in groves of dwarf palms, or _giummare_, to which
+ancient Selinus was indebted for its epithet of _Palmosa_. Cotton
+grows on the slopes of the hills up to a height of 600 feet above the
+sea; bananas, sugar-cane, and bamboos do not require the shelter of
+{319} greenhouses; the _Victoria regia_ covers the ponds with its
+huge leaves and flowers; the papyrus of the Nile, which is not known
+anywhere else in Europe, chokes up the bed of the Anapo, near Syracuse:
+formerly it grew also in the Oreto, near Palermo, but it does so no
+longer. The cactus of Barbary (_Cactus opuntia_) has become the most
+characteristic plant of the coast districts of Sicily, and is rapidly
+covering the most unpromising beds of lava. These and other plants
+flourish most luxuriantly on the southern slopes of Mount Etna, where
+the orange-tree bears fruit at a height of 1,700 feet, and the larch
+ascends even to 7,400 feet. These slopes facing the African sun are the
+hottest spots in Europe, for the volcano shelters them from the winds
+of the north, whilst its dark-coloured scoriæ and cinders absorb the
+rays of the mid-day sun.
+
+Those portions of Sicily which are clothed with trees or shrubs are
+always green, for orange-trees, olive-trees, carob-trees, laurels,
+mastic-trees, tamarisks, cypresses, and pines retain their verdure even
+in winter, when nature wears a desolate aspect in our own latitudes.
+There is no “season,” so to say, for with a little care all kinds
+of vegetables can be had throughout the year. The gardens around
+Syracuse are famous above all others, because of the striking manner
+in which they contrast with the naked rocks surrounding them. The most
+delightful amongst them is the _Intagliatella_, or _Latomia de’ Greci_,
+which occupies an old quarry where Greek slaves dressed the stones
+used in erecting the palaces of Syracuse. The vegetation there is most
+luxuriant; the trunks of the trees rise above masses of shrubs, their
+branches are covered with creeping plants, flowers and ripening fruit
+cover the paths, and birds without number sing in the foliage. This
+earthly paradise is surrounded by precipitous walls of rock covered
+with ivy, or bare and white as on the day when Athenian slaves were at
+work there.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Sicily lies on the high-road of all the nations who ever disputed the
+command of the Mediterranean, and its population consequently consists
+of a mixture of the most heterogeneous elements. Irrespectively of
+Sicani, Siculi, and other aboriginal nations, whose position amongst
+the European family is uncertain, but who probably spoke a language
+akin to that of the Latins, we know that Phœnicians and Carthaginians
+successively settled on its shores, and that the Greeks were almost
+as numerous there as in their native country. Twenty-five centuries
+have passed since the Greeks founded their first colony, Naxos, at
+the foot of Mount Etna. Soon afterwards Syracuse, Leontini, Catania,
+Megara Hyblæa, Messina, and other colonies sprang into existence, until
+the whole of the littoral region was in the hands of the Greeks, the
+native populations being pushed back into the interior. In Sicily the
+Greek met with the same climate, and with rocks and mountains similar
+in aspect to those of his native home. The “Marmorean” port and the
+wide bay of Syracuse, the acropolis and Mount Hybla, do they not recall
+Attica or the Peloponnesus? The fountain of Arethusa, on the island of
+Ortygia, which is supplied through underground channels, reminds us
+of the fountain of Erasinos and of many others in Hellas, which find
+their way through fissures in the limestone rocks to the seashore. The
+Syracusans said that the river Alpheus, enamoured of {320} the nymph
+Arethusa, did not mingle its waters with those of the Ionian, but found
+its way through subterranean channels to the coast of Sicily, where
+it rose again at the side of the fountain dedicated to the object of
+his adoration, bringing the flowers and fruits of beloved Greece. This
+legend bears testimony to the great love which the Greek bore his
+native land, whose very fountains and plants were supposed to follow
+him into his new home.
+
+If we may judge from the number of inhabitants with which the principal
+towns were credited at that time, Sicily must have had a population of
+several millions of Greeks. The Carthaginian merchants and soldiers, on
+the other hand, though they were the masters of portions of the island
+for two or three centuries, never settled upon it, and only a few
+walls, coins, and inscriptions bear witness now of their ever having
+been present. It has been very judiciously remarked by M. Dennis that
+the most striking evidence of their reign is presented in the desolate
+sites of the cities of Himera and Selinus. At the same time we must
+not forget that the Carthaginians, by intermingling with the existing
+population, materially affected the ulterior destinies of the island.
+The Romans, who held Sicily for nearly seven centuries, did so in a
+still higher degree. Vandals and Goths likewise left traces behind
+them. The Saracens, themselves a mixed race, imparted their Southern
+impetuosity to the Sicilians, whilst their conquerors, the Normans,
+endowed them with the daring and indomitable courage which at that
+period animated these sons of the North. In 1071, when the Normans
+laid siege to Palermo, no less than five languages were spoken on the
+island, viz. Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and vulgar Sicilian. But
+Arabic was the tongue of the civilised inhabitants, and even during the
+dominion of the Normans inscriptions upon palaces and churches were
+written in it. It was at the court of King Roger that Edrisi wrote his
+“Geography,” one of the great monuments of science. In 1223 the last
+Arabs were made to emigrate to Naples, but by that time much Arab blood
+already flowed through the veins of the inhabitants.
+
+Later on, the character of the population was still further modified
+by French, Germans, Spaniards, and Aragonese, and all this helped
+to make them a people differing in appearance, manners, habits, and
+feelings from their Italian neighbours. These islanders look upon every
+inhabitant of the mainland as a foreigner. The absence of roads on the
+island enabled the different groups of its population to maintain their
+distinct idioms and character during a very long period. The Lombards
+whom the Romans transplanted to Benevento and Palermo spoke their
+native dialect long after it had become extinct in Lombardy. Even now
+there are about 50,000 Sicilians who speak this ancient Lombard tongue.
+At San Fratello, on a steep hill on the northern coast, this idiom is
+spoken with the greatest purity. Nor has the Italian wholly supplanted
+the vulgar Sicilian in the interior of the island. We meet with many
+Greek and Arab words. One of the most curious words is that of _val_,
+which is applied to various districts of Sicily, and is supposed to
+have been derived from _vali_, the Arab term for “governor.” The
+Sicilian idiom is less sonorous than the Italian. Vowels standing
+between consonants are frequently suppressed, and the _o_, and even
+the _a_ and _i_ (_ee_), are {321} changed into _oo_, which renders
+the speech hard and indistinct. The language lends itself, however,
+admirably to poetry, and the Sicilian popular songs are quite equal in
+natural grace and delicacy to the much-admired _rispetti_ of Tuscany.
+
+Of all the emigrants who have settled on the island the Albanians
+alone have not become merged in the general population. Locally known
+as Greci, they still form separate communities, speaking their own
+language and observing special religious rites, in several of the towns
+of the interior, and more especially at Piana de’ Greci, which occupies
+a commanding hill to the south of Palermo. Nor is the fusion amongst
+the other races as complete as it appears to be at the first glance.
+The population around Mount Etna, who are, perhaps, more purely Greek
+in blood than the Greeks themselves, are noted for their grace, gaiety,
+and sweetness of disposition. They are the most intelligent portion
+of the population of Sicily. Those of Trapani and San Giuliani are
+said to be the best-looking, and their women delight the stranger by
+the regularity and beauty of their features. The Palermitans, on the
+other hand, in whose veins flows much Arab blood, are for the most part
+unprepossessing in their appearance. They open their house but rarely
+to strangers, and jealously shut up their women in its most retired
+part.
+
+The most ferocious usages of war, piracy, and brigandage have kept
+their ground longer at Palermo and its environs than anywhere else.
+The laws of the _omerta_, or “men of heart,” make vengeance a duty.
+_A chi ti toglie il pane, e tu toglili la vita !_ (“Take the life of
+him who has taken your bread !”) is its fundamental principle; but in
+practice Palermitan vengeance is far from possessing the simplicity
+of the Corsican vendetta, for it is complicated by the most atrocious
+cruelties. No less than four or five thousand Palermitans are said
+to be affiliated to the secret league of the _maffia_, whose members
+subsist upon every kind of roguery. Up to 1865 the brigands were
+masters in the environs of that town. They virtually laid siege to
+the town, separating it from its more distant suburbs. Strangers were
+afraid to leave lest they should be murdered or captured by bandits;
+and no farmer could harvest his corn or olives, or shear his sheep,
+without paying toll to these highwaymen. More than ten years have
+passed since then, but in spite of measures of exceptional severity the
+maffia still exists.
+
+The history of this association, which dates its origin back to the
+time of the Norman kings, remains yet to be written. It has always
+flourished most in time of political troubles, and consequent misery.
+No doubt things have grown worse in the course of the last twenty
+years; taxes have been increased, the conscription established, and
+many abrupt changes, such as are inseparable from a new political
+regimen, have been introduced. The people, accustomed to put up with
+ancient abuses, have not yet learnt to bear the burdens imposed in
+connection with the annexation of the island to the kingdom of Italy.
+Nevertheless the Sicilians grow more Italian from day to day. Community
+of language and of interests attaches the island to the peninsula, and
+the time is not far distant when both countries will gravitate in the
+same orbit. Italy is most highly interested in establishing feelings of
+friendship with the inhabitants of the island, and in developing its
+resources. The rapid increase of the population, which is said to have
+{322} tripled since 1734, bears witness to the great natural riches of
+the country; and what might not be achieved if the barbarous processes
+now in force there were superseded by the scientific methods of our own
+time?
+
+Sicily was the favourite haunt of Ceres, and in the plain of Catania
+this beneficent goddess taught man the art of cultivating the soil.
+The Sicilians have not forgotten this teaching, for nearly half the
+area is covered with corn-fields; but they have not improved their
+system of cultivation since those fabulous times, and improvements can
+hardly be effected as long as the restrictions imposed by the feudal
+tenure introduced by the Normans are allowed to exist. The agricultural
+implements are of a primitive kind, manure is hardly known, and the
+fate of the crops depends entirely upon nature. When travelling through
+the country districts of Sicily, we are struck by not meeting with
+isolated houses. There are no villages, for all the cultivators of the
+soil live in towns, and are content to travel daily to their fields,
+which are occasionally at a distance of six miles. Sometimes they pass
+the night there, in a cavern or a ditch covered with boughs, and at
+harvest-time the labourers sleep in improvised sheds. This absence of
+human habitations imparts an air of solemn sadness to vast corn-fields
+covering valleys and slopes, and we almost fancy we are wandering
+through a deserted country, and wonder for whose benefit the crops are
+ripening.
+
+Corn-fields cover a greater area than that devoted to the cultivation
+of all other objects put together; nevertheless the latter articles
+represent a higher pecuniary value. The orchards, vineyards, and
+gardens near the towns are a far greater source of wealth than the
+distant corn-fields. In former times wheat was the principal article
+of export; now Sicily is no longer a granary, but promises to become
+a vast emporium of fruit. Even now the crop of oranges grown there,
+which consists of seven kinds, subdivided into four hundred varieties,
+represents a value of £2,000,000 a year. The marvellous gardens which
+surround Palermo are steadily increasing at the expense of the ancient
+plantations of ash, and ascend the hills to a height of 1,150 feet.
+Hundreds of millions of oranges are exported annually to Continental
+Europe, England, and America, and the inferior sorts are converted into
+essential oils, citric acid, or citrate of lime. The last is used in
+printing stuffs, and Sicily enjoys a monopoly in its manufacture.
+
+Sicily likewise occupies a foremost place as a vine-growing country,
+and supplies more than a fourth of the wine produced throughout Italy.
+The cultivation of the vine, which is carried on to a large extent by
+foreigners, is much better understood there than on the neighbouring
+peninsula, and the wines exported from Marsala, Syracuse, Alcamo, and
+Milazzo are justly held in high estimation. Excellent wine is also
+grown on the southern and western slopes of Mount Etna, to which the
+heat of the sun imparts much fire. England and non-Italian Europe are
+the great consumers of the wines of Sicily, as they are of its oils,
+almonds, cotton, saffron, sumach, and manna, extracted, like that of
+the Calabrias, from a kind of ash. Raw silk, which Sicily was the first
+to produce in Europe, is likewise exported in considerable quantities.
+
+Sulphur is the great mineral product of the island. The beds vary much
+in {323} richness, but even where they contain only five or six per
+cent. a light brought to the walls of the mine will cause the sulphur
+to boil like pitch. The blocks extracted from the mine are piled up in
+the open air, where they remain exposed to the destructive action of
+the atmosphere. The fragments are then heaped up over the flame of a
+furnace, which causes the stones to split, the melted sulphur flowing
+into moulds placed beneath. By this primitive process only two-thirds
+of the sulphur contained in the rock are extracted, but it proves
+nevertheless most remunerative. About 200,000 tons of sulphur, or more
+than two-thirds of the sulphur required for manufacturing purposes
+throughout Europe, are annually exported from Sicily, and the known
+deposits of the island have been computed to contain from 40,000,000 to
+50,000,000 tons. To the north of Girgenti and in other parts of Sicily
+sulphureous plaster has been used in the construction of the houses,
+and the atmosphere there is at all times impregnated with an odour of
+sulphur.
+
+Rock-salt is met with in the same formations as the sulphur, and in
+quantities almost inexhaustible, but salt is not a rare article, and
+even the Sicilians prefer to gather it from the salt swamps extending
+along the coast, the most productive of which are near Trapani, at the
+western extremity of the island. At the same spot the sea yields the
+best coral of Sicily. The tunny fishery is carried on mostly in the
+great bays between Trapani and Palermo, while most of the swordfish
+are captured in the Strait of Messina. The seas of Sicily abound in
+fish, and the islanders boast of being the most expert fishermen of the
+Western Mediterranean.
+
+Until recently communications in Sicily were kept up almost exclusively
+by sea. In 1866 the only carriage road of the island, which connects
+Messina with Palermo, was hardly made use of by travellers, and even
+now the most important mines of sulphur and salt communicate with
+the seashore only by mule-paths; and the inhabitants are actually
+opposed to the construction of roads, from fear of their interfering
+with the existing modes of transport. The road which connects the
+harbour of Terranova with Caltanissetta has been under construction
+for twenty years, although it is the only one which joins the interior
+of the country to the sea-coast. Railways to some extent supply this
+deficiency of roads, but are being built very slowly, hardly more than
+250 miles being at present open for traffic.
+
+Palermo the “happy,” the capital of Sicily, is one of the great towns
+of Italy. At the time of the Arabs it surpassed all towns of the
+peninsula in population, but at present, though increasing rapidly, it
+yields to Naples, Milan, and Rome. No other town of Europe can boast
+of an equally delicious climate, nor is any fairer to look upon from a
+distance. Bold barren mountains enclose a marvellous garden, the famous
+“shell of gold” (_conca d’oro_), from the midst of which rise towers
+and domes, palms with fan-shaped leaves, and pines, commanded in the
+south by the huge ecclesiastical edifices of Monreale. Termini is the
+only city of Sicily which rivals Palmero in the beauty of its site, and
+it truly merits its epithet of _splendissime_. {324}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 118.—PALERMO AND MONTE PELLEGRINO.]
+
+But the beauty of the country contrasts most painfully with the misery
+and filth reigning in most of the quarters of the capital. Palermo has
+its sumptuous edifices. It boasts of a cathedral lavishly decorated;
+its royal palace and palatine chapel, covered with mosaics, and
+harmoniously combining the beauties of Byzantine, Moorish, and Roman
+art, are unique of their kind; the church of Monreale, in one of its
+suburbs, may challenge Ravenna by the number of its mosaics. There are
+Moorish palaces, a few modern monuments, and two broad streets, which a
+Spanish governor had made in the shape of a cross. But, besides these,
+we only meet with dark and narrow streets and wretched tenements, the
+windows of which are stuffed with rags. Down to a recent period Palermo
+was undeserving its Greek name of “Port of all Nations.” Enclosed
+within mountains, and having no communications with the interior, its
+commerce was merely local, and its exports were limited to the produce
+of its fisheries and of its gardens. Though {325} far more populous
+than Genoa, its commerce is only half that of the Ligurian city, but it
+is rapidly on the increase.
+
+Trapani, a colony of the Carthaginians like Palermo, and Marsala, so
+famous for its wines, at the western extremity of the island, are
+proportionately far busier than the capital. Trapani, built on a
+sickle-shaped promontory, carries on a lively trade. The salt marshes
+near it are amongst the most productive in all Italy;[110] tunny,
+coral, and sponge fishing is carried on; and the artisans of the town
+are skilled as weavers, masons, and jewellers. The harbour is one of
+the best in Italy; the roadstead is well sheltered by the outlying
+Ægadian Islands; and the ambition of the inhabitants, who look forward
+to a time when Trapani will be the principal emporium for the trade
+with Tunis, is likely to be realized on the completion of a railway
+to Messina. The harbour of Mazzara, the outlet for the produce of the
+inland towns of Castelvetrano and Salemi, lies closer to Tunis, but its
+shelter is indifferent. As to Marsala—the “Mars ed Allah,” or God’s
+haven, of the Arabs—its port was filled up by Charles V., and has only
+recently been reconstructed. It is, however, not of sufficient depth
+for large vessels, and only salt and wine are exported from it to
+France and England. Marsala occupies the site of the ancient city of
+Lilybæum, which had a population of 900,000 souls when Diodorus Siculus
+wrote his Geography. It has recently become famous in consequence of
+the landing there of Garibaldi and his thousand followers in 1860, and
+its being the spot from which they entered upon the triumphant march
+which ended in the battle of the Volturno and the capture of Gaeta.
+
+Messina the “noble” is the great commercial centre of Sicily, and the
+only port of that island where vessels of all nations meet. Messina is
+a stage on the ocean high-roads which join or connect Western Europe
+and the Levant. Its roadstead is one of the safest, and vessels in
+distress are certain to find protection there. Moreover, vessels coming
+from the Tyrrhenian, and fearful of encountering the dangerous currents
+of the strait during a storm, may easily find shelter at Milazzo, to
+the north of it. The port of Messina is formed by a sickle-shaped
+tongue of land, making a natural breakwater.[111] There are few
+cities in Europe which are more exposed to the destructive action of
+earthquakes than Messina, and the traces of the great shock of 1783,
+which swamped the vessels in the harbour, undermined the palaces along
+the seashore, and caused the death of more than a thousand persons,
+have not yet entirely disappeared.
+
+Catania, the sub-Etnean, as its Greek name implies, is menaced not
+only by earthquakes, but also by volcanic eruptions. It, too, enjoys
+a high amount of commercial prosperity, and exports the surplus
+produce of the towns situated at the foot of the volcano, among
+which are Acireale, with its orange groves; Giarre, with its dusty
+streets; Paterno, abounding in thermal springs; Aderno, on the {326}
+summit of a rock of lava; Bronte, at the junction of two streams of
+scoriæ; and Randazza, commanded by an ancient Norman castle. Catania
+also monopolizes the export of the produce of the inland districts
+of Eastern Sicily; it is the great railway centre of the island, and
+several carriage roads converge upon it. Its port has grown too small
+for the business carried on there, and it is proposed to enlarge it by
+means of piers and breakwaters.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 119.—TRAPANI AND MARSALA.
+
+Scale 1 : 270,000.]
+
+It is quite natural that on an island, no locality of which is more
+than forty miles from the sea, all great towns should be met with on
+the coast, where there are greater facilities for commerce. Still a few
+centres of population sprang up in the interior, either in the midst of
+the most fertile districts or at the crossings of the most-frequented
+lines of communication. Nicosia, the Lombard city, is thus a natural
+place of passage between Catania and the northern coast of the island.
+Corleone occupies a similar position with respect to Palermo and the
+African slope {327} of the island. Castro Giovanni, the ancient Enna,
+likewise occupies a privileged position, for it stands on an elevated
+plateau in the very centre of the island: a large stone near it is said
+by the inhabitants to be an ancient altar of Ceres. Piazza Armerina
+_l’opulentissime_, and Caltagirone, surnamed _la gratissima_ on account
+of the fertility of its fields, are both populous towns, which carry on
+a considerable commerce through Terranova, in the building of which the
+stones of the old temples of Gela have been utilised. Caltanissetta,
+farther to the west, and its neighbour Canicatti, export their produce
+through the port of Licata.
+
+In the south-eastern corner of Sicily there are likewise several inland
+towns of some importance, amongst which Ragusa and Modica are the most
+considerable. Comiso, an industrious place, lies farther to the west,
+and is surrounded by cotton plantations. The valley of the Hipparis,
+sung by Pindar, separates it from Vittoria, the saline plains of which
+furnish much of the soda exported to Marseilles. Noto, like most towns
+in that part of Sicily, is at some distance from the coast, but its
+twin city, Avola, stands upon the shore of the Ionian Sea. Noto and
+Avola were both overthrown by the earthquake of 1693, and have been
+rebuilt with geometrical regularity near their former sites. The fields
+of Avola, though not very fertile by nature, are amongst the best
+cultivated of the island, and it is there only that the production of
+the sugar-cane has attained to any importance.
+
+On the northern slope of the hills forming the back-bone of the island
+there are several other towns inhabited by the agricultural population.
+Lentini, the ancient Leontini, which boasts of being the oldest city in
+the island, is at present only a poor place, having been wholly rebuilt
+since the earthquake of 1693. Militello has been restored since the
+same epoch, and Grammicheli was founded in the eighteenth century to
+afford a shelter for the inhabitants of Occhiala, which was destroyed
+by an earthquake. Vizzini and Licodia di Vizzini are remarkable on
+account of the beds of lava near them, which alternate with layers of
+marine fossils, and Mineo stands near a small crater of the swamp of
+Palici. The popular songs of Mineo are famous throughout Sicily. The
+marvellous “stone of poetry” is shown near it, and all those who kiss
+it are said to become poets.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 120.—SYRACUSE.
+
+Scale 1 : 100,000.]
+
+Southern Sicily is poor in natural ports, and formerly, along the whole
+of that part of the coast which faces Africa, there were only open
+roadsteads and beaches. On the Ionian coast, however, two excellent
+harbours are met with, viz. those of Agosta and Syracuse, which are
+very much like each other in outline and general features. Agosta,
+or Augusta, the successor of the Greek city of Megara Hyblæa, is now
+nothing more than a fortress besieged by fever. Syracuse, the ancient
+city of the Dorians, and at one time the most populous and wealthy city
+of the Mediterranean, has been reduced to a simple provincial capital.
+That city, whose inhabitants even during the last century celebrated
+their great victory over the Athenians, is now hardly more than a
+heap of ruins. Its “marble port,” formerly surrounded by statues,
+is now frequented only by small boats, and its great harbour, large
+enough for contending squadrons, lies deserted. All that remains of
+it is contained in the small island of Ortygia, {328} separated from
+the mainland by fortifications, a ditch, and the swamps of Syraca.
+The vast peninsula of limestone formerly occupied by the city is at
+present inhabited only by a few farmers, whose houses stand near the
+canals of irrigation. The grand edifices erected by the inhabitants
+of ancient Syracuse are now represented by the ruins of columns on
+the banks of the Anapo rising from the “azure” fountain of Cyane; by
+the fortifications of the Epipolæ and Euryelum erected by Archimedes,
+and now known as Belvedere; by the remains of baths, an enormous
+altar large enough for hecatombs of sacrifices, an amphitheatre, and
+an admirable theatre for 25,000 spectators, who were able to see at
+a glance from their {329} seats the whole of the ancient city, with
+its temples and fleets of merchantmen. Nothing, however, is better
+calculated to convey an idea of the ancient grandeur of the city than
+the vast quarries or _lautumiæ_ and the subterranean catacombs, more
+extensive than those of Naples, and not yet wholly explored. In former
+times the summit of the island of Ortygia was occupied by an acropolis,
+in which stood a temple of Minerva, a rival of the Parthenon of Athens.
+Sailors, on leaving the port, were bound to look towards this temple,
+holding in their hands a vase of burning charcoal taken from the altar
+of Juno, which they flung into the sea when they lost sight of it.
+Portions of the temple still exist, but its beautiful columns have been
+covered with plaster and incorporated in an ugly church.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 121.—TEMPLE OF CONCORD AT GIRGENTI.]
+
+There are other Hellenic ruins in Sicily, which, in the eyes of
+artists, make that island a worthy rival of Greece itself. Girgenti,
+the ancient Acragas, or {330} Agrigentum, which numbered its
+inhabitants by hundreds of thousands, but is now a poor place like
+Syracuse, possesses ruins of at least ten temples or religious
+edifices, of which that dedicated to Olympian Jupiter was the largest
+in all Italy, and has been made use of in the construction of the
+present mole. Another, that dedicated to Concord, is in a better
+state of preservation than any other Greek temple outside the limits
+of Hellas. The modern city occupies merely the site of the ancient
+acropolis, and is built upon a layer of shelly sandstone, which
+descends in steps towards the sea. The cathedral has been built from
+materials taken from a temple of Jupiter Atabyrios, and its baptismal
+font is an ancient sarcophagus upon which are represented the loves of
+Phædra and Hippolytus. In former times Agrigentum reached to within a
+couple of miles from the sea. The modern port, named in honour of one
+of the most famous sons of the city, lies to the west of the ancient
+Hellenic _Emporium_, at a distance of four miles from the city. It is
+the busiest harbour on the southern coast, and large quantities of
+sulphur are exported from it (see Fig. 117, p. 317).
+
+Sciacca, another seaside town farther to the west, in one of those
+localities of the island most exposed to earthquakes, boasts of
+being the modern representative of Selinus, though that Greek city
+was situated about fourteen miles farther west, to the south of
+Castelvetrano. Its seven temples have been overthrown by earthquakes,
+but they still present us with remains of the purest Doric style. The
+metopes of three of them have been conveyed to Palermo, where they form
+the most precious ornaments of the museum.
+
+Segesta, on the north coast, no longer exists, but there still remain
+the ruins of a magnificent temple. Other remains of Greek art abound in
+all parts of the island, and there are also monuments erected by the
+Romans. If we contrast these ancient edifices with those raised since
+by Byzantines, Moors, Normans, Spaniards, and Neapolitans, we are bound
+to admit that the latter exhibit no progress, but decadence. Alas ! how
+very much inferior are the inhabitants of modern Syracuse in comparison
+with the fellow-citizens of an Archimedes !
+
+Sicily offers most striking examples of towns changing their positions
+in consequence of political disturbances. When the ancient Greek cities
+were at the height of their power they boldly descended to the very
+coast; but when war and rapine got the upper hand—when Moorish pirates
+scoured the sea, and brigandage reigned in the interior—then it was
+that most of the cities of Sicily took refuge on the summits of the
+hills, abandoning their low-lying suburbs to decay, and allowing them
+finally to disappear. Girgenti is a case in point. Some of the towns
+occupy sites of much natural strength, and are almost inaccessible.
+Such are Centuripe, or Centorbi, which stretches along the edge of a
+rock to the west of the Simeto, and San Giuliano, the town of Astarte,
+which stands on the summit of a pyramidal rock 1,200 feet in height
+above Trapani. But, on the return of peace, the inhabitants abandoned
+their eyries and came back to the plain or coast. All along the
+northern coast, from Palermo to Messina, the towns on the _marina_,
+or beach, kept increasing at the expense of the _borgos_ occupying
+the summits of the mountains, and in many instances the latter were
+deserted altogether. Cefalù {331} affords a striking illustration of
+this change. The modern city nestles at the foot of a bold promontory,
+upon the summit of which may still be seen the crenellated walls of the
+old town, within which nothing now remains excepting a small cyclopean
+temple, the most venerable ruin of all Sicily, which has resisted the
+ravages of thirty centuries.[112]
+
+
+THE ÆOLIAN OR LIPARIC ISLANDS.
+
+The Æolian or Liparic Islands, though separated from Sicily by a strait
+more than 300 fathoms in depth, may nevertheless be looked upon as a
+dependency of the larger island. Some of these volcanic islands, “born
+in the shadow of Mount Etna,” lie on a line connecting that volcano
+with Mount Vesuvius, and they originated probably during the same
+convulsion of nature. They all consist of lavas, cinders, or pumice,
+ejected from volcanoes. Two amongst them, Vulcano and Stromboli,
+are still active volcanoes, and the flames and undulating columns
+of smoke rising from them enable mariners and fishermen to foretell
+changes of temperature or wind. It is probable that this intelligent
+interpretation of volcanic phenomena was the reason why these islands
+were dedicated to Æolus, the god of the winds, who there revealed
+himself to mariners.
+
+Lipari, the largest and most central of these islands, is at the
+same time the most populous. A considerable town, commanded by an
+ancient castle, rises like an amphitheatre on its northern shore. A
+well-cultivated plain, abounding in olive-trees, orange-trees, and
+vines, surrounds the town, and the slopes of the hills are cultivated
+almost to their very summits. The population, as in Sicily, has been
+recruited from the most diverse elements since the time that Greek
+colonists from Rhodes, Cnidus, and Selinus entered into an alliance
+with the aboriginal inhabitants. This intermixture of races is
+proceeding now as much as ever, for commerce continually introduces
+fresh blood, and many Calabrian brigands have been conveyed to the
+island, where they have become peaceable citizens. The population is
+now permitted to multiply in peace, for the volcanoes of Lipari have
+been quiescent for centuries. The Lipariotes have a legend according
+to which St. Calogero chased the devils from the islands, and shut
+them up in the furnaces of Vulcano, and we may infer from this that
+the last volcanic eruption took place soon after the introduction of
+Christianity; that is to say, about the sixth century. The existence
+of subterranean forces manifests itself now only in thermal springs
+and {332} steam jets, which have been visited from the most ancient
+times for the cure of diseases. Earthquakes, however, are of frequent
+occurrence, and that of 1780 so much frightened the inhabitants that
+with one accord they dedicated themselves to the Virgin Mary. Dolomieu,
+who visited Lipari in the year following, found them wearing a small
+chain on the arm, by means of which they desired to show that they had
+become the slaves of the “Liberating Virgin.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 122.—THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE ÆOLIAN ISLANDS.]
+
+Lipari is a land of promise to the geologist, on account of the great
+variety of its lavas. Monte della Castagna is wholly composed of
+obsidian. Another hill, Monte Bianco, consists of pumice, and, when
+seen from a distance, has the appearance of being covered with snow.
+The streams of pumice which fill every ravine extend down to the
+sea, and the water is covered with this buoyant stone, which drifts
+sometimes as far as Corsica. Lipari supplies nearly the whole of Europe
+with pumice.[113]
+
+Vulcano, to the south of Lipari, from which it is separated by a
+strait less than a mile across, contrasts strangely with its smiling
+neighbour. Vulcano, with the exception of a few olives and vines
+growing on the southern slopes, consists wholly of naked scoriæ, and
+this circumstance probably led to its being dedicated to Vulcan. Most
+of its rocks are black or of a reddish hue like iron, but there are
+{333} others which are scarlet, yellow, or white. At the northern
+extremity of the island rises the Vulcanello, a small cone which
+appeared above the surface of the sea nobody knows when, and which an
+isthmus of reddish cinders united about the middle of the thirteenth
+century to the principal volcano of the island. This central mountain
+of the island has a crater about 1,800 yards in circumference, from
+which steam continually escapes. The atmosphere is charged with
+sulphurous vapours difficult to breathe. From hundreds of small
+orifices jets of steam make their escape with a throbbing and hissing
+noise. Some of these fumaroles have a temperature of 610° F. Jets of
+a lower temperature are met with in other parts of the island, and
+even at the bottom of the bay. Violent eruptions are rare, and in the
+eighteenth century only three occurred. The last eruption took place
+in 1873, after a repose of a hundred years. Until recently the only
+inhabitants of Vulcano were a few convicts, who collected sulphur and
+boracic acid, and manufactured a little alum. But an enterprising
+Scotchman has now taken possession of this grand chemical laboratory.
+He has built a large manufactory near the port, and a few trees planted
+around his Moorish residence have somewhat improved the repulsive
+aspect of the country.
+
+Stromboli, though smaller than either Lipari or Vulcano, is
+nevertheless more celebrated, on account of its frequent eruptions. For
+ages back scarcely any mariners have passed this island without seeing
+its summit in a state of illumination. At intervals of five minutes,
+or less, the seething lava filling its caldron bubbles up, explosions
+occur, and steam and stones are ejected. These rhythmical eruptions
+form a most agreeable sight, for there is no danger about them, and the
+olive groves of the Stromboliotes have never been injured by a stream
+of lava. The volcano, however, has its moments of exasperation, and its
+ashes have frequently been carried to the coast of Calabria, which is
+more than thirty miles off.
+
+Panaria and the surrounding group of islands between Stromboli and
+Lipari have undergone many changes, if Dolomieu and Spallanzani are
+correct in saying that they originally formed only a single island,
+which was blown into fragments by an eruption having its centre near
+the present island of Dattilo. A hot spring and an occasional bubbling
+up of the sea-water prove that the volcanic forces are not yet quite
+extinct.
+
+As regards the small eastern islands of the archipelago, Salina,
+Felicudi, and Alicudi, the last of which resembles a tent pitched upon
+the surface of the water, history furnishes no records of their ever
+having been in any other than a quiescent state. The island of Ustica,
+about thirty miles to the north of Palermo, is likewise of volcanic
+origin, but is not known ever to have had an eruption. It is one of
+the most dreaded places of exile in Italy. Near it is the uninhabited
+island of Medico, the ancient Osteodes, where the mercenaries deserted
+by the Carthaginians were left to die of starvation. {334}
+
+
+THE ÆGADIAN ISLANDS.
+
+Off the western extremity of Sicily lie shallows, sand-banks, and
+calcareous islands of the same composition as the adjoining mainland.
+These are the Ægades, or Goat Islands, named after the animals which
+climb their steep escarpments. Favignana, near which the Romans won
+the naval victory which terminated the first Punic war, is the largest
+of these islands. Its steep cliffs abound in caverns, in which heaps
+of shells, gnawed bones, and stone implements have been found, dating
+back to the contemporaries of the mammoth and the antediluvian bear.
+Conflicts between contrary winds are frequent in this labyrinth of
+rocks and shoals, and the power of the waves is much dreaded. The tides
+are most irregular, and give rise to dangerous eddies. The sudden ebb,
+locally known as _marubia_, or “tipsy sea” (_mare ubbriaco?_), has been
+the cause of many shipwrecks.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 123.—THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE SOUTH OF SICILY.
+
+Scale 1 : 4,000,000.]
+
+
+PANTELLARIA.
+
+Pantellaria rises in the very centre of the strait which unites the
+Western Mediterranean with the Eastern. The island is of volcanic
+origin, abounds in thermal springs, and, above all, in steam jets.
+Placed on a great line of navigation, Pantellaria might have become
+of importance if it had possessed a good harbour like Malta. To
+judge from certain ruins, the population was more considerable {335}
+formerly than it is now. There exist about a thousand odd edifices,
+called _sesi_ by the inhabitants, which are supposed to be ancient
+dwellings. Like the _nuraghi_ of Sardinia, they have the shape of
+hives, and are built of huge blocks of rock without mortar. Some of
+them are twenty-five feet high and forty-five feet wide; and Rossi, the
+archæologist, thinks that they date back to the stone age, for pieces
+of worked obsidian have been found in them.
+
+From the top of Pantellaria we are able to distinguish the promontories
+on the Tunisian coast, but, though it is nearer to Africa than to
+Europe, the island nevertheless belongs to the latter continent, as is
+proved by the configuration of the sea-bottom. This cannot be said of
+Linosa, an island with four volcanic peaks to the west of Malta, and
+still less of the Pelagian Islands. The latter, consisting of Lampedusa
+and a satellite rock called Lampion, owe their name (Lamp-bearer and
+Lamp) to the light which, legend tells us, was kept burning by a hermit
+or angel for the benefit of mariners. In our own days this legendary
+lamp has been superseded by a small lighthouse marking the entrance to
+the port of Lampedusa, where vessels of three or four hundred tons find
+a safe shelter.
+
+About the close of the eighteenth century the Russians proposed to
+establish a military station on Lampedusa to rival that of Malta, but
+this project was never carried out, and has not been taken up by the
+Italian Government. The population consists of soldiers, political
+exiles, criminals, and a few settlers, who speak Maltese.[114]
+
+
+MALTA AND GOZZO.
+
+Malta, though a political dependency of Great Britain, belongs
+geographically to Italy, for it rises from the same submarine plateau
+as Sicily. About fifty miles to the east of the island the depth of
+the sea exceeds 1,500 fathoms, but in the north, in the direction of
+Sicily, it hardly amounts to eighty, and there can be no doubt that an
+isthmus formerly united Malta to continental Europe. Geologists are
+agreed that the land of which Malta and Gozzo are now the only remains
+must formerly have been of great extent, for amongst the fossils of
+its most recent limestone rocks have been found the bones of elephants
+and other animals which only inhabit continents. Even now the island
+is slowly wasting away, and its steep cliffs, pierced by numerous
+grottoes, locally known as _ghar_, are gradually crumbling into dust.
+
+Placed in the very centre of the Mediterranean, and possessed of an
+excellent port, Malta has at all times been a commercial station
+of much importance. It has been occupied by all the nations who
+succeeded each other in the possession of the Mediterranean—Phœnicians,
+Carthaginians, Romans, and Greeks. But long before that time the island
+must have been inhabited, for we meet with grottoes excavated in the
+rocks, and with curious edifices resembling the _nuraghi_ of Sardinia,
+and it is just possible that the descendants of these aborigines still
+{336} constitute the principal element of the existing population,
+which, at all events, is very mixed, and during the domination of the
+Saracens almost became Arab. The language spoken is a very corrupt
+Italian, containing many Arabic words.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 124.—THE PORT OF MALTA.
+
+Scale 1 : 49,000.]
+
+[Illustration: LA VALETTA, MALTA.]
+
+The great military part played by Malta began when the Knights of
+St. John, after their expulsion from Rhodes in 1522, installed
+themselves upon the island, and converted it into the bulwark of
+the Christian world. In the beginning of this century Malta passed
+into the possession of the English, who may survey thence, as from a
+watch-tower, the whole of the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to Smyrna
+{337} and Port Said. The excellent port of La Valetta singularly
+facilitates the military and commercial part which Malta is called
+upon to play in the world of the Mediterranean. It is sufficiently
+spacious to shelter two entire fleets, and its approaches are defended
+by fortifications rendered impregnable by the successive work of
+three centuries. There are, besides, all the facilities required by
+merchantmen, including a careening dock larger than any other in the
+world. The commerce of the island is rapidly increasing; it is one of
+the great centres of steamboat navigation, and submarine telegraphs
+connect it with all parts of the world.[115]
+
+The city of La Valetta has retained all its ancient picturesqueness,
+in spite of its straight streets and the walls which surround it.
+Its high white houses, ornamented with balconies and conservatories,
+rise amphitheatre-like on the slope of a hill; stairs lead from
+landing-place to landing-place to the summit of this hill; and from
+every street we behold the blue sea, with its large merchantmen and
+crowds of smaller vessels. Gondolas, having two huge eyes painted upon
+the prow, glide noiselessly over the waters, and curious vehicles roll
+heavily along the quays. Maltese, English soldiers, and sailors of
+every nation crowd the streets. Now and then a woman glides rapidly
+along the walls. Like all Christian women of the East, she wears the
+_faldetta_, a sort of black silk domino, which hides her sumptuous
+dress, and coquettishly conceals her features.
+
+Malta beyond the walls of the town is but a dreary place of abode.
+The country rises gently towards the south, in the direction of Città
+Vecchia and the hills of Ben Gemma. Grey rocks abound, a fine dust
+covers the vegetation, and the white walls of the village glisten
+in the sun. There are no trees, except in a few solitary gardens,
+where the famous mandarin oranges grow. Nor are there any rivers. The
+soil is scorched, and it is matter for astonishment that it should
+yield such abundant harvests of cereals, and clover (_sulla_) growing
+to the height of a man. Carnation tints delight the eye during the
+season of flowers. The Maltese peasants, small, wiry, and muscular,
+are wonderfully industrious. They have brought the whole island under
+cultivation, the cliffs alone excepted, and, where vegetable soil
+is wanting, they produce it artificially by triturating the rocks.
+In former times vessels coming from Sicily were bound to bring a
+certain quantity of soil as ballast. But in spite of their careful
+cultivation, the inhabitants of Malta, Gozzo, and Comino (thus
+named from cumin, which, with cotton, is the principal crop of the
+island), the produce hardly suffices for six months’ consumption,
+and the islanders are largely dependent upon Sicily for their food.
+Navigation and the fisheries contribute likewise towards the means of
+subsistence, but the Maltese would nevertheless perish on their island
+if the surplus population did not emigrate to all the coast lands of
+the Mediterranean, and especially to Algeria, where the Maltese, as
+everywhere else, are distinguished for thrift and industry. {338}
+
+In winter this exodus is in some measure compensated for by the
+arrival of many English families, who visit the island for the sake of
+its dry and mild climate. February is the finest month, and the island
+is then resplendent with verdure, but the scorching heat of summer soon
+dries up the vegetation.
+
+A governor appointed by the Crown exercises executive functions, and
+enjoys the privilege of mercy. He is assisted by a Council of seven
+members, by whom all laws are discussed and voted. The lord-lieutenant
+of each district is chosen amongst the Maltese nobles, and deputies
+appointed by the governor manage the affairs of the villages. Italian
+is the language used in the courts, with the exception of the Supreme
+Court, into which English was introduced in 1823.
+
+The revenues of the island, about £170,000 annually, are not sufficient
+to cover the military expenses, and the deficiency is made up by the
+imperial treasury.
+
+Most of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics. The bishop is appointed by
+the Pope, and enjoys an income of £4,000.[116]
+
+
+VIII.—SARDINIA.
+
+It is a curious fact that an island so fertile as Sardinia, so rich
+in metals, and so favourably situated in the centre of the Tyrrhenian
+Sea, should have lagged behind in the race of progress as it has. When
+the Carthaginians held that island its population was certainly more
+numerous than it is now, and the fearful massacres placed on record by
+the historians of Rome testify to this fact. Its decadence was sudden
+and thorough. In part it may be accounted for by the configuration of
+the island, which presents steep cliffs towards Italy, whence emigrants
+might have arrived, whilst its western coast is bounded by marshes
+and insalubrious swamps. But the principal cause of this torpor,
+which endured for centuries, is traceable to the actions of man. The
+conquerors who succeeded the Romans and Byzantines in the possession
+of the island, whether Saracens, Pisans, Genoese, or Aragonese,
+monopolized its produce solely with a view to their own profit, and
+further mischief was wrought by the pirates of Barbary, who frequently
+descended upon its coasts. As recently as 1815 the Tunisians landed
+upon Sant’ Antioco, massacring the inhabitants, or carrying them into
+slavery. The coast districts became depopulated, and the inhabitants
+retired to the interior, where, oppressed by their feudal lords,
+they led a life of isolation from the rest of Europe. It is hardly a
+generation since Sardinia began to participate in the general progress
+made throughout Italy.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 125.—THE SEA TO THE SOUTH OF SARDINIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 2,000,000.]
+
+Sardinia is nearly as large as Sicily, but has only a fourth of its
+population.[117] Geographically it is more independent of Italy than
+the southern island, and a profound sea, more than 1,000 fathoms in
+depth, divides it from the African continent. Sardinia with Corsica
+forms a group of twin islands, which is separated from the Tuscan
+archipelago by a narrow strait only 170 fathoms in depth. {339} The
+geological structure of the two islands is identical, and there can
+be no doubt that the islands and rocks in the Strait of Bonifacio are
+the remains of an isthmus destroyed by the sea. On the other hand, we
+learn from a study of the geology of Sardinia that at a period not very
+remote that island must have consisted of several separate islands.
+The principal island formed a southerly continuation {340} of the
+mountains of Corsica, whilst the smaller ones lay to the west. Alluvial
+deposits, volcanic eruptions, and perhaps, also, an upheaval of the
+soil, have converted the shallow straits which separated them into dry
+land.
+
+The mountains of Sardinia may be said to begin with the islands of
+Maddalena and Caprera, in the Strait of Bonifacio, and in the mountain
+mass of the Gallura they attain already a considerable height. A
+depression separates these from the southern portion of the great
+back-bone of the island, which stretches along the whole of the eastern
+coast, and terminates abruptly at Cape Carbonaro. These mountains,
+like those of Corsica, consist of crystalline rocks and schists; but
+whilst the slope on the latter island is steepest towards the west, the
+reverse is the case on Sardinia, and that island may almost be said to
+turn its back upon Italy. The general slope of the island is towards
+the west, and its occupation by Spain could therefore be justified by
+purely geographical arguments.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 126.—THE STRAIT OF BONIFACIO.
+
+Scale 1 : 300,000.]
+
+The highest summits of the island are found in the central portion of
+this crystalline chain, where the Gennargentu, or “silver mountain,”
+rises to a height of 6,116 feet. A little snow remains in the crevices
+of this mountain throughout the summer. The inhabitants of Northern
+Sardinia formerly imagined that their own Gigantinu, or “giant,” in the
+mountains of Limbarra, constituted the culminating point of the island,
+but careful measurements have shown that that superb peak only attains
+an elevation of 4,297 feet.
+
+The secondary mountain groups in the western portion of the island are
+separated from the main chain by recent geological formations. The
+granitic {341} region of La Nurra, to the west of Sassari, almost
+uninhabited in spite of its fertile valleys, and the island of Asinara
+adjoining it, which abounds in turtles, are amongst these insulated
+mountain regions. Another, intersected by the beautiful valley of Domus
+Novas, occupies the south-western extremity of the island. Geologists
+look upon it as the most ancient portion of the island, and the plain
+of Campidano, which now occupies the site of an ancient arm of the
+sea, is of quaternary formation. The transversal range of Marghine
+occupies the centre of the island, and there, too, we meet with vast
+limestone plateaux pierced by volcanic rocks. The ancient craters,
+however, no longer emit lava, nor even gases, and the villagers have
+tranquilly built their huts within them. Thermal springs alone indicate
+the existence of subterranean forces. Volcanic cones of recent age are
+met with in the north-western portion of the island, as well as in
+the valley of the Orosei, on the east coast. The trachytic rocks of
+the islands of San Pietro and Sant’ Antioco are of greater age. They
+sometimes present the appearance of architectural piles, especially
+at the Cape of Columns, which is, however, rapidly disappearing, as
+the stone is being quarried to be converted into pavement. On Sant’
+Antioco, which a bridge joins to the mainland, there are deep caverns,
+the haunts of thousands of pigeons, which are caught by spreading a net
+before their entrance.
+
+In addition to the changes wrought by volcanic agencies, Sardinia
+exhibits traces of a slow upheaval or subsidence due to the expansion
+or contraction of the upper strata of the earth. Raised beaches have
+been discovered by La Marmora near Cagliari, at an elevation of 243 and
+322 feet above the sea-level, where shells of living species are found
+together with potsherds and other articles, proving that when this
+upheaval took place the island was already inhabited. Elsewhere there
+exist traces of a subsidence, and the old Phœnician cities of Nora, to
+the south-west of Cagliari, and Tharros, on the northern peninsula of
+the Gulf of Oristano, have become partly submerged.
+
+Amongst the rivers of the island there is only one which deserves that
+name. This is the Tirso, or Fiume d’Oristano, which is fed by the
+snows of the Gennargentu and the rains which descend on the western
+mountain slopes. Other rivers of equal length are hardly more than
+torrents, which at one time invade the fields adjoining them, and at
+another shrink to a thin thread of water meandering between thickets of
+laurel-trees. Most of the river beds are dry during eight months of the
+year, and even after rain the water does not find its way into the sea,
+but is absorbed by the littoral swamps.
+
+All these swamps have brackish water. The largest amongst them
+communicate freely with the sea, at least during the rainy season, but
+others are separated from it by a strip of sand. But these, too, are
+brackish, for the sea-water percolates through the soil, and keeps them
+at the same level. The water of the inland swamps is likewise saturated
+with saline substances derived from the surrounding soil. They
+generally dry up in summer, but the coating of salt which then appears
+is hardly dry enough to repay the labour of collection and refinement.
+The only salt marshes actually exploited are those of Cagliari and of
+Carlo-Forte, on San {342} Pietro. They have been leased to a French
+company, and yield annually nearly 120,000 tons of salt.
+
+Swamps and marshes envelop nearly the whole of the island in a
+zone of miasmata, which are carried by the wind into the interior,
+producing fever even in the more elevated mountain districts. There are
+localities on the island the air of which no stranger can breathe with
+impunity. The coast districts of Sardinia, with their stagnant waters,
+are, in truth, the most unhealthy in Italy, and quite one-fourth of
+the area of the island is exposed to the scourge of malaria, which
+sufficiently accounts for the small population of the island and the
+little progress made.
+
+Even when Sardinia was at the height of its prosperity, and supplied
+Rome with an abundance of corn, cheese, pork, lead, copper, iron, and
+textile fabrics, it was noted for its unhealthiness, and the emperors
+exiled to it those whom they desired to get rid of. Then, as now, the
+landed proprietors, about the middle of June, retired to the towns, the
+walls of which offered some protection against the poisonous air. The
+Italian Government officials are sent to the island as a punishment,
+and for the most part look upon themselves as condemned to death. Even
+the native villagers are bound to observe the greatest precautions, and
+wear garments of skin or leather which are impenetrable to rain, mist,
+and dew. They are dressed most warmly during the hottest part of the
+year as a protection against the climate, and in their long _mastrucas_
+of sheepskin they almost look like Wallachian herdsmen.
+
+Ancient geographers, as well as the Sardinians themselves, ascribe the
+unhealthiness of the climate to the rarity of north-easterly winds.
+The mountains of Limbarra, in the north of the island, are popularly
+supposed to act as a sort of screen, which diverts this health-bringing
+wind, to the great detriment of Lower Sardinia; and there appears
+to be much truth in this popular notion. South-westerly winds, or
+_libeccios_, are almost equally rare, and when they blow they do so
+with tempestuous violence.
+
+The regular winds of Sardinia blow from the north-west or south-east.
+The former is known as the _maestrale_, the latter as the _levante_ or
+_sirocco_, called _maledetto levante_ by the inhabitants of Southern
+Sardinia. It becomes charged with moisture during its passage across
+the Mediterranean, and its temperature is in reality much less than
+might be supposed from the lassitude produced by it. The maestrale, on
+the other hand, is hailed with joy, for it is an invigorating wind. On
+reaching the coast it generally parts with its moisture, and when it
+arrives at Cagliari it is perfectly dry. The capital of Sardinia is
+indebted to this wind and to sea breezes for its low temperature (62·4°
+F.), which is far lower than that of Genoa.
+
+Hurricanes are comparatively rare, and hailstorms, which work such
+damage elsewhere, are hardly known. Most of the rain falls in autumn;
+it ceases in December, when the pleasantest season sets in. These are
+the “halcyon days” of ancient poets, when the sea calms down in order
+that the sacred bird may build his nest. But these pleasant days are
+succeeded by a wretched spring. February, the “double-faced month” of
+Sardinian mariners, brings capricious frosts, to which {343} succeed,
+in March and April, abrupt changes of temperature, winds, and rain.
+Vegetation in consequence is far more backward than might be supposed
+from the latitude.
+
+The vegetation of Sardinia resembles that of the other islands of the
+Mediterranean. The forest in the highland valleys of the interior
+and on the trackless mountain slopes consists of pines, oaks, and
+holm-oaks, mixed here and there with yoke-elms and maples. The
+villages are surrounded by chestnut-trees and groves of magnificent
+walnut-trees. The hill-tops, robbed of their forests, are covered
+with odoriferous plants and thickets of myrtles, strawberry-trees,
+and heather. It is there the bees collect the bitter honey so much
+despised by Horace. Vast tracts of uncultivated land near the seashore
+are covered with wild olive-trees, which only need grafting to
+yield excellent fruit. All the fruit trees and useful plants of the
+Mediterranean flourish in Sardinia. Almond and orange trees, introduced
+by the Moors at the close of the eleventh century, flourish vigorously.
+The orange groves of Millis, which are protected by the extinct volcano
+of Monte Ferru, are, perhaps, the most productive on the shores of
+the Mediterranean, and in good seasons yield 60,000,000 oranges.
+The gardens of Domus Novas, Ozieri, and Sassari are of surprising
+fertility. In the southern part of the island, wherever the cultivated
+fields gain upon the lands covered with rock-roses, fennel, and lilies,
+they are fenced in with fig-trees. The fan-shaped foliage of the
+date-palm is seen near every town, and more especially in the environs
+of Cagliari. By a curious contrast the dwarf palm is not met with in
+the southern lowlands of the island, though their climate is almost
+African, but forms dense thickets in the solitudes of Alghero, in the
+north of the islands. The inhabitants eat the roots of this tree, as do
+also the Moors.
+
+Although all the plants of neighbouring countries become easily
+acclimatized in Sardinia, that island is naturally poorer in species
+than are continental regions lying under the same latitude. There
+is nothing special about its flora, for the island is probably only
+a remnant of a larger tract of land which formerly joined Europe to
+Africa. As to the famous plant mentioned by ancient writers, which,
+eaten by mistake, produced fits of “sardonic laughter,” or even death,
+it does not appear to be peculiar to the island. Mimaut thinks,
+from the descriptions of Pliny and Pausanias, that the large-leafed
+water-parsley (_Sium latifolium_) is referred to.
+
+The number of species of animals, like that of plants, is smaller in
+Sardinia than on the neighbouring continent. There are neither bears,
+badgers, polecats, nor moles. Vipers or venomous serpents of any
+description do not exist, and the only animal to be dreaded is the
+tarentula (_arza_, or _argia_), a sting from which can be cured only
+by dancing until completely exhausted, or by immersion in dung. The
+ordinary frog, though common in Corsica, does not exist, but European
+butterflies are numerous. The _moufflon_, which is, perhaps, the
+ancestor of our domestic sheep, and has been exterminated in nearly
+all the islands of the Mediterranean, still lives in the mountains of
+Corsica and Sardinia. Wild horses roamed over Sant’ Antioco as recently
+as the beginning of this century; myriads {344} of rabbits burrow in
+the small islands lining the coast; and wild goats with long horns and
+yellow teeth inhabit the limestone island of Tavolara, in the Gulf of
+Terranova. These goats are descended from domestic animals abandoned
+at some former period. Caprera, the residence of Garibaldi, is named
+after the goats which formerly inhabited it, and animals of that kind
+recently introduced there quickly returned to a state of nature.
+
+Naturalists have observed that the mammals of Sardinia are smaller
+than the same species living on the continent. The goat is the only
+exception to the rule. The stag, deer, wild boar, fox, wild cat, hare,
+rabbit, marten, and weasel are all of them smaller than the continental
+varieties. The same rule applies to domesticated animals, with the
+exception of the pig, which grows to a great size, especially where
+it is allowed to roam through oak forests. There is a variety of this
+animal whose hoofs are not cloven, and which ought, therefore, to be
+classed amongst solipeds. The horses and asses of Sardinia are dwarfs.
+But the horse is distinguished by great sobriety, sureness of foot,
+vigour, and endurance. If in addition to these advantages it possessed
+a more attractive exterior, it would rank among the most highly
+appreciated horses of Europe. As to the donkeys, though hardly larger
+than a mastiff, they are brave little animals, and frequently share
+with their masters the only room of their abode. The old-fashioned
+mills, resembling in every respect the Roman bas-reliefs which may
+be seen in the Vatican, are propelled by these donkeys, which thus
+materially contribute towards the support of their proprietors.
+
+Sardinia abounds more than any other country of Western Europe in
+prehistoric remains. There are megaliths, known as “giants’ stones,”
+“altars,” or “long-stones,” as in Brittany, scarcely any of them
+showing traces of the chisel. Dolmens, however, are rare, and the
+genuineness of all is doubted. Amongst these monuments there are,
+perhaps, some which were connected with the worship of some Eastern
+deity, for Phœnicians and Carthaginians stayed for a considerable
+time upon the island, where they founded Caralis, Nora, Tharros, and
+other towns; and even during the time of the Romans it was customary
+to place Punic inscriptions upon the tombstones. The ruins of Tharros
+have yielded golden idols and other articles in large numbers, most
+of them being of Egyptian origin. But the principal witnesses to the
+civilisation of the ancient Sards are the curious structures known
+as _nuraghi_. They generally occupy the hill-tops, and, seen from a
+distance, resemble pyramids. The limestone plateau of Giara, near the
+centre of the island, is surrounded by masonry structures of this
+description, which abound also in other portions of the island, the
+number still existing being nearly 4,000. They are most numerous in the
+basaltic region to the south of Macomer, and are met with for the most
+part in fertile districts, far away from the arid steppes.
+
+The origin and uses of these nuraghi have been a subject of much
+discussion, but archæologists now almost universally adopt the views
+of Signor Spano, the indefatigable explorer of Sardinian antiquities.
+According to him these nuraghi were dwellings, and their Phœnician name
+simply means “round house.” The rudest {345} among them, dating back
+probably for forty centuries, contain but a single chamber. They were
+erected during the age of stone, when man first gave up his cavern
+dwellings. The more recent constructions date back to the age of
+bronze, and even of iron. More skill is exhibited in their structure,
+though no mortar has been used, and they contain two or more chambers,
+forming as many floors, and accessible by means of stone stairs.
+The ground floor of some is large enough for the accommodation of
+forty or fifty persons, and is furnished with antechambers and small
+semicircular recesses. The nuraghi of Su Domu or S’Orcu, near Domus
+Novas, which has recently been demolished, contained ten chambers and
+four courtyards; it was a fortress as well as a dwelling-place, capable
+of accommodating a hundred persons and standing a siege. The dwellings
+of the modern Albanians and of the Swaneti in the Caucasus still
+resemble these ancient abodes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 127—LA GIARA.
+
+Scale 1 : 308,640.]
+
+The rubbish which accumulated in these nuraghi has yielded a multitude
+of objects which throw light upon the daily life of the inhabitants,
+and bear witness to their relative civilisation. The lower strata only
+contain hand-made utensils, stone arms, and pottery, but in the upper
+and more recent layers many articles of bronze have been found. Other
+monuments of cyclopean structure stand near these ancient dwellings.
+They are popularly known as “giants’ tombs,” and Signor {346} Sapi,
+who has examined a large number of them, has discovered in every
+instance the ashes of human beings.
+
+Though very superstitious, the Sardinians have no legends respecting
+these dwellings of the aborigines, and at most attribute them to the
+devil. This absence of traditions is no doubt traceable to the almost
+total annihilation of the inhabitants by successive conquerors. The
+Carthaginians showed no mercy to the aborigines, and during the first
+centuries of Roman rule massacres and forcible emigration were the
+order of the day, and the gaps thus created were filled up by Italian
+colonists and exiles.
+
+The ancient Sards were most likely Iberians. They are of low stature,
+and the climate, which has stunted the growth of wild and domesticated
+animals, appears to have influenced man likewise; but they are well
+proportioned and muscular, have an abundance of black hair and strong
+beards, and scarcely ever grow bald. There are minor differences in
+the Sards of the two provinces. Those of the north have generally oval
+features and an aquiline nose, whilst those near Cagliari, who are
+probably more mixed, have irregular features and prominent cheek-bones.
+
+The inhabitants of the interior of the island are, perhaps, of purer
+race than any other Europeans. Their ancestors, no doubt, were of
+the most diverse origin, but most invasions which took place after
+the Roman era stopped short at the coast. The Vandals paid a visit
+to Sardinia, but all the other Germanic tribes, who ravaged nearly
+every other country of Western Europe, spared that island, and its
+inhabitants were thus able to preserve their manners and language. The
+Moors, Pisans, Genoese, Catalonians, and Spaniards, who successively
+invaded the island, never penetrated beyond the coast. There is only
+one exception to this rule, viz. that of the Barbaricini, who inhabit
+the mountain district of Barbagia, in the very centre of the island,
+and who are supposed to be the descendants of Berbers expelled from
+Africa by the Vandals. When they came to the island they were still
+pagans, and they intermarried with their neighbours, the Ilienses,
+an aboriginal tribe, pagans like themselves. They were converted to
+Christianity in the seventh century, and the sombre dress worn by their
+women reminds us of Barbary.
+
+Of all the idioms derived from the Latin, that spoken in Sardinia has
+most resemblance to the language of the ancient Romans. More than five
+hundred words are absolutely identical. There are likewise a few Greek
+words not met with in any other Latin idiom, as well as two or three
+words which have no affinity with any other European tongue, and which
+are, perhaps, derived from the language spoken by the aborigines. The
+two leading dialects, those of Logoduro, in the north, and of Cagliari,
+are directly derived from the Latin, and are, perhaps, most nearly
+related to Spanish. At Sassari, and in some of the neighbouring coast
+districts, an Italian dialect is spoken which is very much like that
+of Corsica or Genoa. At Alghero the descendants of the Catalonian
+immigrants who settled there about the middle of the fourteenth century
+still speak their old Provençal. The _Maurelli_, or _Maureddus_, in
+the environs of Iglesias, who are probably Berbers, {347} and can be
+recognised by their narrow skulls, make use of a few African words.
+Maltzan looks upon the inhabitants of the fertile district of Millis as
+the purest representatives of African immigrants, and it was they who
+introduced the cultivation of the orange into Sardinia.
+
+The Sardinians of the interior not only retain their ancient language,
+but likewise many of their ancient customs. Their dances are still the
+same as in the time of Greece. In the north the steps are regulated by
+the human voice, the chanters occupying the centre of the ring. In the
+south a musical instrument, the _launedda_, is used, which is nothing
+but an ancient flute, made of two or three reeds. The customs observed
+at christenings, weddings, and funerals are likewise of remote date.
+Marriage, as amongst nearly all the ancient inhabitants of Europe, is
+preceded by a feigned abduction of the bride. The latter, after she has
+entered the house of her husband, must not stir from her place during
+that day, nor speak a single word. Mute as a statue, she is no longer a
+sentient being, but a “thing,” the property of her husband. She is not
+permitted to see her relatives during three days, and in the south many
+women partly conceal their features.
+
+The mountaineers likewise observe the lugubrious ceremony of a wake,
+called _titio_ or _attito_. Women, who are either the friends of
+the deceased or are engaged for the purpose, penetrate the mortuary
+chamber, tear their hair, howl, and improvise hymns of mourning. These
+old pagan ceremonies become truly terrific when the deceased has been
+the victim of assassination, for in that case the mourners swear to
+take the life of the murderer. Up to the beginning of this century
+the practice of the vendetta annually cost the lives of hundreds of
+young men. At the present day it is confined to the most secluded
+parts of the island, and in the mountain districts of Nuoro and La
+Gallura it is customary at christenings to place a few bullets in the
+swaddling-clothes of the infants, these consecrated bullets being
+supposed never to miss their mark. Another custom still more barbarous
+has ceased to be observed since the beginning of the last century.
+Women, called “finishers” (_accabadure_), were employed to hasten the
+end of dying persons, a practice which often led to the most atrocious
+deeds.
+
+The peasant of Sardinia, though not the proprietor of the soil, is
+nevertheless permitted to enjoy the result of his labour. The feudal
+system existed up to 1840, and many traces of it still survive. The
+great barons, most of them of Spanish extraction, were almost the
+absolute masters of the country, and up to 1836 they administered the
+law, had their prisons, and erected gallows as a symbol of their power.
+The peasants, however, were not tied to the land, but could migrate at
+pleasure, and custom granted them a fair share of the produce of the
+soil. By virtue of an _ademprivio_ they were permitted to cut wood in
+the forests, to pasture their sheep on the hills, and to bring into
+cultivation the waste lands of the plains. Agriculture was carried
+on in the most primitive fashion, for the great lords of the land
+usually resided abroad, and the management of their estates was left
+to bailiffs. Government has now become the proprietor of most of the
+unenclosed {348} land, 80,000 acres of which have been ceded to the
+Anglo-Italian Company, which has undertaken to provide the island with
+a network of railways.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 128.—DISTRICT OF IGLESIAS.
+
+Scale 1 : 420,800.]
+
+In the more densely populated districts the division of the land is
+exceedingly minute, and this subdivision is still progressing at a
+most disastrous rate. The nomad herdsmen, on the other hand, possess
+no land of their own, though, if inclined, they are at liberty to
+enclose a plot. But vague proprietary rights like these render the
+careful cultivation of the soil impossible. It has been seriously
+proposed to expropriate the whole of the land, and to sell it to a few
+enterprising capitalists, but this would simply amount to a restoration
+of the old feudal times, and poverty, which is great even now, would
+become greater. There are villages in the district of Ogliastra where
+the peasants eat bread made of the acorns of _Quercus ilex_, the dough
+being kneaded with water containing a fatty clay. This is, perhaps, the
+only instance of earth-eating in Europe. The Spaniards, too, eat acorn
+bread, but they use the fruit of _Quercus ballota_, which is really
+edible, and are careful not to mix its flour with earth.
+
+The Sardinians, even when they are the owners of pasture-grounds or
+of fields, never live in the country. Like the Sicilians, they are
+concentrated in towns or large villages, and neither hamlets nor
+isolated farmhouses are met with. Even {349} the shepherds in the
+mountains build their huts in groups called _stazzi_, and combine for
+mutual protection into _cussorgie_. Members of these associations, when
+they lose their cattle from disease or any other cause, may claim one
+or more beasts from every one of their comrades living within the same
+district or canton. In other parts of the island—as, for instance,
+near Iglesias—the produce of the orchards is looked upon as common
+property. The mountaineers, though poor, practise the ancient virtue
+of hospitality, and though the dwellings are rude, they find means of
+making a stranger staying amongst them comfortable.
+
+The products of Sardinia form but a small proportion of those of all
+Italy. Most of the peasants only work by fits and starts, and hardly
+more than a fourth of the area of the island has been brought under
+cultivation. It sometimes happens that the crops are destroyed by
+the scorching heat of the sun, or eaten up by locusts, which come in
+swarms from Africa. Except near Sassari no attempt is made to improve
+the produce. The olive-tree alone is cultivated with some care, for
+the grower of a certain number of these trees may claim political
+privileges, and even the title of “Count,” and thousands of proprietors
+have converted their sterile steppes into productive olive groves. The
+millions of oranges grown in the gardens of Millis and elsewhere are
+taken entirely for home consumption. Commercially these oranges are of
+less importance than the saline plants collected in the marshes of the
+coast districts, and the ashes of which are exported to Marseilles to
+be converted into soda.
+
+The working of granite and marble quarries yields some profit, but the
+mines, which were of such importance in the time of the Romans, are
+hardly touched now. There is only one iron mine, that of San Leone,
+where work has been carried on seriously by a French company since
+1822. It yields about 50,000 tons of ore annually, and the oldest
+railway of the island connects that mine with Cagliari. The district
+of Iglesias, where the Romans founded Plumbea and Metalla, and the
+Pisans searched for silver, has recently regained some of its ancient
+importance on account of its lead and zinc mines. The waste of the old
+mines is likewise being scientifically treated by French, English,
+and Italian companies, to whom mining claims have been ceded, and a
+curious stalactite cavern which traverses the hill near Domus Novas
+has been utilised in gaining access to the scoriæ. Iglesias is rapidly
+growing into a city of modern aspect, the village of Gonessa is already
+a respectable town, and the little harbour of Porto Scuso, until
+recently almost deserted, is now crowded with small craft employed in
+carrying annually 900,000 tons of lead and zinc ore to the roadstead of
+Carlo-Forte. Unfortunately the miners, especially those from abroad,
+frequently succumb to the climate.
+
+The fisheries, being for the most part carried on in the bays exposed
+to the sea breezes, are not attended by the same dangers. Certain
+portions of the coast abound in fish, such as the Bay of Cagliari, and
+the narrow arms of the sea in the archipelago of the Maddalena, which
+the ancients searched for purple shells. Anchovies and “sardines”
+periodically visit the coasts, and as many as 50,000 tunny-fish are
+sometimes caught in a single season. The swamps or lagoons likewise
+yield fish, which are caught in nets spread at the openings of the
+channels {350} communicating with the sea. The swamp of Cagliari
+abounds in shad, that of Oristano in mullets and eels, and that
+of Alghero in pike and gold fish. The fisheries of Sardinia are
+consequently of much importance, but most of their profits are reaped
+by strangers. Corsicans fish near La Maddalena, Genoese around San
+Pietro, and Italians monopolize the coral fisheries. These latter, too,
+collect the _Pinna nobilis_, a shell, the silky byssus of which is
+converted into stuff for garments. Nor do the Sardinians take to the
+sea as sailors, and the commerce of the island is carried on almost
+exclusively in Genoese and other Italian vessels. Out of 2,400 proverbs
+collected by Spano, only three refer to the sea ! [118]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 129—CAGLIARI, AS SEEN FROM THE PASS OF BONERIA.]
+
+The inhabitants of the northern “Cape” of Sassari, or _di Sopra_,
+claim to be more intelligent and civilised than those of the southern
+“Cape” of Cagliari, or _di Sotto_. The former do not call themselves
+Sardinians at all, but apply that name, which to them is synonymous
+with barbarians, to the inhabitants of the {351} interior and of the
+south. In former times these two sections of the population hated
+each other, and the spirit of the vendetta, which set family against
+family, village against village, made its influence felt all over the
+island. This old animosity has not yet completely died out; but the
+people of Sassari can no longer claim to be the superiors of their
+southern neighbours. They certainly are better agriculturists and more
+industrious, but the southerners possess the richest mines, their
+portion of the island is most productive, and it is the seat of the
+capital.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 130.—THE PORT OF TERRANOVA.
+
+Scale 1 : 250,000.]
+
+Cagliari, the ancient _Caralis_, has remained the great emporium of
+the island since the days of Carthage. Only a few idols, sepulchral
+chambers, the ruins of an aqueduct, and an amphitheatre excavated
+in the rock, recall the dominion of Carthaginians and Romans, but
+it could not be deprived of its excellent harbour and magnificent
+roadstead. The town was only a short time under the rule of the Moors,
+but its physiognomy is almost more oriental than that of any city in
+Europe, many of its houses being provided with cupolas and balconies
+overhanging the streets. Its position as a place of commerce is most
+favourable, for it lies on the ocean highway connecting Sicily with
+the Balearic Islands, and the coast of Africa is within a day’s sail.
+It is sure to prosper, especially if a serious effort is made to
+drain the marshes and to transform the plain of the Campidano into a
+fertile garden. The latter, an ancient arm of the sea, extends to the
+south-east towards Oristano, the “town of potters.” During the Middle
+Ages {352} the latter was the seat of the most powerful lords of the
+island, and it was thence Eleonora promulgated her famous _Carta de
+logu_, which became the public law of the whole island. Oristano has
+an excellent harbour, sheltered by the peninsula of Tharros, upon
+which the Phœnicians had founded one of their settlements; its fields
+are fertile, and, to bring about a return of its ancient prosperity,
+it is only necessary to drain the marshes which now hem it in. In
+former times fires were lighted upon the walls of the town during the
+season of malaria, to purify the atmosphere; but the vast forests from
+which the fuel for these fires was procured have disappeared, and this
+portion of Sardinia is no longer entitled to its ancient epithet of
+“Arborea.” It is said that in the marshes of Nurachi, to the north-east
+of Oristano, may be heard now and then a noise resembling the bellowing
+of a bull. This noise is probably produced by the passage of air
+through some subterranean cavern, and similar phenomena have been
+observed on the coast of Dalmatia.
+
+Sassari the delightful, the rival of Cagliari, is embosomed amidst
+olive-trees, gardens, and country houses. It alone, of all the towns of
+the island, could boast of a republican government during the Middle
+Ages, and the public spirit of its present inhabitants is, perhaps,
+traceable to this circumstance. Its geographical position, however,
+is far less favourable than that of Cagliari, for a zone of swamps
+separates it from the sea. It might export its produce through the
+port of Alghero or the excellent harbour of Porto Conto, to the south
+of the mountains of La Nurra; but facility of access has dictated
+its choice of Porto Torres, a miserable village on the swampy shore
+of the Gulf of Asinara. Porto Torres occupies the site of a Roman
+city, and the arches of a huge aqueduct and the columns of a Temple
+of Fortune still rise above the reeds. This old port certainly offers
+great facility for the export of the olive oil of Sassari and the
+wines of Tempio, as respects France and Genoa; but the intricate
+navigation of the Strait of Bonifacio separates it from the nearest
+Italian coast. Italy has therefore determined to create an additional
+port on the east coast of the island, and the Bay of Terranova has
+been selected for that purpose. _Olbia_, which at the time of the
+Romans had no less than 150,000 inhabitants, occupied the site of the
+present town, which the Italians fondly imagine may become the great
+emporium of the island. Its port is certainly well sheltered, and the
+roadsteads of the archipelago of La Maddalena near it afford additional
+accommodation; but seriously to improve the condition of Sardinia it
+will be necessary, above all things, to drain its dreary swamps, and to
+“transform their poisonous exhalations into bread.”[119]
+
+
+IX.—THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ITALY.
+
+No impartial spectator can deny that Italy, since it has again taken
+its place among the nations of Europe, promises great things for the
+future. Even its {353} political regeneration has brought to the
+surface men of the highest intellect, courage, zeal, and public spirit.
+There are some amongst them whom posterity will look upon as a credit
+to all mankind. Possibly this period of excitement and nervous activity
+may be succeeded by a sort of moral collapse, such as generally takes
+place after every great crisis in the life of a nation. But this need
+not render us anxious for the future, for generations exhausted by the
+efforts they have made will be succeeded by others eager to continue
+the work their predecessors have begun.
+
+In sciences and arts the native country of Volta, Cialdi, Secchi,
+Rossini, Verdi, and Vela occupies even now a position of equality
+with the most advanced nations of Europe. The Italian of the present
+day is able to refer without shame to the two great centuries of the
+Renaissance, for he has entered upon a second period of regeneration,
+and the names of contemporaries can be mentioned by the side of the
+great names of the past. Italy has its skilful painters and sculptors,
+its celebrated architects and unrivalled musicians. The great works
+achieved by its engineers are deserving the study of foreigners.
+Amongst its physicists, geologists, astronomers, and mathematicians
+there are some of the brightest ornaments of the age, and the assiduity
+with which universities are frequented insures their having worthy
+successors. A geographical society only recently established has
+successfully taken up the work of exploration so gloriously carried
+on by the Genoese and Venetians. It is not just, therefore, to say
+ironically that “Italy has been made, but not Italians.” Individually
+the Italians are inferior to no other race of Europe, and the
+reorganization of the country would have been impossible had there been
+any deficiency in men of mark.
+
+Italy is more densely inhabited than any other of the great states
+of Europe, in spite of vast extents of almost uninhabitable mountain
+tracts and swamps. The population, however, increases less rapidly
+than in Russia, England, or Germany. It doubles in about a century,
+whilst that of Russia doubles in fifty and that of France in two
+hundred years. Italy thus occupies an intermediate position. In Apulia
+and Calabria, which are amongst the poorest provinces, the birth rate
+is highest, whilst in the wealthy Marches and Umbria it is lowest.
+On an average the Italian dies when he is thirty-two, and his life
+is consequently much shorter than that of the average Frenchman or
+Englishman.
+
+Agriculture and the development of the natural resources of the soil
+and the sea engage much more attention than industry properly so
+called. Nearly fifty per cent. of the total area is under cultivation.
+The cereals raised do not suffice for the wants of the inhabitants,
+but other products are exported in considerable quantities. In its
+production of oil Italy holds a foremost rank as regards quantity, but
+not always with respect to quality. The amount of fruit grown, such
+as figs, grapes, almonds, and oranges, is greater than in any other
+country of Europe. The chestnut forests in the Apennines and Alps yield
+rich harvests. Its mulberry plantations are four times more extensive
+than those of France, and the raw silk produced in favourable years
+exceeds in quantity that exported from China. The peninsula is still
+entitled to its ancient epithet of {354} Œnotria (wine land), but,
+apart from certain districts of continental Italy and Sicily, the
+quality of wine produced, owing to carelessness on the part of the
+growers, is inferior to what it is in France. The cultivation of cotton
+is comparatively of small importance. The breeding of animals yields
+large profits, and Italy is noted throughout Europe for the quality of
+some kinds of cheese.[120]
+
+The working of the iron mines of Elba, the quarrying of marble and
+granite in the Alps and Apuanic Alps, the extraction of borax and
+boracic acid in the Tuscan Sub-Apennines, the mining for lead and zinc
+in Sardinia, and for sulphur in Sicily,[121] lead up to industrial
+pursuits properly so called. These latter extend nearly to everything,
+from the manufacture of pins to the construction of steam-engines and
+ships. Italy, however, is eminent only in the production of certain
+_articles de luxe_, such as straw bonnets, cameos, coral jewellery,
+glass, and in the preparation of macaroni and other farinaceous pastes.
+The manufacture of silk, however, has taken a rapid development in
+recent years, and Milan has become a dangerous rival of Lyons. In the
+province of Novara, and more especially at Biella, there are hundreds
+of woollen factories. The cotton manufacture is not of much importance,
+and linen-weaving is for the most part carried on as a domestic
+industry. Italy, in fact, cannot yet be called a manufacturing country.
+The number of workmen is large, but they mostly labour at home or in
+small workshops,[122] and a division of labour, such as exists in
+England, France, or Germany, is hardly known. Manufactories, however,
+are rapidly increasing, and economical conditions are gradually
+becoming what they are already in most other countries of Europe.
+
+Italy possesses a powerful mercantile marine, manned by 150,000 seamen;
+but its foreign commerce is far less than might have been expected
+from its tonnage.[123] Most of the vessels are engaged in the coasting
+trade. The first Italian vessel was seen in the Pacific in 1847, and
+even now the Italian flag is very inadequately represented in the
+navigation of the great oceans. Italian patriots are anxious to see
+the commerce of the country extended to the most distant regions. For
+the present Italy enjoys a sort of monopoly in the Mediterranean, and
+any increase of {355} population or wealth in Northern Africa must
+prove of immediate advantage to it. But there can be no doubt that the
+proposed railway from Antwerp or Calais to Saloniki or Constantinople
+will seriously affect the transit trade of Italian ports. Nor are
+Italian shipowners able to compete with their rivals of Marseilles
+or Trieste when it is a question of speed, for the number of their
+steamers is very small.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 131.—NAVIGATION OF ITALY.]
+
+The facilities for carrying on coasting trade have, in some measure,
+interfered with the development of the inland trade of the country.
+The construction of railways, however, is gradually bringing about a
+change. Already five lines of {356} rails cross the Apennines, others
+are projected, and one of the Italian railways, namely, that which
+pierces the Alps in the tunnel of Mont Cenis, and finally follows the
+eastern coast to Rimini, has become a portion of the great European
+highway to India. Nor must the political importance of these railways
+be underrated, for they knit together the most distant provinces of
+Italy, and make the country really one.[124]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 132.—ROUTES OF COMMERCE OF ITALY.
+
+Scale 1 : 6,000,000.]
+
+{357}
+
+The commerce of Italy has increased rapidly of late, but it is still
+inferior not only to that of England, France, Germany, Austria,
+and Russia, but likewise to that of much smaller countries, like
+Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1875 the imports, including transit,
+were estimated at £48,614,280, the exports at £42,301,800. France
+participates in this commerce to the extent of 31 per cent., England
+is represented by 23, Austria by 20, and all the other countries of
+the world share in the remainder. Recently the commerce with North and
+South America has assumed considerable proportions, and efforts are
+being made to obtain a footing in Eastern Asia.
+
+The great scourge of Italy consists in the poverty of its peasantry
+even in the most fertile provinces, as in Lombardy and the Basilicata.
+These peasants live in foul hovels, and the united earnings of a
+whole family are hardly sufficient to procure bread. Chestnuts, and a
+polenta of maize and paste made of damaged flour, are the principal
+articles of food, and nothing is left for luxuries, or even comfortable
+clothing. Rickets and other diseases brought about by an insufficiency
+of food are common, and, in fact, mortality is very great. Emigration
+is under these circumstances of immense advantage to the country, for
+the thousands of Italians who seek work or found new homes in South
+America, the United States, France, Turkey, Egypt, and elsewhere,
+not only earn their bread, but also render some assistance to those
+of their relatives who remain behind. It is said that out of 500,000
+Italians living abroad, no less than 100,000 are engaged in art, either
+as painters, sculptors, or musicians, the latter being frequently mere
+street-singers or organ-grinders.
+
+Ignorance, the usual companion of poverty, is still very great
+throughout the peninsula. We might err in condemning the Italians
+because of their ignorance of the arts of reading and writing, for, as
+the heirs of an ancient civilisation, they are more polished in their
+manners than the educated peasants of the North. Still this ignorance
+is most deplorable, for it precludes all progress. Nearly two-thirds of
+the population over ten years of age are unable to read, and fifty-nine
+men and seventy-eight women out of every hundred are unable to sign
+the marriage registers. There are several thousand parishes without
+elementary schools, and the number of pupils, instead of amounting
+to the normal proportion of one to every six or seven inhabitants,
+is only one to about eleven.[125] Education, however, is making fair
+progress, but its influence upon the diminution of crimes of violence
+has hitherto been small. In 1874 Signor Cantelli, the Home Secretary,
+stated that there occurred annually 3,000 homicides, 4,000 cases of
+highway robbery, and 30,000 violent assaults.
+
+The permanent confusion of the finances of Italy, attended as it is by
+heavy and vexatious taxes, must be looked upon as one of the principal
+causes which retard the development of the country. The national
+debt may appear a small matter if we compare it with that of France,
+but it has been raised in the course {358} of a single generation,
+and is augmenting from year to year. The revenue increases but the
+expenditure does so likewise, and the additional income resulting
+from an increase of taxation and the sales of Church property is not
+sufficient to cover the deficiency. The heavy cost of the army, an
+absence of sustained efforts in carrying on public works, waste and
+fraud by public servants, have hitherto prevented the establishment of
+a balance between income and expenditure, and the paper money issued by
+Government is nowhere accepted at its nominal value.
+
+This disorganization of the finances places Italy at the mercy of
+foreigners, and the arrangements which have to be made from time to
+time with foreign capitalists are not always of a purely financial
+nature. The inefficiency of her military and naval organization,
+moreover, compels her to cultivate foreign alliances as expediency may
+direct, and to these alliances Italy is, in a large measure, indebted
+for her political unity.[126]
+
+Nor is this unity even now as perfect as could be desired. The Pope
+has been deprived of his temporal power; he resides at the Vatican
+as a guest; and the money offered him by the Italian Government,
+but which has never been accepted, is not tribute, but a gratuity.
+But, in spite of this, the Pope is still a real power, and his very
+presence interferes substantially with the permanent establishment of
+the state. The Catholics of the world have not yet acquiesced in his
+disestablishment, and they allow no opportunity for attacking the new
+order of things to escape them. Political Europe is consequently much
+interested in the home affairs of Italy, and feels tempted frequently
+to intervene. The most expert diplomacy may not be able to avert this
+danger, and if there is a struggle it will certainly not be confined to
+the peninsula.
+
+In the end Italy will no doubt escape from the anomalous position
+of having for her capital a city which is the seat of a theocratic
+government claiming the allegiance of the Roman Catholics of the
+entire world. The geographical conditions of no other country are
+equally favourable to the development of national sentiments and
+the maintenance of a national individuality. At the same time the
+well-defined boundaries of the country deprive it of all force of
+expansion. Italy will never play a great part beyond the bounds of the
+Mediterranean, and though Italian may obtain a certain preponderance
+in Tunis, Egypt, and the Levant, the noble language of Dante has no
+chance, as regards universality, when opposed to English, French,
+Spanish, German, or Russian.
+
+
+X.—GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
+
+The charter promulgated in March, 1848, declares the old kingdom of
+Sardinia to be an hereditary constitutional monarchy. It has gradually
+been {359} extended to the other portions of the peninsula. Like most
+similar documents, it guarantees equality before the law, personal
+liberty, and inviolability of the domicile. The press is free, “subject
+to a law repressing its abuses;” the right of meeting is recognised,
+“but not in the case of places open to the general public;” and all
+citizens are promised the enjoyment of equal civil and political
+rights, “except in those cases which shall be determined by law.”
+
+The executive is intrusted to the King, but no law or act of government
+is valid unless countersigned by a minister. The King, as such, is
+commander of the naval and military forces, he concludes all treaties,
+and the assent of the Chambers is only required if they concern
+cessions of territory, or entail an expenditure of public money.
+All Government officials are appointed by the King, he may dissolve
+the Chamber of Deputies, justice is administered in his name, and
+he possesses the right of pardon. He enjoys the fruits of the Crown
+lands, and may dispose of his private property without reference to the
+general laws of the country. The civil list of the King and the members
+of his family annually exceeds £800,000 !
+
+Senators are appointed by the King from amongst ecclesiastical,
+military, and civil functionaries, persons of wealth, and men who
+have deserved well of the country. Their number is not limited, and
+they must be forty years of age. Deputies are elected for five years.
+They must be thirty years of age. Neither senators nor deputies are
+in receipt of emoluments, and this may explain the little zeal they
+exhibit in the performance of their public duties. A quorum, consisting
+of one-half the members of each house _plus_ one, is frequently
+unattainable for weeks.
+
+The franchise is enjoyed by professors of universities and colleges,
+civil servants, knights of orders of chivalry, members of the liberal
+professions, merchants, persons who have an income of £24 from money
+invested in Government securities, and all others twenty-five years of
+age, able to read and write, and paying 32s. in taxes. The number of
+electors is about 400,000, but hardly one-half of them ever go to the
+poll.
+
+Each province occupies the position of a “corporation,” which may
+hold property, and enjoys a certain amount of self-government. The
+“Provincial Councils” consist of from twenty to sixty members, who
+are chosen by the municipal electors for five years. These Councils
+usually occupy themselves with the material interests of the province,
+and, when not sitting, are represented by a “Deputation” charged with
+controlling the acts of the prefect.
+
+The municipal organization is very similar to that of the provinces.
+The Councils are elected for five years: all males of twenty-one years
+of age paying from 4s. to 20s. in taxes (according to the importance
+of the municipality), professors, civil servants, members of liberal
+professions, and soldiers who have been decorated are in the enjoyment
+of the franchise. The Council meets twice a year, and its sittings
+are held in public if a majority demands it. It appoints a municipal
+_giunta_ of from two to twelve members, charged with the conduct of
+current affairs. The mayors, like the provincial prefects, are {360}
+appointed by Government, but must be chosen from the members of the
+Municipal Council.
+
+The great territorial divisions of the kingdom (see p. 362) consist
+of 69 provinces and 284 circles (_circondarii_), or districts.
+These latter again are subdivided into 1,779 judicial districts
+(_mandamenti_) and 8,360 communes. The central Government is
+represented in the provinces by a prefect, in the districts by a
+sub-prefect, and in the communes by a mayor, or _sindaco_. This system
+of administration is very much like that existing in modern France.
+
+The administration of justice was organized in 1865. In each commune
+there is a “Conciliator,” appointed for three years by Government,
+on the presentation of the Municipal Council. A “Pretor” administers
+justice at the capital of each of the judicial districts: he is
+assisted by one or more Vice-pretors. Next follow 161 civil and
+correctional courts, 92 assize courts, 24 courts of appeal, 25
+commercial tribunals, and 4 courts of cassation; the latter at
+Florence, Naples, Palermo, and Turin. The Code of Laws is an adaptation
+of the Code Napoléon, and breathes the same spirit.
+
+In military matters Prussia has served as a model. Every Italian,
+on attaining his twenty-first year, becomes liable to serve in the
+army or navy. Men embodied in the first category of the standing army
+(_esercito permanente_) remain from three to five years under the
+colours, according to the arm to which they belong, and six to seven
+years on furlough. The men of the second category, or reserve of the
+standing army, drill fifty days, and are then dismissed to their homes.
+The “mobilised militia” includes all men up to forty not belonging
+to the standing army. A “levy en masse,” or _Milizia stanziole_, is
+provided for by law, but nothing has been done hitherto to render it
+a reality. The standing army includes 90 regiments of infantry, 20
+regiments of cavalry, 14 of artillery, and 1 of engineers, and numbers
+410,000 men; the reserve amounts to 180,000 men; the mobilised militia
+(247 battalions, 24 Alpine companies, 60 batteries, and 10 companies
+of engineers), 277,000, and 234,000 officers and men are stated to be
+under the colours. The four great fortresses of the north are Verona,
+Mantua, Peschiera, and Legnago. These form the famous “Quadrilateral.”
+Venice is likewise a place of great strength, and made an heroic
+defence in 1849. Palmanova defends the frontier between the Julian
+Alps and the Gulf of Trieste. Rocca d’Anfo, on an isolated rock to the
+north of Lake Garda, commands the defiles of the Adige and Chiese.
+Pizzighettone, on the Adda, is no longer of much importance, now that
+Italy has acquired possession of the Quadrilateral; but Alessandria, at
+the confluence of the Tanaro and Bormida, will always retain its rank
+as the great strategical centre of Piemont, and one of the strongest
+places of Europe. Casale may be looked upon as one of its outworks, and
+together with Genoa defends the passages of the Apennines. Piacenza and
+Ferrara command important passages of the Po. The other fortresses of
+Italy are Ancona in the centre; Porto Ferrajo in Elba; Gaeta, Capua,
+and Taranto in the south; and Messina in Sicily.
+
+The navy consists of 21 ironclads (179 guns, engines of 11,310
+horse-power, 76,842 tons) and 51 wooden steamers, manned by 20,000
+seamen. The great {361} naval arsenals and stations are at Spezia,
+Genoa, Naples, Castellamare di Stabbia, Venice, Ancona, and Taranto.
+
+The Roman Catholic Church alone is acknowledged by the State, but
+all other religions are tolerated. The conflict between Church and
+State is favourable to the spread of Protestantism; but, apart from
+the Waldenses and a few foreigners in the larger towns, there are
+no Protestants in Italy. Many of those, however, who are nominally
+Catholics have ranged themselves amongst the enemies of their Church,
+or are perfectly indifferent.
+
+Italy occupies quite a special position in the world, owing to its
+being the seat of the Papacy. Rome is the seat of two governments,
+viz. that of the King and of the Sovereign Pontiff. The latter, though
+shorn of his temporal power, is in principle one of the most absolute
+monarchs. Once elected Vicar of Jesus Christ by the cardinals met in
+conclave, he is responsible to no one for his actions, though it is
+customary for him to listen to the advice of the Sacred College of
+Cardinals before deciding questions of importance. The Pope alone, of
+all men, is infallible; he can efface the crimes of others, “bind and
+unbind,” and holds the keys of heaven and hell, his power extending
+thus beyond the span of man’s natural life.
+
+The cardinals are the great dignitaries of this spiritual government.
+They are created by the Pope. Their number is limited to 70, viz. 6
+Cardinal Bishops (who reside at Rome), 50 Cardinal Priests, and 14
+Cardinal Deacons. The Cardinal _Camerlengo_ represents the temporal
+authority of the Holy See, and on the death of a pope he takes charge
+of the Vatican and of the Fisherman’s Key, which is the symbol of the
+power bestowed upon St. Peter and his successors. In special cases the
+cardinals of the three orders may be convoked to an Œcumenical Council.
+On the death of a pope the cardinals elect his successor, who must
+be fifty-five years of age, and obtain two-thirds of the votes. His
+investment with the pallium and tiara, however, only takes place after
+the assent of the Governments of France, Spain, Austria, and Naples
+(now represented by Italy) has been secured.
+
+In virtue of the formula of “A free Church in a free State,” so
+frequently repeated since Cavour, the Pope is permitted to enjoy
+sovereign rights. He convokes councils and chapters, appoints all
+ecclesiastical officers, has his own post-office and telegraph, his
+guard of nobles and of Swiss, pays no taxes, and enjoys in perpetuity
+the palaces of the Vatican and Lateran, as well as the villa of
+Castel-Gandolfo, on the Lake of Albano. In addition to this, he has
+been voted by the Italian Parliament an annual “dotation” of £129,000.
+This grant, however, he has not touched hitherto, but the “Peter’s
+pence,” collected by the faithful in all parts of the world, amount to
+more than double that sum.
+
+Italy is divided into 47 archiepiscopal and 206 episcopal sees.
+There are more than 100,000 secular priests, and in 1866, when the
+monasteries and convents were suppressed, their inmates receiving
+pensions from Government, there were 32,000 monks and 44,000 nuns. The
+ecclesiastical army consequently numbers 176,000 souls, and is nearly
+as numerous as the military force on a peace footing. {362}
+
+The following table exhibits the area and population (estimated for
+1875) of the great territorial divisions of Italy:―
+
+ Area.
+ Square miles. Population.
+ Piemont 11,301 2,995,213
+ Liguria 2,056 865,254
+ Lombardy 9,084 3,553,913
+ Venetia (Venezia) 9,060 2,733,406
+ Emilia 7,921 2,153,381
+ Umbria 3,720 563,582
+ Marches 3,748 930,712
+ Tuscany 9,287 2,172,832
+ Rome (Latium) 4,601 839,074
+ Abruzzos—Molise 6,676 1,302,966
+ Campania 6,941 2,807,450
+ Apulia (Puglie) 8,539 1,464,604
+ Basilicata 4,122 517,069
+ Calabria 6,663 1,229,614
+ Sicily 11,290 2,698,672
+ Sardinia 9,398 654,432
+ ─────── ──────────
+ Total 114,407 27,482,174
+ ═══════ ══════════
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{363}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CORSICA.[127]
+
+
+Corsica, with Sardinia, forms a world apart. At a remote epoch these
+two islands were but one, and it is curious to find that Corsica, which
+politically now forms part of France, is geographically as well as
+historically much more Italian than its sister island. A glance at a
+map is sufficient to convince us that Corsica is a dependency of Italy,
+for while abyssal depths of more than 500 fathoms separate it from
+Provence, it is joined to the coast of Tuscany by a submarine plateau,
+the mountains of which rise above the surface of the waters as islands.
+The climate and natural productions of the island are those of Italy,
+and the language of its inhabitants is Italian. Purchased from the
+Genoese, then conquered by main force, Corsica in the end voluntarily
+united its destinies with those of France. It has now been connected
+for more than three generations with the latter, and there can be no
+doubt that most of its citizens look upon themselves as Frenchmen.
+
+Though only half the size of Sardinia, Corsica is nevertheless larger
+than an average French department. The fourth island in size of the
+Mediterranean, it follows next to Cyprus, but is far more important
+than that island, and only yields to Sicily and Sardinia in wealth
+and population.[128] It is a country of great natural beauty. Its
+mountains, attaining an altitude of over 8,000 feet, remain covered
+with snow during half the year, and the view from the summits embraces
+nearly the whole of the island, its barren rocks, forests, and
+cultivated fields. Most of the valleys abound in running water, and
+cascades glitter in all directions. Old Genoese towers, standing upon
+promontories, formerly defended the entrance to every bay exposed to
+incursions of the Saracens, but they are hardly more nowadays than
+embellishments of the landscape.
+
+Monte Cinto, the culminating point of the island, does not pierce the
+region of {364} persistent snows. A huge citadel of granite, whose
+fastnesses afforded a shelter to the Corsicans during their wars of
+independence, it rises in the north-western portion of the island. From
+its summit we can trace the whole of the coast from the French Alps
+to the Apennines of Tuscany. There are other peaks to the north and
+south of it which almost rival it in height.[129] This main chain of
+the island consists throughout of crystalline rock. Transverse ridges
+connect it with a parallel range of limestone mountains on the east,
+which extend northward through the whole of the peninsula of Bastia,
+and shut in, farther south, the old lake basin of Corte, now drained
+by the Golo, Tavignano, and other rivers. The whole of the interior
+of Corsica may be described as a labyrinth of mountains, and in order
+to pass from village to village it is necessary to climb up steep
+steps, or _scale_, and to ascend from the region of olives to that of
+pasturage. The high-road which joins Ajaccio to Bastia has to climb a
+pass 3,793 feet in height (Fig. 134), and even the road following the
+populous western coast ascends and descends continuously, in order to
+avoid the promontories descending steeply into the sea. These physical
+obstacles sufficiently explain why railways have not yet been built.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 133.—SUBMARINE PLATEAU BETWEEN CORSICA AND TUSCANY.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,850,000.]
+
+[Illustration: SPAIN AND PORTUGAL]
+
+The western coast of the island is indented by numerous gulfs and bays,
+which resemble ancient fiords partly filled up by alluvial sediment.
+On the eastern coast, {365} which faces Italy, the slopes are more
+gentle; the rivers are larger and more tranquil, though not one of them
+is navigable; and the ground is more level. This portion of the island
+is known as _Banda di Dentro_, or “inner zone,” in distinction from
+the _Banda di Fuori_, or “exterior (western) zone.” The eastern coast
+appears to have been upheaved during a comparatively recent epoch, and
+ancient gulfs of the sea have been converted into lagoons and swamps,
+quite as dangerous from their miasmatic exhalations as those of the
+sister island. If we add that the mountains in the west obstruct the
+passage of the vivifying mistral, that the heat in summer is great, and
+droughts frequent, we have said enough to account for the insalubrity
+of the climate.[130] The maritime basin between Corsica and Italy is
+almost shut in by mountains, and purifying breezes are rare there.
+Between Bastia and Porto-Vecchio not a single town or village is met
+with on the coast, and in the beginning of July the peasantry retire
+to the hills in order to escape the fever. Only a few guards and the
+unfortunate convicts shut up in the penitentiary of Casabianca remain
+behind. Nothing more melancholy can be imagined than these fertile
+fields deserted by their inhabitants. Plantations of eucalyptus have
+been made recently with a view to the amelioration of the climate.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 134.—PROFILE OF THE ROAD FROM AJACCIO TO BASTIA.]
+
+Owing to the great height of the mountains we are able to trace in
+Corsica distinct zones of vegetation. Up to a moderate height the
+character of the vegetation is sub-tropical, and resembles that of
+Sicily or Southern Spain. There are districts which can be numbered
+amongst the most fertile of the Mediterranean. One of these is the
+_Campo dell’Oro_, or “field of gold,” around Ajaccio, where hedges of
+tree-like cacti separate the gardens and orchards; such, also, is the
+country to the north of Bastia, with its aromatic flowers and luscious
+fruits. Olive forests generally cover the lower hills, their silvery
+foliage contrasting with the sombre verdure of the chestnut woods
+above. Balagna, near Calvi, on the north-western coast of the island,
+is famous for its olives, whilst another valley, on the opposite
+side of the island, near Bastia, can boast of the most magnificent
+chestnut-trees. Chestnuts, in some parts, constitute the principal
+article of food, {366} and enable the inhabitants, who are by no means
+distinguished for their industry, to dispense with the cultivation of
+cereals. Some political economists have actually proposed to fell these
+trees, in order that the inhabitants may be forced to work.
+
+Chestnut-trees grow up to a height of 6,250 feet. The virgin forests
+which formerly extended beyond them to the zone of pasturage have for
+the most part disappeared. In the upper Balagna valley, Valdoniello,
+and Aitone, however, magnificent forests may still be seen, and a larch
+(_Pinus altissimus_), the finest conifer of all Europe, attains there
+a height of 160 feet. These splendid trees, unfortunately, are rapidly
+disappearing. They are being converted into masts, or sawn into staves
+and planks.
+
+The pasturing grounds above these forests are frequented during summer
+by herdsmen with their flocks of sheep and goats. The agile moufflon
+is still met with there in a few rocky recesses, and the shepherds
+assert that wild boars, though very numerous on the island, carefully
+avoid its haunts. The wolf is unknown in the island, and the bear has
+disappeared for more than a century. Foxes of large size and small deer
+complete the fauna of the forest region of Corsica. The _malmignata_
+spider, whose bite is sometimes mortal, is probably of the same species
+as that of Sardinia and Tuscany; the _tarentula_ is the same as that
+of Naples, but the venomous ant known as _innafantato_ appears to be
+peculiar to the island.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+We know nothing about the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants
+of Corsica. There are neither nuraghi, as in Sardinia, nor other
+antiquities enabling us to form an opinion with respect to their
+manners. But there exist near Sartène and elsewhere several dolmens, or
+_stazzone_, menhirs, or _stantare_, and even avenues of stones, which
+are similar in all respects to those of Brittany and England. We may
+assume, therefore, that these countries were formerly inhabited by the
+same race.
+
+The inhabitants of Corte, in the interior of the island, and the
+mountaineers of Bastelica, boast of being Corsicans of the purest
+blood. At Bastia the type is altogether Italian, but as we travel
+into the interior we meet men with large fleshy faces, small noses
+devoid of character, clear complexion, and eyes of a chestnut colour
+rather than black. Phocæans, Romans, and Saracens, who maintained
+themselves here until the eleventh century, were succeeded by Italians
+and French. Calvi and Bonifacio were Genoese settlements, and at
+Carghese, near Ajaccio, we even meet with a colony of Greek Mainotes,
+who settled there in the seventeenth century, and whose descendants
+now speak Greek, Italian, and French. But, in spite of these foreign
+immigrations, the Corsicans have in a large measure retained their
+homogeneity. Paoli was rather proud of a Genoese proverb, which said
+that the “Corsicans deserved to be hanged, but knew how to bear it.”
+History bears, indeed, witness to their patriotism, fearlessness,
+and respect for truth; but it also tells us of foolish ambitions,
+jealousies, and a furious spirit of revenge. Even in the middle of
+last century the practice of the vendetta cost a thousand lives
+{367} annually. Entire villages were depopulated, and in many parts
+every peasant’s house was converted into a fortress, where the men
+were constantly on the alert, the women, protected by custom against
+outrage, sallying forth alone to cultivate the fields. The ceremonies
+observed when a victim of the vendetta was brought home were terrible.
+The women gathered round the corpse, and one amongst them, in most
+cases a sister of the deceased, furiously called down vengeance upon
+the head of the murderer. The _voceri_ of death are amongst the finest
+national songs. Foreign domination is to blame, no doubt, for the
+frequency of these assassinations. The judges sent to the country did
+not enjoy the confidence of the inhabitants, and these latter returned
+to the primitive law of retaliation.
+
+Though Corsica gave a master to France, the spirit of the people is
+essentially republican. The Romans barely succeeded in enslaving it,
+and even in the tenth century the greater portion of the island formed
+a confederation of independent communities known as _Terra del Comune_.
+The inhabitants of each valley formed a _pieve_ (_plebs_), by whom were
+elected a _podesta_ and the “fathers of the commune.” These latter
+appointed a “corporal,” who was charged with the defence of popular
+rights. The podestas in turn elected a Council of twelve, who stood
+at the head of the confederation. This constitution survived conquest
+and invasion. In the eighteenth century, when fighting heroically
+against Genoa and France, Corsica declared all citizens equal. It was
+institutions like these which made Rousseau say that “that little
+island would one day astonish Europe.” Since that time the Napoleonic
+era has whetted the ambition of the Corsicans, and they appear to have
+forgotten their traditions of freedom.
+
+Corsica is one of the least-populated departments of France.[131] The
+eastern slope of the island, though more fertile and extensive than
+the western, and formerly densely peopled, is now almost a desert. The
+Roman colony of Mariana no longer exists, and the Phocæan emporium of
+Aleria has dwindled down since the thirteenth century into an isolated
+homestead standing close to a pestiferous swamp. At the present time
+the great centres of population are on the western coast, which faces
+France, enjoys a salubrious climate, and possesses magnificent ports.
+
+The Corsicans certainly appear to deserve the charge of idleness which
+is brought against them, for they have done but little to develop the
+great resources of their island. Fishing and cattle-breeding they
+understand best. In many parts agricultural operations are carried
+on almost exclusively with the help of Italian labourers, known as
+Lucchesi, because most of them formerly came from Lucca. Thanks,
+however, to the impulse given by France, a commencement has been made
+in the cultivation of the soil, and olive oil, equal to the best of
+Provence, wine, and dried fruits already constitute important articles
+of export.[132]
+
+Corsica abounds in ores, but they do not appear to be as rich as those
+of Sardinia. Formerly iron mines alone were worked, the ore being
+conveyed to the {368} furnaces near Bastia and Porto Vecchio; but of
+late years copper mines have been opened at Castifao, near Corte, and
+argentiferous lead is being procured from a mine near Argentella,
+not far from Ile Rousse. Red and blue granite, porphyry, alabaster,
+serpentine, and marble are being quarried. There are many mineral
+springs, but the only one enjoying a European reputation is that of
+Orezzo, which rises in the picturesque district of Castagniccia. Its
+ferruginous water contains a considerable quantity of carbonic acid,
+and is recommended as efficacious in a host of diseases.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 135.—VIEW OF BASTIA.]
+
+The most important town of Corsica, though not its capital, is Bastia,
+thus named from a Genoese castle built towards the close of the
+fourteenth century on the beach of the hill village of Cardo. Bastia
+stands about a mile to the north of the two former capitals of the
+island, viz. Mariana and Biguglia, of which the former has left no
+trace, whilst the latter has dwindled down to a miserable village. The
+geographical position of Bastia is excellent, for it is within easy
+reach of Italy, and frequent communications with that country have
+exercised a most happy influence upon its inhabitants, who are the
+most civilised and industrious of the whole island. Its harbour is
+small, and far from safe, but it is much frequented. The city rises
+amphitheatrically upon hills, and is surrounded by delightful gardens
+and numerous villas. {369}
+
+St. Florent, only six miles from Bastia, but on the western coast
+of the island, has an excellent harbour, but the atmosphere hanging
+over its marshes is deadly. Ile Rousse, farther to the west, is the
+principal port of the fertile district of Balagna. It was founded by
+Paoli in 1758, in order to ruin Calvi, which had remained faithful to
+the Genoese. This object has been attained. Ile Rousse exports large
+quantities of oil and fruit, whilst the old town of Calvi, on its
+whitish rock, is a place without life, frequently visited by malaria.
+The coast to the south of Calvi, as far as the Gulf of Sagone, though
+exceedingly fertile, is almost a desert, and many parts of it suffer
+from malaria. Ajaccio, however, at one time merely a maritime suburb of
+Castelvecchio, standing a short distance inland, has risen into great
+importance. It is the pleasantest and best-built town of the island,
+and Napoleon, the most famous of its sons, showered favours upon it.
+The inhabitants fish and cultivate their fertile orchards. They also
+derive great advantages from a multitude of visitors, who go thither to
+enjoy a delicious climate and picturesque scenery.
+
+The other towns of Corsica are of no importance whatever. Sartène,
+though the capital of an arrondissement, is merely a village, and the
+activity of the district centres in the little port of Propriano,
+on the Gulf of Valinco, one of the trysting-places of Neapolitan
+fishermen. Corte is famous in the history of the island as the
+birthplace of the heroes of the wars of independence. Porto Vecchio,
+though in possession of the best harbour of the island, is frequented
+only by a few coasting vessels, whilst Bonifacio, an ancient ally of
+the Genoese, is important only because of its fortifications. The
+prospect from the isolated limestone rock upon which it is built is
+exceedingly picturesque. The mountains of Limbara stand out clearly
+against the sky, and in front we look down upon the granitic islets
+dotting the Strait of Bonifacio, so dangerous to navigators. It was
+here the frigate _La Sémillante_ foundered in 1855, with nearly a
+thousand souls on board.[133]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+{370}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SPAIN.[134]
+
+
+I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.
+
+The Iberian peninsula, Spain and Portugal, must be looked upon
+geographically as one. Differences of soil, climate, and language
+may have justified its division into two states, but in the organism
+of Europe these two constitute but a single member, having the
+same geological history, and exhibiting unity in their physical
+configuration.[135]
+
+Compared with the other peninsulas of Southern Europe, viz. Italy and
+that of the Balkans, Iberia is most insular in its character. The
+isthmus which attaches it to the trunk of Europe is comparatively
+narrow, and it is defined most distinctly by the barrier of the
+Pyrenees. The contour of the peninsula is distinguished by its
+massiveness. There are curving bays, but no inlets of the sea
+penetrating far inland, as in the case of Greece.[136]
+
+It was said long ago, and with justice, that Africa begins at the
+Pyrenees. Iberia, indeed, bears some resemblance to Africa. Its outline
+is heavy, there are hardly any islands along its coasts, and few
+plains open out upon the sea. But it is an Africa in miniature, only
+one-fiftieth the size of the continent upon which it appears to have
+been modelled. Moreover, the oceanic slope of the peninsula is quite
+European as to climate, vegetation, and abundance of running water; and
+{371} certain features of its flora even justify a belief that at some
+remote epoch it was joined to the British Islands. African Hispania
+only begins in reality with the treeless plateaux of the interior,
+and more especially with the Mediterranean coasts. There we meet the
+zone of transition between the two continents. Its general aspect,
+flora, fauna, and even population, mark out that portion of Spain as an
+integral part of Barbary; the Sierra Nevada and the Atlas, facing each
+other, are sister mountains; and the strait which separates them is a
+mere accident in the surface relief of our planet.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 136.—THE TABLE-LANDS OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.
+
+Scale 1 : 10,300,000.]
+
+Spain, though nearly surrounded by the sea, is nevertheless essentially
+continental in its character. Nearly the whole of it consists of
+table-lands, and only the plains of the Tajo (Tagus) and of Andalusia
+open out broadly upon the ocean. The coast, for the most part, rises
+steeply, and the harbours are consequently difficult of access to the
+inhabitants of the interior, a circumstance most detrimental to the
+development of a large sea-borne commerce.
+
+Ever since the discovery of the ocean high-roads to America and the
+Indies, the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula has taken the
+lead in commercial matters, {372} a fact easily accounted for by
+the physical features of the country. Spain, like peninsular Italy,
+turns her back upon the east. The plateaux slope down gently towards
+the west; the principal rivers, the Ebro alone excepted, flow in that
+direction; and the water-shed lies close to the Mediterranean shores.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Spain must either have given birth to an aboriginal people, or was
+peopled by way of the Pyrenees and by emigrants crossing the narrow
+strait at the columns of Hercules. The Iberian race actually forms
+the foundation of the populations of Spain. The Basks, or Basques,
+now confined to a few mountain valleys, formerly occupied the
+greater portion of the peninsula, as is proved by its geographical
+nomenclature. Celtic tribes subsequently crossed the Pyrenees, and
+established themselves in various parts of the country, mixing in many
+instances with the Iberians, and forming the so-called Celtiberians.
+This mixed race is met with principally in the two Castiles, whilst
+Galicia and the larger portion of Portugal appear to be inhabited
+by pure Celts. The Iberians had their original seat of civilisation
+in the south; they thence moved northward along the coast of the
+Mediterranean, penetrating as far as the Alps and the Apennines.
+
+These original elements of the population were joined by colonists
+from the great commercial peoples of the Mediterranean. Cádiz and
+Málaga were founded by the Phœnicians, Cartagena by the Carthaginians,
+Saguntum by immigrants from Zacynthus, Rosas is a Rhodian colony, and
+the ruins of Ampurias recall the Emporiæ of the Massilians. But it
+was the Romans who modified the character of the Iberian and Celtic
+inhabitants of the peninsula, whom they subjected after a hundred
+years’ war. Italian culture gradually penetrated into every part of the
+country, and the use of Latin became universal, except in the remote
+valleys inhabited by the Basques.
+
+After the downfall of the Roman empire Spain was successively invaded
+by Suevi, Alani, Vandals, and Visigoths, but only the latter have
+exercised an abiding influence upon the language and manners of the
+Spaniards, and the pompous gravity of the Castilian appears to be a
+portion of their heritage.
+
+To these northern invasions succeeded an invasion from the neighbouring
+continent of Africa. The Arabs and Berbers of Mauritania gained a
+footing upon the rock of Gibraltar early in the eighth century, and
+very soon afterwards nearly the whole of Spain had fallen a prey to the
+Mussulman, who maintained himself here for more than seven centuries.
+Moors immigrated in large numbers, and they substantially affected
+the character of the population, more especially in the south. The
+Inquisition expelled, or reduced to a condition of bondage, hundreds
+of thousands of these Moors, but its operations only extended to
+Mussulmans or doubtful converts, whilst Arab and Berber blood had
+already found its way into the veins of the bulk of the population.
+Castilian bears witness to the great influence of the Saracens, for it
+contains many more words of Arabic than of Visigothic origin, and these
+words designate objects and ideas evidencing a state of progressive
+civilisation, such as existed when the Arabs of Córdova and Granada
+inaugurated the modern era of science and industry in Europe. {373}
+
+During the dominion of the Moors the Jews prospered singularly on the
+soil of Spain, and their number at the time of the first persecution
+is said to have been 800,000. Supple, like most of their faith, they
+managed to get a footing in both camps, the Christian and Mohammedan,
+and enriched themselves at the expense of each. They supplied both
+sides with money to carry on the war, and, as farmers of taxes, they
+oppressed the inhabitants. The Christian faith triumphed in the end;
+the kings, to pay the cost of their wars, proclaimed a crusade against
+the Jews; and the people threw themselves with fury upon their hated
+oppressors, sparing neither iron, fire, tortures, nor the stake. A few
+Jewish families may have escaped destruction by embracing Catholicism,
+but the bulk of that people perished or were driven into exile.
+
+Far happier has been the lot of the Gipsies, or _Gitanos_, who are
+sufficiently numerous in Spain to give a special physiognomy to several
+large towns. These Gipsies have always conformed outwardly to the
+national religion, and the Inquisition, which has sent to the stake so
+many Jews, Moors, and heretics, has never interfered with them. The
+Gipsies, in many instances, have settled down in the towns, but they
+all have traditions of a wandering life, and most highly respect those
+of their kinsmen who still range the woods and plains. These latter are
+proud of their title of _viandantes_, or wayfarers, and despise the
+dwellers in towns. These Spanish Gitanos appear to be the descendants
+of tribes who sojourned for several generations in the Balkans, for
+their lingo contains several hundred words of Slav and Greek origin.
+
+M. de Bourgoing has drawn attention to the great diversity existing
+amongst the population of Spain. A Galician, for instance, is more
+like an Auvergnat than a Catalonian, and an Andalusian reminds us
+of a Gascon. Most of the inhabitants, however, have certain general
+features, derived from a common national history and ancestry.
+
+The average Spaniard is of small stature, but strong, muscular, of
+surprising agility, an indefatigable walker, and proof against every
+hardship. The sobriety of Iberia is proverbial. “Olives, salad, and
+radishes are fit food for a nobleman.” The physical stamina of the
+Spaniard is extraordinary, and amply explains the ease with which the
+_conquistadores_ surmounted the fatigues which they were exposed to in
+the dreaded climate of the New World. These qualities make the Spaniard
+the best soldier of Europe, for he possesses the fiery temperament
+of the South joined to the physical strength of the North, without
+standing in need of abundant nourishment.
+
+The moral qualities of the Spaniard are equally remarkable. Though
+careless as to every-day matters, he is very resolute, sternly
+courageous, and of great tenacity. Any cause he takes up he defends to
+his last breath. The sons always embrace the cause of their fathers,
+and fight for it with the same resolution. Hence this long series of
+foreign and civil wars. The recovery of Spain from the Moors took
+nearly seven centuries; the conquest of Mexico, Peru, and South America
+was one continued fight lasting throughout a century. The war of
+independence which freed Spain from the yoke of Napoleon was an almost
+unexampled {374} effort of patriotism, and the Spaniards may justly
+boast that the French did not find a single spy amongst them. The two
+Carlist wars, too, would have been possible nowhere else but in Spain.
+
+Who need wonder, after this, if even the lowliest Spaniard speaks of
+himself with a certain haughtiness, which in any one else would be
+pronounced presumptuous? “The Spaniard is a Gascon of a tragic type;”
+so says a French traveller. With him deeds always follow words. He is
+a boaster, but not without reason. He unites qualities which usually
+preclude each other, for, though haughty, he is kindly in his manners;
+he thinks very highly of himself, but is considerate of the feelings
+of others; quick to perceive the shortcomings of his neighbours, he
+rarely makes them a subject of reproach. Trifles give rise to a torrent
+of sonorous language, but in matters of importance a word or a gesture
+suffices. The Spaniard combines a solemn bearing and steadfastness
+with a considerable amount of cheerfulness. Nothing disquiets him;
+he philosophically takes things as they are; poverty has no terrors
+for him; and he even ingeniously contrives to extract pleasure and
+advantage from it. The life of Gil Blas, in whom the Spaniards
+recognise their own likeness, was more chequered than that of any other
+hero of romance, and yet he was always full of gaiety, which even the
+dark shadow of the Inquisition, then resting upon the country, failed
+to deprive him of. “To live on the banks of the Manzanares,” says a
+Spanish proverb, “is perfect bliss; to be in paradise is the second
+degree of happiness, but only on condition of being able to look down
+upon Madrid through a skylight in the heavens.”
+
+These opposites in the character of the Spaniards give rise to an
+appearance of fickleness which foreigners are unable to comprehend,
+and they themselves complacently describe them as _cosas de España_.
+How, indeed, are we to explain so much weakness associated with so many
+noble qualities, so many superstitions in spite of common sense and a
+keen perception of irony, such ferocity of conduct in men naturally
+generous and magnanimous? A Spaniard, in spite of his passions, will
+resign himself philosophically to what he looks upon as inevitable.
+_Lo que ha de ser no puede faltar_, “What is to be will be,” he says,
+and, wrapped up in his cloak, he allows events to take their course.
+The great Lord Bacon observed, three hundred years ago, that the
+“Spaniards looked wiser than they were;” and, indeed, most of them are
+passionately fond of gambling, and their apathetic fatalism accounts
+for many of the ills their country suffers. The rapid decay which has
+taken place in the course of three centuries has led certain historians
+to number the Spaniards amongst fallen nations. The edifices met with
+in many towns and villages speak of a grandeur now past, and the
+_despoblados_ and _dehesas_, which we encounter even in the vicinity of
+the capital, tell of once fertile fields returned to a state of nature.
+
+Buckle, in his “History of Civilisation,” traces this decay to the
+physical nature of Spain and to a long succession of religious wars.
+The Visigoths defended Arianism against the Franks, and when the
+Spaniards had become good Catholics their country was invaded by Moors,
+and for more than twenty generations they struggled against them. It
+thus happened that patriotism became identical with {375} absolute
+obedience to the behests of the Church, for every one, from the King
+down to the meanest archer, was a defender of the faith rather than of
+his native soil. The result might have been foretold. The Church not
+only took possession of most of the land won from the infidels, but it
+also exercised a baneful influence upon the Government, and, through
+its dreaded tribunals of the Inquisition, over the whole of society.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 137.—DEHESAS IN THE ENVIRONS OF MADRID.
+
+Scale 1 : 450,000.]
+
+But whilst these long religious struggles tended to the moral and
+intellectual abasement of the Spaniards, there were other causes which
+operated in an inverse sense, and these Buckle does not appear to have
+properly appreciated. The kings, in order to secure the support of the
+people in their wars against the Mussulmans, found themselves compelled
+to grant a large measure of liberty. The towns governed themselves,
+and their delegates, as early as the eleventh century, sat with the
+nobility and clergy in the Cortes, and voted the supplies. Local
+government conferred advantages upon Spain then enjoyed only in few
+parts of Europe. Industry and the arts flourished in these prosperous
+cities, and a stop was even put to the encroachments of the clergy long
+before Luther raised his powerful voice in Germany.
+
+A struggle between the supporters of local government and of a
+centralized monarchy at length became imminent, and no sooner had the
+infidels been expelled than civil war began. It terminated in favour of
+King and Church, for the _comuneros_ of the Castiles met with little
+support in the other provinces, and their towns were ravaged by the
+bloodthirsty generals of Charles V.
+
+The discovery of the New World, which happened about this period,
+proved a disaster to Spain, for young men of enterprise and daring
+crossed the Atlantic, and thus weakened the mother country, which was
+too small to feed such huge colonies. The immense amount of treasure
+(more than £2,000,000,000 between 1500 and 1702) sent home from the
+colonies contributed still further to the rapid decay of Spain, for
+it corrupted the entire nation. Money being obtainable without {376}
+work, all honest labour ceased, and when the colonies no longer
+yielded their metallic treasures the country saw itself impoverished,
+for the gold and silver had found their way to foreign lands, whence
+Spain had procured her supplies.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 138.—DENSITY OF THE POPULATION OF THE IBERIAN
+PENINSULA.]
+
+History affords no other example of so rapid a decadence brought
+about without foreign aggression. The workshops were closed, the arts
+of peace forgotten, the fields but indifferently cultivated. Young
+men flocked to the 9,000 monasteries to enjoy a life of indolence,
+and “science was a crime, ignorance and stupidity were the first of
+virtues.” Population decreased, and the Spaniard even lost his ancient
+renown for bravery. If the Bourbon kings placed foreigners in all
+high positions of state, they did so because the Spaniards had become
+incapable of conducting public business.
+
+But if we compare the Spain of our own days with the Spain of the
+Inquisition, we cannot fail to be struck with the vast progress made.
+Spain is no longer a “happy people without a history,” for ever since
+the beginning of the century it has been engaged in struggles, and
+during this period of tumultuous life it has done more for arts,
+science, and industry than in the two centuries of peace which
+succeeded the dark reign of Philip II. No doubt Spain might have done
+{377} even more if the strength of the country had not been wasted
+in internal struggles. Unfortunately the geographical configuration
+of the peninsula is unfavourable to the consolidation of the nation.
+The littoral regions combine every advantage of climate, soil, and
+accessibility, whilst the resources of the inland plateaux are
+comparatively few. The former naturally attract population; they abound
+in large and bustling cities, and are more densely populated than the
+interior of the country. Madrid, which occupies a commanding position
+almost in the geometrical centre of the country, has become a focus of
+life, but its environs are very thinly inhabited.
+
+This unequal distribution of the population could not fail to
+exercise a powerful influence upon the history of the country.
+Each of the maritime provinces felt sufficiently strong to lead
+a separate existence. During the struggles with the Moors common
+interests induced the independent kingdoms of Iberia to co-operate,
+and facilitated the establishment of a central monarchy; but, to
+maintain this unity afterwards, it became necessary to have recourse
+to a system of terrorism and oppression. Portugal, being situated on
+the open Atlantic, shook off the detested yoke of Castile after less
+than a century’s submission. In the rest of the peninsula political
+consolidation is making progress, thanks to the facilities of
+intercommunication and the substitution of Castilian for the provincial
+dialects; but it would be an error to suppose that Andalusians and
+Galicians, Basques and Catalans, Aragonese and Madrileños, have been
+welded into one nation. Indeed, the federal constitution advocated
+by Spanish republicans appears to be best suited to the geographical
+configuration of the country and the genius of its population. The
+desire to establish provincial autonomy has led to most of the civil
+wars of Spain, whether raised by _Carlists_ or _Intransigentes_. It is
+therefore meet that, in our description of Spain, we should respect the
+limits traced by nature, bearing in mind the fact that the political
+boundaries of the province do not always coincide with water-sheds or
+linguistic boundaries.
+
+
+II.—THE CASTILES, LEON, AND ESTREMADURA.[137]
+
+The great central plateau of the peninsula is bounded on the north,
+east, and south by ranges of mountains extending from the Cantabrian
+Pyrenees to the Sierra Morena, and slopes down in the west towards
+Portugal and the Atlantic. The uplands through which the Upper Duero,
+the Tajo (Tagus), and the Guadiana take their course are thus a region
+apart, and if the waters of the ocean were to rise 2,000 feet, they
+would be converted into a peninsula attached by the narrow isthmus
+of the Basque provinces to the French Pyrenees. The vast extent of
+these plateaux—they constitute nearly half the area of the whole
+country—accounts for the part they played in history, and their
+commanding position enabled the Castilians to gain possession of the
+adjacent territories. {378}
+
+The Castiles can hardly be called beautiful, or rather their solemn
+beauty does not commend them to the majority of travellers. Vast
+districts, such as the Tierra de Campos, to the north of Valladolid,
+are ancient lake beds of great fertility, but exceedingly monotonous,
+owing to the absence of forests. Others are covered with small
+stony hillocks; others, again, may be described as mountainous.
+Mountain ranges covered with meagre herbage bound the horizon, and
+sombre gorges, enclosed between precipitous walls of rock, lead into
+them. Elsewhere, as in the Lower Estremadura, we meet with vast
+pasture-lands, stretching as far as the eye can reach to the foot of
+the mountains, and, as in certain parts of the American prairies, not a
+tree arrests the attention. Looking to the fearful nakedness of these
+plains, one would hardly imagine that a law was promulgated in the
+middle of last century which enjoins each inhabitant to plant at least
+five trees. Trees, indeed, have been cut down more rapidly than they
+were planted. The peasants have a prejudice against them; their leaves,
+they say, give shelter to birds, which prey upon the corn-fields.
+Small birds, nightingales alone excepted, are pursued without mercy,
+and a proverb says that “swallows crossing the Castiles must carry
+provisions with them.” Trees are met with only in the most remote
+localities. The hovels of the peasantry, built of mud or pebbles, are
+of the same colour as the soil, the walled towns are easily confounded
+with the rock near them, and even in the midst of cultivated fields
+we may imagine ourselves in a desert. Many districts suffer from want
+of water, and villages which rejoice in the possession of a spring
+proclaim the fact aloud as one of their attributes. Huge bridges span
+the ravines, though for more than half the year not a drop of water
+passes over their pebbly beds.
+
+The Sierra de Guadarrama and its western continuation, the Sierra de
+Gredos, separate this central plateau of Spain into two portions, lying
+at different elevations. Old Castile and Leon, which lie to the north,
+in the basin of the Duero, slope down from east to west from 5,600 to
+2,300 feet; whilst New Castile and La Mancha, in the twin basins of
+the Tajo and the Guadiana, have an average elevation of only 2,000
+feet. In the tertiary age these two plateaux were covered with huge
+lakes. One of them, the contours of which are indicated by the débris
+carried down from the surrounding hills, originally discharged its
+waters in the direction of the valley of the Ebro, but subsequently
+opened itself a passage through the crystalline mountains of Portugal,
+now represented by the gorges of the Lower Duero. At another epoch
+this Lake Superior communicated with the lake which overspread what
+are now the plains of New Castile and La Mancha. The area covered by
+these two lakes amounted to 30,000 square miles, and Spain was then a
+mere skeleton of crystalline mountains, joined together by saddles of
+triassic, Jurassic, and cretaceous age, enclosing these two fresh-water
+lakes, and bounded exteriorly by the ocean. This geological period
+must have been of very long duration, for the lacustrine deposits are
+sometimes nearly a thousand feet in thickness. The miocene strata which
+form the superficial deposits of these two lake basins of the Castiles
+are geologically of the same age, for fossil bones of the same great
+animals—megatheria, mammoths, and hipparions—are found in both. {379}
+
+The Cantabrian Mountains bound Leon and Old Castile towards the
+north-west and north, but broad mountain ranges run out from these
+immediately to the east of the Peña Labra, and form the water-shed
+between the basin of the Duero and the head-stream of the Ebro. These
+ranges are known by various names. They form first the _Páramos_ of
+Lora (3,542 feet), which slope gently towards the south, but sink
+down abruptly to the Ebro, which flows here in a gorge many hundred
+feet in depth. The water-shed to the east of these continues to the
+mountain pass of the Brujula, across which leads the road (3,215 feet)
+connecting Burgos with the sea. Beyond this pass the so-called _Montes_
+of Oca gradually increase in height, and join the crystalline Sierra de
+Demanda, culminating in the Pico de San Lorenzo (7,554 feet). Another
+mountain mass lies farther to the south-east. It rises in the Pico de
+Urbion to a height of 7,367 feet, and gives birth to the river Duero.
+The water-shed farther on is formed by the Sierra Cebollera (7,039
+feet), which subsides by degrees, its ramifications extending into the
+basins of the Ebro and Duero. The Sierra de la Moncayo (7,905 feet),
+a crystalline mountain mass similar to the San Lorenzo, but exceeding
+it in height, terminates this portion of the enceinte of the central
+plateau. The broad ranges beyond offer no obstacles to the construction
+of roads, but there are several rugged ridges to the south of the
+Cebollera and Moncayo, which force the Duero to take a devious course
+through the defile of Soria. Numantia, the heroic defence of which has
+since been imitated by many other towns of the peninsula, stood near
+that gorge.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 139.—PROFILE OF THE RAILWAY FROM BAYONNE TO CADIZ.
+
+(Altitudes in feet.)]
+
+The average height of the mountains separating the basin of the Duero
+from that of the Tajo is more than that of those in the north-east of
+Old Castile. The mountains gradually increase in height towards the
+west and south-west, until they form the famous Sierra de Guadarrama,
+the granitic rocks of which bound the horizon of Madrid in the north.
+It constitutes a veritable wall between the two {380} Castiles, and
+the construction of the roads which lead in zigzag over its passes
+of Somosierra (4,680 feet), Navacerrada (5,834 feet), and Guadarrama
+(5,030 feet) was attended with difficulties so considerable that
+Ferdinand VI., proud of the achievement, placed the statue of a lion
+upon one of the highest summits, and thus recorded that the “King
+had conquered the mountains.” This sierra forms a natural rampart to
+the north of the plains of Madrid, and many sanguinary battles have
+been fought to secure a passage through them. The railway to Madrid
+avoids them, but the depression of Ávila, through which it passes, is
+nevertheless more elevated than the summit of the Mont Cenis Railway.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 140.—SIERRAS DE GREDOS AND DE GATA.
+
+Scale 1 : 800,000.]
+
+The mountains to the south-west of the Peak of Peñalara (7,870 feet),
+which is the culminating point of the sierra, sink down rapidly, and at
+the Alto de la Cierva (6,027 feet) the chain divides into two branches,
+of which the northern forms the water-shed between the Duero and the
+Tajo, whilst the more elevated southern chain joins the Sierra de
+Guadarrama to the Sierra de Gredos, but is cut in two by the defile
+excavated by the river Alberche, which rises to the north of it.
+
+The Sierra de Gredos is, next to the Pyrenees and the Sierra Nevada of
+Granada, the most elevated mountain chain of Spain, for in the Plaza
+del Moro Almanzor it attains a height of 8,680 feet, and thus reaches
+far beyond the zone of trees. Its naked summits of crystalline rocks
+remain covered with snow during more than half the year. The country
+extending along the southern slope {381} of these mountains is one of
+the most delightful districts of all Spain. It abounds in streams of
+sparkling water; groups of trees are dotted over the hill-slopes and
+shield the villages; and Charles V., when he selected the monastery of
+St. Yuste as the spot where he proposed to pass the remainder of his
+days, exhibited no mean taste. In former times the foot of the sierra
+was much more frequented, for the Roman road known as _Via Lata_ (now
+called _Camino de la Plata_) crossed immediately to the west of it, by
+the Puerto de Baños, and thus joined the valley of the Duero to that of
+the Tajo.
+
+The Sierra de Gata, which lies beyond this old road, has a course
+parallel with that of the Sierra de Gredos, and this parallelism is
+observable likewise with respect to the minor chains and the principal
+river beds of that portion of Spain. The Sierra de Gata rises to a
+height of 5,690 feet in the Peña de Francia, thus named after a chapel
+built by a Frankish knight. Within its recesses are the secluded
+valleys of Las Batuecas and Las Hurdes.
+
+In the eastern portion of New Castile the country is for the most part
+undulating rather than mountainous, and, if the deep gorges excavated
+by the rivers were to be filled up, would present almost the appearance
+of plains. The most elevated point of this portion of the country is
+the Muela de San Juan (5,900 feet), in the Montes Universales, thus
+called, perhaps, because the Tajo, the Júcar, the Guadalaviar, and
+other rivers flowing in opposite directions take their rise there.
+
+The Sierra del Tremendal, in the district of Albarracin, farther north,
+is said to be frequently shaken by earthquakes, and sulphurous gases
+escape there where oolitic rocks are in contact with black porphyry and
+basalt. Several triassic hills in the vicinity of Cuenca are remarkable
+on account of their rock-salt, the principal mines of which are those
+of Minglanilla.
+
+Farther south the height of land which separates the rivers flowing
+to the Mediterranean from those tributary to the Tajo and Guadiana
+is undulating, but not mountainous. We only again meet with real
+mountains on reaching the head-waters of the Guadiana, Segura, and
+Guadalimar, where the Sierra Morena, forming for 250 miles the natural
+boundary between La Mancha and Andalusia, takes its rise. Seen from the
+plateau, this sierra has the appearance of hills of moderate height,
+but travellers facing it from the south see before them a veritable
+mountain range of bold profile, and abounding in valleys and wild
+gorges. Geographically this sierra belongs to Andalusia rather than to
+the plateau of the Castiles.
+
+In the west, judging from the courses of the Tajo and the Guadiana, the
+country would appear to subside by degrees into the plains of Portugal;
+but such is not the case. The greater portion of Estremadura is
+occupied by a mountain mass consisting of granite and other crystalline
+rocks. The sedimentary strata of the region bounded in the north by the
+Sierras of Gredos and Gata, and in the south by the Sierra de Aroche,
+are but of small thickness. In former times these granitic mountains of
+Estremadura retained pent-up waters of the lakes which then covered the
+interior plateaux, until the incessant action of water forced a passage
+through them. Their highest summits form a range between the rivers
+Guadiana and Tajo known as the Sierra of Toledo, and attain a height
+of 5,115 feet in {382} the Sierra de Guadalupe, famous in other days
+on account of the image of a miracle-working Virgin Mary, an object of
+veneration to Estremeños and Christianized American Indians.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 141.—DEFILE OF THE TAJO IN THE PROVINCE OF
+GUADALAJARA.]
+
+Geologically the series of volcanic hills known as Campo de Calatrava
+(2,270 feet) constitute a distinct group. They occupy both banks of the
+Guadiana, and the ancient inland lake now converted into the plain of
+La Mancha washed their foot. From their craters were ejected trachytic
+and basaltic lavas, as well as ashes, or _negrizales_, but acidulous
+thermal springs are at present the only evidence of subterranean
+activity.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The rivers of the Castiles are of less importance than might be
+supposed from a look at a map, for, owing to a paucity of rain, they
+are not navigable. The moisture carried eastward by the winds is for
+the most part precipitated upon the {383} exterior slopes of the
+mountains, only a small proportion reaching the Castilian plateaux.
+Evaporation, moreover, proceeds there very rapidly, and if it were not
+for springs supplied by the rains of winter there would not be a single
+perennial river.[138]
+
+Of the three parallel rivers, the Duero, the Tajo, and the Guadiana,
+the latter two are the most feeble, for the supplementary ranges
+of the Sierras of Gredos and Guadarrama shut off their basins from
+the moisture-laden winds of the Atlantic. Yet, in spite of their
+small volume, the geological work performed by them in past ages was
+stupendous. Both find their way through tortuous gorges of immense
+depth from the edge of the plateaux down to the plains of Lusitania.
+The gorge of the Duero forms an appropriate natural boundary between
+Spain and Portugal, for it offers almost insurmountable obstacles to
+intercommunication. The more considerable tributaries of the Duero—such
+as the Tormes, fed by the snows of the Sierra de Gredos; the Yéltes;
+and the Agueda—likewise take their course through wild defiles, which
+may be likened to the _cañons_ of the New World. The Tajo presents
+similar features, and below its confluence with the Alberche it enters
+a deep defile, hemmed in by precipitous walls of granite.
+
+The Guadiana passes through a similar gorge, but only after it has
+reached the soil of Portugal. The hydrography of its head-streams,
+the Giguela and Záncara, which rise in the Serranio of Cuenca, offers
+curious features; but, as they are for the most part dry during
+summer, the bountiful springs known as the _ojos_, or “eyes,” of the
+Guadiana are looked upon by the inhabitants as the true source of the
+river. They are three in number, and yield about four cubic yards of
+water a second. These springs are popularly believed to be fed by the
+Ruidera, which, after having traversed a chain of picturesque lakelets,
+disappears beneath a bed of pebbles; but Coello has shown that after
+heavy rains this head-stream of the Guadiana actually reaches the
+Záncara.
+
+The climate of the Castilian plateaux is quite continental in its
+character. The prevailing winds of Spain are the same as in the rest
+of Western Europe, but the seasons and sudden changes of temperature
+in the upper basins of the Duero, the Tajo, and the Guadiana recall
+the deserts of Africa and Asia. The cold in winter is most severe, the
+heat of summer scorching, and the predominating winds aggravate these
+features. In winter, the _norte_, which passes across the snow-covered
+Pyrenees and other mountain ranges, sweeps the plains and penetrates
+through every crevice in the wretched hovels of the peasants. In summer
+a contrary wind, the _solano_, penetrates through breaks in the Sierra
+Nevada and Sierra Morena, scorches the vegetation, and irritates man
+and animals. The climate of Madrid[139] is typical of that of most of
+the towns of Castile. The air, though pure, is exceedingly dry and
+penetrating, and persons affected with diseases of the throat run
+considerable risk during their period of acclimation. “The air of
+Madrid does not put out a candle, but kills a man,” says a proverb, and
+the climate of that city is described as “three months of winter and
+nine of hell.” True, in the {384} time of Charles V., Madrid enjoyed
+the reputation of having an excellent climate, and it is just possible
+that its deterioration may be ascribable to the destruction of the
+forests.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 142.—THE STEPPES OF NEW CASTILE.
+
+According to Willkomm. Scale 1 : 1,500,000.]
+
+The greatest variety of plants is met with if we ascend from the
+plains to the summits of the mountains, but taken as a whole the
+vegetation is singularly monotonous, for the number of plants capable
+of supporting such extremes of temperature is naturally limited. Herbs
+and shrubs predominate. The thickets in the upper basin of the Duero
+and on the plateaux to the east of the Tajo and the Guadiana consist
+of thyme, lavender, rosemary, hyssop, and other aromatic plants; on
+the southern slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains heaths with small
+pink flowers predominate; vast areas in the mountains of Cuenca are
+covered with Spanish broom, or esparto; and saline plants abound in
+the environs of Albacete. These regions are generally described as
+the “Steppes of Castile,” though “deserts” {385} would, perhaps, be
+a more appropriate term. For miles around the village of San Clemente
+not a rivulet, a spring, or a tree is met with, and the aspect of the
+country throughout is exceedingly dreary. The interminable plains of La
+Mancha—the “dried-up country” of the Arabs—adjoin these steppes in the
+west, and there corn-fields, vineyards, and pasture-grounds alternate
+with stretches of thistles, and the monotony is partly relieved by
+the windmills, with their huge sweeps slowly revolving overhead.
+Estremadura and the slopes of the Sierra Morena are principally
+covered with rock-roses, and from the summit of some hills a carpet of
+_jarales_, bluish green or brown, according to the season, extends as
+far as the eye reaches, and in spring is covered with an abundance of
+white flowers resembling newly fallen snow.
+
+Woods are met with only on the slopes of the mountains. Oaks of various
+species and chestnut-trees occupy the lower zone, and conifers extend
+beyond them to the extreme limit of trees. These latter likewise cover
+the vast tracts of shifting sands which extend along the northern
+foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and are the analogue of the French
+_landes_.
+
+The remains of the ancient forests still shelter wild animals. In the
+beginning of this century bears were numerous on the southern slopes of
+the Cantabrian Mountains; the thickets of Guadarrama, Gredos, and Gata
+still harbour wolves, lynxes, wild cats, foxes, and even wild goats.
+Deer, hares, and other game abound. The oak forests are haunted by wild
+boars of immense size and strength. Before the downfall of Islam it was
+thought meritorious to keep large herds of pigs, and a traveller who
+visits the remote villages of Leon, Valladolid, and Upper Estremadura
+will find that this ancient custom still survives. The black hogs of
+Trujillo and Montanchez are famous throughout Spain for their excellent
+hams.
+
+The country offers great facilities for the breeding of sheep and
+cattle; there are, however, several districts which are admirably
+suited to the production of cereals. The Tierra de Campos, in the basin
+of the Duero, is one of them. It owes its fertility to a subterranean
+reservoir of water, as do also the _mesa_ of Ocaña and other districts
+in the upper basins of the Tajo and the Guadiana, which are arid only
+in appearance. The vine flourishes on stony soil, and yields excellent
+wine, and the same may be said of the olive-tree, which constitutes
+the wealth of the Campo de Calatrava. Agricultural pursuits would thus
+appear to offer great advantages; and if thousands of acres are still
+allowed to lie fallow, if nomad habits still predominate, this is
+owing to sloth, force of habit, the existence of feudal customs, and
+sometimes, perhaps, to discouragement produced by seasons of drought.
+
+Most of the herds of _merinos_ are obliged to traverse nearly half
+Spain in search of the food they require. Each herd of about 10,000
+sheep is placed in charge of a _mayoral_, assisted by _rabadanes_ in
+charge of detachments of from 1,000 to 1,200 animals. The shepherds and
+sheep of Balia, in Leon, are reputed to be the best. In the beginning
+of April the merinos leave their pasture-grounds in Andalusia, La
+Mancha, and Estremadura for the north, where they pass the summer,
+returning in September to the south. It may readily be imagined that
+{386} these wandering herds do much damage to the fields through
+which they pass, even though the privileges of the sheep-breeders were
+abrogated in a large measure in 1836. Spain, however, in spite of every
+advantage offered by nature, is obliged now to import sheep from abroad
+to improve its flocks. Mules, too, which are almost indispensable in
+so stony a country, are imported from France. Camels, llamas, and
+kangaroos have been introduced, but their number has never been large,
+and the fauna as well as the flora of the Castiles bears the stamp of
+monotony.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+As is the land, so are its inhabitants. The men of Leon and the
+Castiles are grave, curt of speech, majestic in their gait, and of even
+temper. Even in their amusements they carry themselves with dignity,
+and those amongst them who respect the traditions of the good old time
+regulate every movement in accordance with a most irksome etiquette.
+The Castilian is haughty in the extreme, and _Yo soy Castellano !_ cuts
+short every further explanation. He recognises no superiors, but treats
+his fellows on a footing of perfect equality. A foreigner who mixes for
+the first time in a crowd at Madrid or elsewhere in the Castiles cannot
+fail of being struck by the natural freedom with which rich and poor
+converse with each other.
+
+The Castilian, thanks to his tenacious courage and the central position
+he occupies, has become the master of Spain, but he can hardly be said
+to be the master in his own capital. Madrid is the great centre of
+attraction of the entire peninsula, and its streets are crowded with
+provincials from every part of Spain. This invasion of the capital,
+and of the Castiles generally, is explained by the sparseness of the
+population of the plateaux, a sparseness not so much due to the natural
+sterility of the country as to political and social causes. There
+can be no doubt that the Castiles formerly supported a much denser
+population than they do now, but the towns of the valleys of the Tajo
+and the Guadiana have shrunk into villages, and the river, which was
+formerly navigable as far as Toledo, is so no longer, either because
+its volume is less now than it used to be, or because its floods
+are no longer regulated. Estremadura, at present one of the poorest
+provinces of Spain, supported a dense population in the time of the
+Romans, who founded there the Colonia Augusta Emerita (Mérida), which
+became the largest town of Iberia. During the dominion of the Moors,
+too, Estremadura yielded bounteous harvests, but the old cities have
+disappeared, and the fields are now covered with furze, broom, and
+rock-roses.
+
+The expulsion of the Moors no doubt contributed towards the decay of
+these once fertile regions, but the principal cause must be looked for
+in the growth of feudal, military and ecclesiastical institutions,
+which robbed the cultivator of the fruits of his labours. Subsequently,
+when Cortes, Pizarro, and other _conquistadores_ performed their
+prodigious exploits in the New World, they attracted the enterprising
+youth of the province. The peaceable cultivation of the soil was held
+in contempt, fields remained untilled, and 40,000 nomadic shepherds
+took possession of the country. It is thus the _Estremeños_ became what
+they are, the “Indians” of the nation. {387}
+
+This decrease of population was unfortunately attended by a return
+towards barbarism. Three hundred years ago the region on the southern
+slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama was famous for its industry. The
+linen and cloth of Ávila, Medina del Campo, and Segovia were known
+throughout Europe; Burgos and Aranda del Duero were the seats of
+commerce and industry; and Medina de Rio Seco was known as “Little
+India,” on account of the wealth displayed at its fairs. But
+misgovernment led to the downfall of these industries, the country
+became depopulated, and its ancient culture dwindled to a thing of the
+past. At the famous university of Salamanca the great discoveries of
+Newton and Harvey were still ignored at the close of last century as
+being “contrary to revealed religion,” and the lower classes grovelled
+in the most beastly superstitions.
+
+In this very province of Salamanca, close to the Peña de Francia,
+exist the “barbarous” Batuecas, who are charged with not being able
+to distinguish the seasons. Nor are the inhabitants of other remote
+mountain districts of the Castiles what we should call civilised.
+Amongst these may be noticed the _charros_ of Salamanca and the famous
+_maragatos_ of Astorga, most of them muleteers. They only intermarry
+amongst themselves, and are looked upon as the lineal descendants of
+some ancient tribe of Iberia. The suggestion that they are a mixed race
+of Visigoths and Moors is not deserving of attention, for neither in
+their dress nor in their manners do they remind us of Mussulmans. They
+wear loose trousers, cloth gaiters fastened below the knee, a short
+and close-fitting coat, a leather belt, a frill round the neck, and
+a felt hat with a broad brim. They are tall and strong, but wiry and
+angular. Their taciturnity is extreme, and they neither laugh nor sing
+when driving before them their beasts of burden. It is difficult to
+excite their passion, but, once roused, they become ferocious. Their
+honesty is above suspicion, and they may be safely trusted with the
+most valuable goods, which they will defend against every attack, for
+they are brave, and skilled in the use of arms. Whilst the men traverse
+the whole of Spain as carriers of merchandise, the women till the soil,
+which, being arid and rocky, yields but a poor harvest.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The vicissitudes of history explain the existence of numerous towns in
+the Castiles which can boast of having been the capital of the country
+at one time or other. Numantia, the most ancient of all those cities,
+exists no longer, and the learned are not yet agreed whether the ruins
+discovered near the decayed town of Soria are the remains of the walls
+demolished by Scipio Æmilianus. But there are several cities of great
+antiquity which possess some importance even at the present day. Leon
+is one of these. It was the head-quarters of a Roman legion (_septima
+gemina_), and its name, in reality a corruption of _legio_, is supposed
+to be symbolized by the lions placed in its coat of arms. Leon was one
+of the first places of importance taken from the Moors. Its old walls
+are in ruins now, and the beautiful cathedral has been transformed into
+a clumsy cube. Astorga, the “magnificent city” of Asturica Augusta, has
+fallen even lower than Leon, whilst Palencia (the ancient Pallantia)
+still enjoys a certain measure of prosperity, owing {388} to its
+favourable geographical position at the Pisuerga, which has caused it
+to be selected as one of the great railway centres of the peninsula.
+
+Burgos, the former capital of Old Castile, points proudly to its
+graceful cathedral and other ancient buildings, but its streets are
+nearly deserted, and the crowds which congregate occasionally in the
+churches, hotels, or at the railway station are composed, for the most
+part, of beggars. In the cathedral are preserved numerous relics, and
+the Cid, whose legendary birthplace, Bivar, is near, lies buried in it.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 143.—SALAMANCA AND ITS DESPOBLADOS.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+Valladolid, the Belad Walid of the Moors, at one time the capital
+of all Spain, enjoys a more favourable geographical position than
+Burgos. It lies on the Lower Pisuerga, where that river enters the
+broad plain of the Duero, at an elevation of less than 600 feet above
+the sea. There are numerous factories, conducted by Catalans, and the
+city boasts, like Burgos, of many curious buildings and historical
+reminiscences. The houses in which Columbus died and Cervantes was born
+are still shown, as is the beautiful monastery of San Pablo, in which
+resided Torquemada, the monk, who condemned 8,000 heretics to die at
+the stake. The castle of Simancas, where the precious archives of Spain
+are kept, is near this city.
+
+Descending the Duero, we pass Toro, and then reach Zamora, the “goodly
+walls” of which proved such an obstacle to the Moors. Zamora, though
+on the direct line between Oporto and continental Europe, is an
+out-of-the-way place at {389} present, and the same may be said of the
+famous city of Salamanca, on the Tormes, to the south of it.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 144.—THE ALCÁZAR OF SEGOVIA.]
+
+Salamanca, the Salmantica of the Romans, succeeded to Palencia as the
+seat of a university, and during the epoch of the Renaissance was
+described as the “mother of virtues, sciences, and arts,” and the
+“Rome of the Castiles.” It still deserves the latter epithet, because
+of its magnificent bridge built by Trajan, and the beautiful edifices
+dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its intellectual
+superiority, however, is a thing of the past.
+
+Arevalo, and the famous town of Medina del Campo, to the north-east of
+Salamanca, carry on a considerable trade with corn. Ávila occupies an
+isolated hillock on the banks of the Adaja, to the north of the Sierra
+de Gredos. Ávila still preserves its turreted walls of the fifteenth
+century, and its fortress-like cathedral is a marvel of architecture.
+There are also curious sculptures of animals, which are ascribed
+{390} to the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. Similar works of
+rude art in the vicinity are known as the “bulls of Guisando,” from a
+village in the Sierra de Gredos.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 145.—TOLEDO.]
+
+Segovia the “circumspect” is situated on an affluent of the Duero, like
+Ávila, and in the immediate vicinity of the Sierra de Guadarrama. Its
+turreted walls rise on a scarped rock, supposed to resemble a ship.
+On the poop of this fancied ship, high above the confluence of the
+Clamores and Eresma, rise the ruins of the Moorish Alcázar, whilst the
+cathedral, in the centre of the city, is supposed to represent the
+mainmast. A beautiful aqueduct supplies Segovia with the clear waters
+of the Guadarrama. It is the finest Roman work of this class in Iberia,
+and far superior to the royal palace of San Ildefonso or of La Granja,
+in the neighbourhood of the city.
+
+[Illustration: PEASANTS OF TOLEDO, CASTILE.]
+
+[Illustration: ROMAN BRIDGE AT ALCANTARA.]
+
+Toledo is the most famous city to the south of the great rampart formed
+by the {391} Sierras of Guadarrama, Gredos, and Gata. This is the
+_Ciudad Imperial_, the “mother of cities,” the coronet of Spain and
+the light of the world, as it was called by Juan de Padilla, the most
+famous of its sons. Tradition tells us that it existed long before
+Hercules founded Segovia, and, like Rome, it stands upon seven hills.
+Toledo, with its gates, towers, Moorish and mediæval buildings, is
+indeed a beautiful city, and its cathedral is of dazzling richness.
+But, for all this, Toledo is a decayed place, and its famous armourers’
+shops have been swamped by a Government manufactory.
+
+Talavera de la Reyna, below Toledo, on the Tajo, still possesses some
+of its ancient manufactures of silk and faience. Puente del Arzobispo
+and the other towns on the Tajo are hardly more now than large
+villages. The bridge of Almaraz crosses the river far away from any
+populous town, and the old Roman bridge of Alconétar exists no longer.
+Alcántara,—that is, _the_ bridge,—near the Portuguese frontier, still
+remains a monument of the architectural skill of the Romans. It was
+completed in the year 105, in the reign of Trajan, and its architect,
+Lacer, appears to have been a Spaniard. Its centre is at an elevation
+of 160 feet above the mean level of the Tajo, the floods of which rise
+occasionally to the extent of a hundred feet.
+
+All the great towns of Estremadura lie at some distance from the Tajo,
+and its great volume of water has hitherto hardly been utilised for
+purposes of irrigation or navigation. On a fertile hill nearly twenty
+miles to the north of this river, the old town of Plasencia may be seen
+bounded in the distance by mountains frequently covered with snow.
+Cáceres is about the same distance to the south, as is also Trujillo,
+which received such vast wealth from the conquerors of Peru, but is now
+dependent upon its pigs and herds of cattle.
+
+The position of those towns of Estremadura which lie on the banks
+of the Guadiuna is more favourable. Badajoz, close to the Spanish
+frontier, has lost its ancient importance as a fortress since it became
+a place of commerce on the only railway which as yet joins Spain to
+Portugal. Mérida, on the same railway, is richer in Roman monuments
+than any other town of Spain, for there are a triumphal arch, the
+remains of an aqueduct, an amphitheatre, a naumachy, baths, and an
+admirable bridge of eighty granite arches, 2,600 feet in length; but in
+population it is far inferior to Don Benito, a town hardly mentioned
+in history, higher up the Guadiana, at the edge of the vast plain of
+La Serena. It was founded in the beginning of the sixteenth century,
+and together with its neighbour, Villanueva de la Serena, derives its
+wealth from the fertility of the surrounding country. Its fruits,
+and particularly its water-melons, are much esteemed. The plains on
+the right bank of the Guadiana abound in phosphate of lime, which is
+exported to France and England.
+
+The towns of La Mancha are of no historical note, and the province
+owes its celebrity almost exclusively to Cervantes’ creation, the
+incomparable “Don Quixote.” Ciudad Real, an industrious place formerly;
+Almagro, known for its point-lace; Daimiel, near which stood the
+principal castle of the military order of Calatrava; Manzanares; and
+other towns are important principally because of their {392} trade
+in corn and wine. Almaden,—that is, “the mine,”—in a valley on the
+northern slope of the Sierra Morena, has become famous through its
+cinnabar mines, which for more than three centuries supplied the New
+World with mercury, and still yield about 1,200 tons annually.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 146.—MADRID AND ITS ENVIRONS.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+Eastern Castile, being at a considerable elevation above the sea-level,
+and having a rugged surface, cannot support a population more dense
+than either La Mancha or Estremadura. There are but few towns of
+note, and even the capital, Cuenca, is hardly more than a third-rate
+provincial city. Picturesquely perched {393} upon a steep rock
+overhanging the deep gorges of the Huecar and Júcar, it merely lives
+in the past. The only other towns of note in that part of the country
+are Guadalajara, with a Roman acqueduct, and Alcalá, the native place
+of Cervantes and seat of an ancient university, which at one time saw
+10,000 students within its walls. Both these towns are situated on the
+Henares, a tributary of the Tajo, and either would have been fit to
+become the capital of the kingdom.
+
+Indeed, at the first glance, it almost appears as if Madrid owed its
+existence to the caprice of a king. It has no river, for the Manzanares
+is merely a torrent, its climate is abominable, and its environs
+present fewer advantages than those of Toledo, the ancient capital of
+the Romans and Visigoths. But once having been selected as the capital,
+Madrid could not fail to rise in importance, for it occupies a central
+position with respect to all other towns outside the basin of the Upper
+Tajo. Pinto (_Punctum_), a short distance to the south of Madrid, is
+popularly supposed to be the mathematical centre of the peninsula;
+and thus much is certain, that the plain bounded in the north by the
+Sierra de Guadarrama forms the natural nucleus of the country, and is
+traversed by its great natural highways.
+
+Toledo occupies a position almost equally central. It was the capital
+of the country during the reign of the Romans, and subsequently became
+the capital of the ecclesiastical authorities and of the kings of the
+Visigoths, and retained that position until it fell into the power of
+the Moors. During the struggles between Moors and Christians the latter
+shifted their capital from place to place, according to the varying
+fortunes of the war, but no sooner had the former been expelled from
+Córdova than the Christian kings again established themselves in the
+plain to the south of the Sierra de Guadarrama. They had then to choose
+between Toledo and Madrid. Toledo no doubt offered superior advantages,
+but its citizens having joined the insurrection of the _comuneros_
+against Charles V., the Emperor-king decided in favour of Madrid.
+Philip III. endeavoured to remove the capital to Valladolid, but the
+natural attractions of Madrid proved too strong for him, and the
+schools, museums, public buildings, and manufactories which have arisen
+in the latter since then must for ever insure it a preponderating
+position. The railways, which now join Madrid to the extremities
+of the peninsula, countervail the disadvantages of its immediate
+neighbourhood; and although the purest Castilian is spoken at Toledo,
+it is Madrid which, through its press, has insured the preponderance
+of that idiom throughout Spain. Madrid has long been in advance of all
+other cities of the peninsula as regards political activity, industry,
+and commerce, but its growth having taken place during a period devoid
+of art, it is inferior to other towns with respect to the character of
+its public buildings. The museums, however, are amongst the richest in
+Europe, and make it a second Florence. Immediately outside the public
+promenades of the Prado and Buen Retiro we find ourselves in a desolate
+country covered with flints, and this must be crossed by a traveller
+desirous of visiting the delightful gardens of Aranjuez, the huge
+Escorial built by Philip II., or the villas in the wooded valleys of
+the Sierra de Guadarrama. These latter supply Madrid with water, as the
+neighbouring mountains do with ice. Formerly one of the most secluded
+of these valleys became {394} the seat of a mock-kingdom, nominally
+independent of the Kings of Castile. During the Moorish invasion
+the inhabitants of the plain of Jarama had sought shelter in the
+mountains, and the rest of the world forgot all about them. They called
+themselves Patones, and elected an hereditary king. About the middle
+of the seventeenth century the last of the line, by trade a carrier,
+surrendered his wand of authority into the hands of a royal officer,
+and the valley was placed under the jurisdiction of the authorities at
+Uceda.[140]
+
+
+III.—ANDALUSIA.[141]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 147.—ARANJUEZ.
+
+Scale 1 : 75,000.]
+
+Andalusia embraces the whole of the basin of the Guadalquivir, together
+with some adjoining districts. It is bounded in the north by the Sierra
+Morena, which in the direction of Portugal becomes a rugged mountain
+district of crystalline formation intersected by tortuous ravines, and
+rising in the Sierra de Aracena, north of the mining region of the
+Rio Tinto, to a height of 5,500 feet. Farther east the Sierra Morena
+ascends in terraces above the valley of the Guadalquivir, and on its
+reverse slope we meet with districts, such as that of Los Pedroches
+(1,650 feet), hardly less monotonous of aspect than the plains of La
+Mancha. The {395} Punta de Almenara (5,920 feet), in the Sierra de
+Alcaraz, in the extreme east, may be looked upon as the culminating
+point of this sierra, which is indebted for its name of “Black
+Mountain” to the sombre pines which clothe its slopes.
+
+The line of water-parting does not pass through the highest summits
+of this range. Most of the rivers rise on the plateau, and take
+their course, by picturesque gorges, right through the heart of the
+mountains. The most famous of these gorges is that of Despeñaperros
+(2,444 feet), leading from the dreary plains of La Mancha to the
+smiling valley of Andalusia. This pass has played a great part in every
+war. At its foot was fought in 1212 the fearful battle of Navas de
+Tolosa, in which more than 200,000 Mussulmans are said to have been
+slaughtered.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 148.—THE BASINS OF THE GUADIANA AND GUADALQUIVIR.
+
+Scale 1 : 3,000,000.]
+
+The mountains which shut in the basin of Andalusia on the east are cut
+up by deep river gorges into several distinct masses or chains, of
+which the Calar del Mundo (5,437 feet), Yelmo de Segura (5,925 feet),
+and Sierra Sagra (7,675 feet) are the principal. The southern mountain
+ranges uniformly extend from east to west. From north to south we cross
+in succession the Sierras de María (6,690 feet), de las Estancias, and
+de los Filabres (6,283 feet), so famous for its marbles. In the west
+the latter two ranges join the Sierra de Baza (6,236 feet), itself
+attached to the great culminating range of Iberia, the Sierra Nevada,
+by a saddle of inconsiderable height (2,950 feet). {396}
+
+The Sierra Nevada consists mainly of schists, through which eruptions
+of serpentine and porphyry have taken place. The area it occupies is
+small, but from whatever side we approach it rises precipitously,
+and the eye can trace the succeeding zones of vegetation up to that
+of perennial snows pierced by the peaks of Mulahacen (11,661 feet),
+Picacho de la Veleta (11,386 feet), and Alcazaba (7,590 feet). Vines
+and olive-trees clothe the foot-hills; to these succeed walnut-trees,
+then oaks, and finally a pale carpet of turf hidden beneath snow for
+six months. Masses of snow accumulate in sheltered hollows, and these
+_ventisqueros_, _ventiscas_, or snow-drifts, supply Granada with ice.
+In the _Corral de la Veleta_ there even exists a true glacier, which
+gives birth to the river Genil, and is the most southerly in all
+Europe. The more extensive glaciers of a former age have disappeared
+long ago. To the purling streams fed by the snows of the sierra the
+Vega of Granada owes its rich verdure, its flowers, and its excellent
+fruits, and the delightful valley of Lecrin its epithet of “Paradise of
+the Alpujarras.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 149.—THE PASS OF DESPEÑAPERROS.]
+
+{397}
+
+No other district of Spain so forcibly reminds us of the dominion of
+the Moors. The principal summit is named after a Moorish prince. On
+the Picacho they lit a beacon on the approach of a Christian army, and
+in the Alpujarras, on the southern slope, they pastured their sheep.
+The Galician and Asturian peasants, who now occupy this district, are
+superior in no respect to the converted Moors who were permitted to
+remain at Ujijar, the capital of Alpujarras, when their compatriots
+were driven forth. The natural riches of the mountains remain
+undeveloped, and they are surrounded by a belt of _despoblados_.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 150.—THE SIERRA NEVADA AS SEEN FROM BAZA.]
+
+From the Pass of Alhedin (3,300 feet), between Granada and Alpujarra,
+we look down upon one of the most charming panoramas of the world. It
+was here that Boabdil, the fugitive Moorish king, beheld for the last
+time the smiling plains of his kingdom, and hence the spot is known as
+the “Last Sigh of the Moor,” or the “Hill of Tears.” From the highest
+summits of the sierra, however, the prospect is exceedingly grand.
+Standing upon the Picacho de la Veleta, we see Southern {398} Spain
+spread out beneath our feet, with its fertile valleys, rugged rocks,
+and russet-coloured wilds. Looking south, across the blue waters of the
+Mediterranean, the mountains of Barbary loom out in the distance, and
+sometimes we are even able to hear the murmuring of the waves as they
+beat against the coast.
+
+The mountains around these giants of Granada are very inferior to them
+in height. The country in the north, which is bounded by the valleys of
+the Genil, Guadiana Menor, and Guadalquivir, is occupied by an upland
+intersected by deep ravines, and rising now and then into distinct
+mountain chains, such as the Sierra Magina (7,047 feet) and Sierra de
+Jabalcuz, near Jaen (1,800 feet); the chain Alta Coloma, farther south,
+with its wild pass, Puerto de Arenas, between Jaen and Granada; and the
+Sierra Susana, close to Granada, which extends westward to the mountain
+mass of the Parapanda, the great prophet of the husbandmen of the Vega:―
+
+ “Cuando Parapanda se pone la montera,
+ Llueve, aunque Dios no lo quisiera.”
+
+ (“When Parapanda puts on his cap it rains, though God may not wish it.”)
+
+The mountains extending along the coast are cut up by transverse
+valleys into several distinct masses. The Sierra de Gata, in the
+south-east, is a detached mountain mass, pierced by several extinct
+volcanoes. Farther west rises the Sierra Alhamilla, the torrents of
+which are so rich in garnets that the huntsmen use them instead of
+shot. Crossing a rivulet, we reach the superb Sierra de Gádor (7,620
+feet), consisting of schists.
+
+The Contraviesa (6,218 feet), which separates the Alpujarras from the
+Mediterranean, rises so steeply from the coast that even sheep can
+hardly climb it. The Sierra de Almijara, beyond the narrow valley of
+the Guadalfeo, and its western continuation, the Sierra de Alhama
+(7,003 feet), present similar features. The mountains on the other side
+of the Pass of Alfarnate or de los Alazores (2,723 feet) constitute
+the exterior rampart of an ancient lake bed, bounded in the north by
+an irregular swelling of ground known as Sierra de Yeguas. The road
+from Málaga to Antequera crosses that rampart in the famous Pass of
+El Torcal (4,213 feet), the fantastically shaped rocks of which bear
+some resemblance to the ruins of an extensive city. Archæologists have
+discovered there some of the most curious prehistoric remains of Iberia.
+
+To the west of the basin of Málaga, drained by the Guadalhorce, the
+emissary of the ancient lake referred to above, the mountains again
+increase in height, and in the Sierra de Tolox attain an elevation of
+6,430 feet. Snows remain here throughout the winter. From the Tolox
+mountain chains ramify in all directions. The Sierra Bermeja (4,756
+feet) extends to the south-west, its steep promontories being washed by
+the waves of the sea; the wild “Serrania” de Ronda (5,085 feet) extends
+westward, and is continued in the mountain mass of San Cristóbal (5,627
+feet), which sends branches southward as far as the Capes of Trafalgar
+and Tarifa. The rock of Gibraltar (1,408 feet), which rises so proudly
+at the entrance of the Mediterranean, is a geological outlier attached
+to the mainland by a strip of sand thrown up by the waves of the ocean.
+
+[Illustration: GORGE DE LOS GAITANES, DEFILE OF GUADALHORCE.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 151.—THE MOUTH OF THE GUADALQUIVIR.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+{399}
+
+Erosion has powerfully affected the mountains occupying the country
+between the basin of the Guadalquivir and the coast. Amongst the
+numerous river gorges, that of the Gaytanos, through which the
+Guadalhorce flows from the plateau of Antequera to the orange groves of
+Alora, is one of the wildest and most magnificent in all Spain. Only
+torrents enter the Mediterranean, and even of the rivers discharging
+their waters into the Atlantic there is but one which is of some
+importance, on account of its great volume and the facilities it offers
+for navigation. This is the Guadalquivir, which rises in the Sierra
+Sagra, at an elevation of 5,900 feet above the sea-level. Having
+received the Guadalimar, its current becomes gentle, and it flows
+through a wide and open valley, thus differing essentially from the
+rivers of the Castiles, which, on their way to the sea, traverse narrow
+gorges. Its volume fairly entitles it to its Arab name of Wad-el-Kebir,
+or “large river.” The geological work performed by this river and its
+tributaries has been enormous. Mountain ramparts have been broken
+through, lakes drained, and immense quantities of soil spread over the
+valley. Nowhere can this work be traced more advantageously than in the
+valley of the Genil of Granada, for the fertile district of La Vega
+was covered by a lake, the pent-up waters of which opened themselves a
+passage near Loja. {400}
+
+The estuary of the river has been gradually filled up by sediment. The
+tide ascends nearly as far as Seville, where the river is about 250
+yards wide. Below that city it passes through an alluvial tract known
+as the _marismas_, ordinarily a dusty plain roamed over by half-wild
+cattle, but converted by the least rain into a quagmire. Neither
+villages nor homesteads are met with here, but the sands farther back
+are covered with dwarf palms, and lower down a few hills of tertiary
+formation approach close to the river, their vine-clad slopes affording
+a pleasing contrast to the surrounding solitude.
+
+A contraction of the alluvial valley marks the exterior limit of the
+ancient estuary silted up by the Guadalquivir. Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
+a town of oriental aspect, stands on the left bank, whilst a range of
+dunes intervenes between the sea and the flat country on the right
+bank. The mouth of the river is closed by a bar, so that only vessels
+of small draught can enter it. These _Arenas Gordas_, or “great sands,”
+are for the most part covered with pines, and, except on their exterior
+face, they have remained stable since the historical epoch.
+
+The Guadalquivir is the only river of Spain which is navigable for a
+considerable distance above its mouth. Vessels of 200 tons ascend it as
+far as Seville, a distance of sixty miles. Sanlúcar was formerly the
+great port of Spain, and its coasting trade is still considerable. None
+of the other rivers of Andalusia are navigable. The Guadalete, which
+enters the Bay of Cádiz, is a shallow, sluggish stream; the Odiel and
+the Rio Tinto are rapid torrents, and their estuary, below Huelva, has
+been choked up by the sediment brought down by them; while Palos, so
+famous as the port from which Columbus started upon his great voyage of
+discovery, has dwindled down to a poor fishing village.
+
+But what are these changes compared with the great revolution which
+joined the Mediterranean to the Atlantic? There can be no doubt that a
+barrier of mountains separated the two seas. The destructive action of
+the Atlantic appears to have been facilitated not only by the cavernous
+nature of the rocks on both sides of the strait, but also by the fact
+of the level of the Mediterranean having been much lower at that time
+than that of the Atlantic. Even now the waters of the latter sometimes
+rush through the strait with astounding velocity (see Fig. 6, p.
+26). We cannot tell whether the strait has increased in width during
+historical times, for ancient geographers are not very precise in their
+measurements. Thus much, however, is certain, that the general features
+of the strait have not changed, and the two pillars of Hercules, Calpe
+and Abyla, may still be recognised in modern Gibraltar and Ceuta.
+
+The rock of Gibraltar does not form the southernmost promontory of
+Iberia, but, being the most striking object along the strait, it has
+given its name to it. Mariners look upon it as the true boundary
+between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and it has been likened,
+not inaptly, to a crouching lion guarding the gateway between the two
+seas. It rises almost perpendicularly on the east, and the town, with
+most of the batteries, has been constructed on the western slope, which
+is more accessible. The famous rock, though a natural dependency of
+Spain, has become, by right of conquest, one of the great strongholds
+of England, and its {401} importance as a fortress as well as a place
+of commerce is indisputable. In its caverns have been discovered stone
+implements and the skeletons of dolichocephalous men.
+
+The frequent intercourse between Andalusia and the Berber countries
+on the other side of the strait is explained by vicinity as well as
+by similarity of climate. Algarve, Huelva, and the lower valley of
+the Guadalquivir, as far as Seville and Écija, that “stewing-pan” or
+“furnace” of Spain, form one of the hottest districts of Europe, and
+the coast, from Algeciras and Gibraltar to Cartagena, Alicante, and
+the Cabo de la Nao, is hardly inferior to it. The country around the
+Bay of Cádiz and the hilly districts in the extreme south, which are
+freely exposed to the _virazon_, or sea breeze, enjoy a more temperate
+climate. In the two torrid coast regions delineated above frosts are
+hardly known, and the mean temperature of the coolest month reaches 54°
+F. The heat is greatest around the bays exposed to the full influence
+of the hot African winds, and least on the Atlantic seaboard, where
+westerly breezes moderate it. Contrary atmospheric currents naturally
+meet in the Strait of Gibraltar, where the wind is generally high, and
+tempests are frequent in winter. Westerly winds prevail during winter,
+easterly winds in summer. The two promontories of Europe and Africa
+are looked upon by mariners as trustworthy signallers of the weather:
+when they are wrapped in clouds or mists rain and easterly winds may be
+looked for, but when their profiles stand out clearly against the blue
+sky it is a sure sign of fine weather and westerly winds.[142]
+
+The dry and semi-tropical climate of Lower Andalusia frequently
+exercises a most depressing influence upon Northern Europeans. In the
+plain and along the coast it hardly ever rains during summer, and the
+heat is sometimes stifling, for the trade winds of the tropics are
+unknown. At Cadiz the land wind blowing from the direction of Medina
+Sidonia, and hence known as _medina_, is suffocating, and quarrels and
+even murders are said to occur most frequently whilst it lasts. But the
+most dreaded wind is the _solano_ or _levante_, which is hot as the
+blast from a furnace. A curious vapour, known as _calina_, then appears
+on the southern horizon, the air is filled with dust, leaves wither,
+and sometimes birds drop in their flight as if suffocated.
+
+In the temperate regions of Europe summer is the season of flowers and
+foliage, but in Andalusia it is that of aridity and death. Except in
+gardens and irrigated fields all vegetation shrivels up and assumes a
+greyish tint like that of the soil. But when the equinoctial autumn
+rains fall in the lowlands, and snows in the mountains, the plants
+recover rapidly, and a second spring begins. In February vegetation
+is most luxuriant, but after March heat and dryness again become the
+order of the day. Indeed, Andalusia suffers from a want of moisture.
+There are steppes without water, trees, or human habitations, the most
+extensive being on {402} the Lower Genil, where the depressions are
+occupied by salt lakes, as in Algeria or Persia, and cultivation is
+impossible. Another steppe of some extent stretches to the east of
+Jaen, and is known as that of Mancha Real. The barren tracts on the
+Mediterranean slopes are relatively even of greater extent than those
+in the basin of the Guadalquivir. The volcanic region of the Sierra
+de Gata is a complete desert, where castles and towers erected for
+purposes of defence are the only buildings. Elsewhere the coast is
+occupied by saline plains, which support a vegetation mainly consisting
+of salsolaceæ, plumbagineæ, and cruciferæ, five per cent. of the
+species of which are African. Barilla, the ashes of which are used in
+the manufacture of soda, grows plentifully there.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 152.—THE STEPPES OF ECIJA.
+
+Scale 1 : 750,000.]
+
+In the popular mind, however, Andalusia has at all times been
+associated with fertility. Its name recalls the oranges of Seville,
+the luxuriant vegetation of the Vega of Granada, the “Elysian Fields,”
+and the “Garden of the Hesperides,” which the ancients identified with
+the valley of the Bætis. The indigenous flora entitles Andalusia to
+its epithet of the “Indies of Spain,” and, in addition to {403} the
+tropical plants from Asia and Africa which grow there spontaneously,
+we meet with others which have been successfully acclimatized.
+Dates, bananas, and bamboos grow side by side with caoutchouc-trees,
+dragon’s-blood trees, magnolias, chirimoyas, erythrinas, azedarachs;
+ricinus and stramonium shoot up into veritable trees; the cochineal
+cactus of the Canaries and the ground-nut of the Senegal do well; sweet
+potatoes, cotton, and coffee are cultivated with success; and the
+sugar-cane succeeds in sheltered places. The coast between Motril and
+Málaga is supposed to yield annually £20,000 worth of sugar.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 153.—ZONES OF VEGETATION ON THE COAST OF ANDALUSIA.]
+
+The fauna of Andalusia presents, also, some African features. The
+molluscs met with in Morocco exist likewise in Andalusia; the ichneumon
+may be seen on the right bank of the Lower Guadalquivir and elsewhere;
+the chameleon is plentiful; and a species of wild goat is said to be
+common to the mountains of Morocco and the Sierra Nevada. Nor should we
+forget to state that an African monkey (_Inuus sylvanus)_ still lives
+on the rock of Gibraltar, but whether he has been imported has not yet
+been determined.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In the dawn of European history Andalusia was probably inhabited by an
+Iberian race akin to that of the Basques. The Bastulæ, Bastarnæ, and
+Bastesæ, in the hills facing the Mediterranean, and the Turdetani and
+Turduli of the valley of the Bætis, bore Euskarian names, as did many
+of their towns. But even thus early they must have been a mixed race.
+Celtic tribes held the hills extending to the north-west of the Bætis,
+in the direction of Lusitania; the Turdetani, who were relatively
+civilised, for they possessed written laws, permitted Phœnicians,
+Carthaginians, and Greeks to settle amongst them, and in the end became
+thoroughly Latinised. Municipal charters discovered at Málaga, and more
+recently at Osuna (_Colonia Julia Genitiva_), prove that the cities of
+this province enjoyed a considerable degree of self-government.
+
+When the Roman world broke down, Southern Spain was invaded by Vandals,
+{404} Byzantines, and Visigoths, to whom succeeded Arabs, Berbers, and
+Jews. The influence exercised upon the country by the Moors—that is, by
+a mixed race of Arabs and Berbers—has been more abiding than that of
+their Teutonic predecessors. They maintained themselves for more than
+seven centuries, were numerous in the towns, and cultivated the fields
+conjointly with the ancient inhabitants of the country. When the order
+of exile went forth against their whole race, Moorish blood circulated
+in the veins of those who were charged with the execution of this
+harsh measure. In certain portions of Andalusia, and more especially
+in the Alpujarras, where the Moors maintained their independence until
+the end of the sixteenth century, the mixture between the two races
+had made such progress that religious profession, and not the colour
+of the skin, decided nationality. Numerous Arabic words and phrases
+have found their way into the Andalusian dialect, and the geographical
+nomenclature of many districts is Arabic rather than Iberian or Latin.
+Most of the large buildings in the towns are _alcázars_, or mosques,
+and even the style of modern structures is Arabic, modified to some
+extent by Roman influences. The houses, instead of looking upon the
+street, face an interior court, or _patio_, where the members of the
+family meet by the side of a cool fountain. No further ethnical element
+has been added to the population since the epoch of the Arabs, for the
+few German colonists who settled at Carolina, Carlota, and elsewhere
+did not prosper, and either returned to their native country or became
+merged in the general population.
+
+The Andalusians have frequently been called the Gascons of Spain. They
+are generally of graceful and supple build, of seductive manners,
+and full of eloquence, but the latter is too frequently wasted upon
+trifles. Though not devoid of bravery, the Andalusian is a great
+boaster, and his vanity often causes him to pass the bounds of truth.
+At the same time he is of a contented mind, and does not allow poverty
+to affect his spirit. The mountaineers differ in some respects from the
+dwellers in the plains. They are more reserved in their manners, and
+the _Jaetanos_, or mountaineers of Jaen, are known as the Galicians of
+Andalusia. The beauty of the highland women is of a more severe type,
+and, compared with the charming Gaditanes and the fascinating _majas_
+of Seville, the women of Granada, Guadix, and Baza are remarkable for
+an air of haughty nobleness.
+
+No doubt there are men in Bætica who work, but as a rule love of labour
+is not amongst the virtues of the Andalusian. The country might become
+the great tropical storehouse of Europe, but its immense resources
+remain undeveloped. To some extent this is explained by the fact that
+nearly the whole country is owned by great landlords. Many estates,
+which formerly were carefully cultivated, have been converted into
+sheep-walks, and for miles we meet neither houses nor human beings. The
+highlands, too, belong to large proprietors, but are leased to small
+farmers, who pay one-third of their product in lieu of rent.
+
+The magnificent orange groves of Seville, Sanlúcar, and other towns,
+the olive groves, vineyards, and orchards of Málaga, supply the world
+with vast quantities of fruit; its productive corn-fields have made
+Andalusia one of the great granaries of the world; but it is mainly
+its wines which enable it to take a share in {405} international
+commerce. Immense quantities of the wine known as sherry are grown in
+the vineyards of Jerez, to the east of Cádiz. Many of the vineyards
+belong to Englishmen, and merchants of that nation are busily occupied
+in blending and other operations peculiar to their trade. Several
+wines, however, maintain their superior character to the present time.
+Such are the sweet _tintilla_ of Rota, _manzanilla_, and _pajarate_,
+made from dried grapes. In spite of many malpractices, this branch of
+industry has exercised a most beneficial influence upon the character
+of the population. Santa María, on the Bay of Cádiz, is one of the
+great wine ports of the world, and Spain has become a formidable rival
+of its northern neighbour.[143]
+
+The ancient manufacturing industry of the country can hardly be said to
+exist any longer, but mining is still carried on. Strabo exaggerates
+the mineral wealth of the country, which is nevertheless very great.
+Nearly all the productive mining districts of Southern Spain are in the
+hills. The Sierra de Gádor is said to contain “more metal than rock.”
+Hundreds of argentiferous lead, copper, and iron mines have been opened
+there, and in the sierras of Guadix, Baza, and Almería. Near Linares,
+on the Upper Guadalquivir, there are lead mines yielding about 210,000
+tons annually. The silver mines of Constantina and Guadalcanal, in the
+Sierra Morena, are being worked only at intervals. The coal basins of
+Bélmez and Espiel, to the north of Córdova, promise to become of great
+importance, although the output at present hardly exceeds 200,000 tons
+a year. Deposits of iron and copper exist near them.
+
+But of all the mines of Spain those situated in the province of Huelva
+are the most productive. The Silurian rocks there are wonderfully
+rich in pyrites of copper. The mines of Rio Tinto strike the beholder
+by their stupendous extent; and the existence of ancient galleries,
+buildings, and inscriptions proves that they have been worked since the
+most remote time. The invasion of the Vandals temporarily put a stop to
+the work, which was only resumed in 1730. The two principal deposits
+have been computed to contain no less than 300,000,000 tons of ore. The
+deposits at Tharsis are much less extensive, but within easier reach of
+Huelva. They contain 14,000,000 tons of iron and copper pyrites, and
+are worked like an open quarry. The deposit is no less than 450 feet
+in thickness, and some of the ores yield twenty per cent. of copper.
+Immense heaps of scoriæ have accumulated near the mine, where they are
+bedded in regular strata dating back to the time of the Carthaginians.
+The sulphurous vapours rising from hundreds of furnaces poison the
+air and destroy the vegetation. The rivers Odiel and Rio Tinto run
+with ferruginous water which kills the fish; yellow ochre is thrown up
+along their banks; and in their estuary is precipitated a blackish mud
+consisting of the metal mixed with the sulphur of decomposed marine
+animals.[144] {406}
+
+Andalusia, though a desert in comparison with what it might be, rivals
+Italy in the fame and beauty of its cities. The names of Granada,
+Córdova, Seville, and Cádiz awaken in our mind the most pleasing
+memories, for these old Moorish towns have become identified with a
+great advance in arts and science.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 154.—THE MINES OF HUELVA.
+
+Scale 1 : 487,300.]
+
+[Illustration: PEASANTS OF CORDOVA, ANDALUSIA.]
+
+Their advantageous geographical position accounts for their prosperity,
+past and present. Córdova and Seville command the fertile plain of
+the Guadalquivir, and the roads crossing the gaps of the neighbouring
+mountains converge upon them; Granada has its plentiful supply of
+water and rich fields; Huelva, Cádiz, {407} Málaga, and Almería are
+considerable seaports; and Gibraltar occupies a commanding position
+between two seas. There are other towns less populous, but of great
+strategical importance, as they command the roads joining the valleys
+of the Genil and Guadalquivir to the sea.
+
+Amongst the smaller towns which have played a part in history are
+several to the east of Granada, such as Velez Rubio and Velez
+Blanco, on the Mediterranean slope; Cullar de Baza, with its
+subterranean houses excavated in the gypsum, on the western slope of
+the _Vertientes_, or “the water-shed;” Huescar, the heir of an old
+Carthaginian city; and Baza, environed by a fertile plain known as
+_Hoya_, or “the hollow.”
+
+Granada, though it celebrates the anniversary of the entrance of
+Ferdinand and Isabella, is a very inferior place to what it was as
+the capital of a Moorish kingdom, when it had 60,000 houses and
+400,000 inhabitants, and was the busiest and wealthiest town of the
+peninsula. It is still the sixth city of Spain, but thousands of its
+ragged inhabitants live in hideous dens, and close to the picturesque
+suburb of Albaicin a mob largely composed of gipsies has settled down
+in nauseous caverns. Remains of Moorish buildings are met with only
+in the suburb named, but at some distance from the city there still
+exist edifices which bear witness to the glorious reign of its ancient
+masters. The _Torres Vermejas_, or “red towers,” occupy a hill to the
+south; the _Generalife_, with its delightful gardens, crowns another
+hill farther east; and between them rise the bastions and towers of the
+_Alhambra_, or “red palace,” even in its present dilapidated condition
+one of the masterpieces of architecture, which has served as a pattern
+to generations of artists. From the towers of this magnificent building
+we enjoy a prospect which indelibly impresses itself upon the memory.
+Granada, with its towers, parks, and villas, lies beneath. The course
+of the two rivers, Genil and Darro, can be traced amidst the foliage,
+whilst naked hills bound the verdant plain of La Vega, which has been
+likened to an “emerald enchased in a sapphire.” The contrast between
+these savage mountains and the fertile plain, between the beautiful
+city and precipitous rocks, struck the Moors with admiration, for they
+saw reflected in them their own nature—an outward impassiveness and a
+hidden fire. Granada, to them, was the “Queen of Cities,” the “Damascus
+of the West.” Nor are the modern Spaniards behind them in their
+admiration of Granada and its vicinity.
+
+There are other beautiful towns in the basin of the Genil, but none can
+compare with Granada, not even Loja, a “flower in the midst of thorns,”
+an oasis surrounded by rugged rocks and savage defiles. Jaen, however,
+almost rivals Granada. It, too, was the seat of a powerful Moorish
+king, the hills surrounding it are still crowned with the ruins of
+fortifications buried beneath luxuriant foliage, and the aspect of the
+town remains oriental to this day.
+
+The upper valley of the Guadalquivir abounds in cities. Baeza had more
+than 150,000 inhabitants in the time of the Moors, but wars depopulated
+it, many of the people removing to Granada. Close by is Ubeda, another
+Moorish town. Higher up in the hills is the mining town of Linares,
+hardly large enough to {408} shelter 8,000 residents, but actually
+inhabited by 40,000. In descending the river we pass Andújar, famous on
+account of its _alcarrazas_, and about twenty miles below the town of
+Montoro we reach the marble bridge of Alcolea, celebrated for the many
+battles which have been fought for its possession.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 155.—THE ALHAMBRA.]
+
+Córdova dates back to the dawn of civilisation. It has been famous and
+powerful at all times, and the Spanish noblemen are proud of tracing
+their origin back to this fountain-head of the “blue blood” (_sangre
+azul_) which is supposed to flow in the veins of Spanish nobles. It was
+under the Moors that Córdova reached the apogee of its grandeur; from
+the ninth century to the close of the twelfth it had nearly a million
+of inhabitants; and its twenty-four suburbs spread far and wide over
+the plain and along the lateral valleys. The wealth of its mosques,
+palaces, and private houses was prodigious; but, more glorious still,
+Córdova could boast of being the “nursery of science,” for it was the
+greatest university of the world, abounding in schools and libraries.
+Civil wars, foreign invasions, and religious fanaticism led to the
+dispersion of its libraries, and Córdova can no longer boast of being
+the first city of Andalusia. Most of the old monuments have perished,
+but there still exists the marvellous _mezquita_, or mosque, built at
+the close of the eighth century by Abderrahman and his son. The {409}
+interior was fitted up in the most lavish manner, the floors being
+paved with silver, and the walls covered with gold, precious stones,
+ivory, and ebony, but a considerable portion of the building has been
+pulled down to make room for a Spanish cathedral.
+
+The more fertile districts of the province of Córdova are at some
+distance from the Guadalquivir, in the hills to the south. Montilla,
+one of the towns there, is noted for its wines, as are Aguilar, Baena,
+Cabra, and Lucena, the latter boasting likewise of some manufactures.
+Between Córdova and Seville, a distance of over ninety miles, following
+the sinuosities of the river, we do not meet with a single town of
+note, for even Palma del Rio, at the mouth of the Genil, is only a
+small place, though of some importance as the outlet of Ecija, a large
+town higher up the Genil.
+
+Seville, the reigning queen of Andalusia, boasts of a few remarkable
+buildings, including the alcazar, a gorgeous cathedral, and the palace
+known as “Pilate’s House,” in which the Renaissance is admirably
+wedded with the Moorish style. But more famous than either of these is
+_Giralda’s Tower_, with the saint’s revolving statue on the top, like a
+weathercock. But neither these buildings nor Murillo’s fine paintings
+have won Seville its epithet of “Enchantress.” For this it is indebted
+to its gaiety and to a succession of fêtes, amongst which bull-fights
+figure prominently. Seville became Spanish about the middle of the
+thirteenth century. Its citizens valiantly defended their municipal
+liberties against the King of Castile, but they were defeated, and
+most of its inhabitants then fled to Barbary. The town was repeopled
+by Christian emigrants. Triana, however, a suburb with which an iron
+bridge connects it, is inhabited by gipsies, whose secret tribunal has
+its seat there. A short distance to the north of Triana are the ruins
+of the amphitheatre of Italica, the old rival of Seville, and the
+native town of Silius Italicus, and of the Emperors Trajan, Hadrian,
+and Theodosius. Coria, another Roman city, which had its own mint
+during the Middle Ages, lies below Seville.
+
+Seville has numerous potteries, but its silks and stuffs interwoven
+with gold and silver have ceased to command the markets of the world.
+The largest manufactory of the place, that of tobacco and cigars, is
+carried on by Government, and employs several thousand workmen.
+
+Alcalá de Guadaira, to the south-east of Seville, supplies the latter
+with bread, and its delicious springs feed the aqueduct known as Arcos
+de Carmona, thus called because it runs parallel with the old Roman
+road leading to Carmona (Carmo).
+
+The towns to the south of Seville are no longer of importance. Utrera,
+the most considerable amongst them, is a great railway centre, where
+the line to the marble quarries of Moron, and that passing through the
+fertile districts of Marchena and Osuna, branch off from the Andalusian
+main line. The town is well known to _aficionados_, or sportsmen, on
+account of the wild bulls which pasture in the neighbouring _marismas_.
+Lebrija, with its fine tower imitated from that of Giralda, is still
+nearer to these marshes, which extend almost to the mouth of the
+Guadalquivir. {410}
+
+Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, with its white
+and pink houses shaded by palms, is not now the great port it was in
+the time of the Arabs. It may justly boast of having sent forth, in
+1519, the first vessel which circumnavigated the globe, but it is
+now rather a pleasure resort than a place of commerce. Jerez de la
+Frontera, in the basin of the Guadalete, is the busiest town between
+Seville and Cádiz. It is a neat and showy place, surrounded by immense
+_bodegas_, or wine vaults, in which are stored the wines grown in the
+fertile valley of Guadalete, and known as sherry. Near Arcos de la
+Frontera, in the upper part of the valley, is pointed out the site
+upon which was fought the famous battle which delivered Spain to the
+Mussulmans.
+
+The Bay of Cádiz, so well sheltered against winds and waves by the
+tongue of land which begins at the island of Leon, is surrounded by
+numerous towns, forming, as it were, but a single city. Rota, on the
+northern coast of the bay, is encircled by walls of cyclopean aspect.
+It is the resort of fishermen, and its vintners, though reputed
+Bœotians, produce one of the best wines of Spain. Farther south, at
+the mouth of the Guadalete, is the Puerto de Santa María, with its
+wine stores, at all times a bustling place. Puerto Real, the _Portus
+Gaditanus_, lies in a labyrinth of brackish channels, and is now merely
+a landing-place. The neighbouring dockyard, known as _Trocadero_, and
+the arsenal of Carraca, are frequently inhabited only by galley-slaves
+and their gaolers. The salt-pans near that place are most productive.
+
+San Fernando is the most important town on the island of Leon, to the
+south of Cádiz. The initial meridian of Spanish mariners is drawn
+through its observatory. Looking across the navigable channel of San
+Pedro, which separates the island from the main, we perceive the
+villas of Chiclana, famous as the training-place of the _toreros_, or
+bull-fighters, of Andalusia. Turning to the north, we reach the narrow
+ridge of the Arrecife, which may be likened to a stalk with Cádiz as
+its expanded flower. Boatmen point out the supposed ruins of a temple
+of Hercules, now covered by the sea; and thus much is certain, that the
+land is at present subsiding, though this subsidence must have been
+preceded by an upheaval, as the peninsula upon which Cádiz has been
+built rests upon a foundation of shells, oysters, and molluscs.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 156.—CADIZ AND ITS ROADSTEAD.]
+
+We pass several forts, cross the ramparts of the Cortadura, erected in
+1811, and at length find ourselves in the famous city of Cádiz, the
+heir of the Gadir of the Phœnicians, called Gadira by the Greeks, and
+Gades by the Romans. Cádiz was the leading city of Iberia when that
+country first became known. Like other cities, it has known periods of
+decay, but its great geographical advantages have always enabled it to
+recover quickly. It is the natural outlet of an extensive and fertile
+region, and its position near the extremity of the continent enables
+it successfully to compete with Lisbon for the trade of the New World.
+Palos may boast of having sent forth the _caravelas_ which discovered
+the West Indies, but it was Cádiz which reaped all the advantages
+of this discovery, more especially since the Tribunal of the Indies
+was transferred to it from Seville (1720). In 1792 Cádiz exported
+merchandise valued at £2,500,000 sterling to America, {411} {412} and
+received precious metals and other articles of a value of £7,000,000 in
+return. Soon afterwards Spain paid for a commercial monopoly maintained
+during three centuries by the sudden loss of her colonies, and Cádiz
+found itself dependent upon its fisheries and salt-pans. But recently
+fortune has again smiled upon the city, and its harbours are crowded
+with merchantmen.[145] Cádiz, with the towns surrounding its bay, has
+a population of 200,000 souls. The site of the city proper is limited
+by nature, and its houses have been built to a height of five and six
+stories. The inhabitants are fond of pleasure, vivacious, and quick at
+repartee. They have at all times shown themselves to be good patriots,
+and it was on the island of Leon that the Cortes met to protest against
+the occupation of the country by the French.
+
+Almería, on the Mediterranean coast of Andalusia, rivalled Cádiz in
+importance as long as it remained in the possession of the Moors,
+but prosperity fled the place immediately the Spaniards occupied it.
+Subsequently the town suffered greatly from the pirates of Barbary,
+as is proved by the fortress-like cathedral built in the sixteenth
+century. The aspect of the place, with its narrow streets and old
+_kasba_, is quite oriental.
+
+The towns to the west of Almería have a tropical climate and tropical
+productions. Dailas, said to be the first permanent settlement of the
+Arabs, is famous for its raisins; to it succeed Adra, at the mouth
+of the Rio Grande of Alpujarra, Motril, Vélez Málaga, and Málaga,
+embosomed in gardens watered by the Guadalmedina.
+
+Málaga, like most of the ports on that coast, is of Phœnician origin,
+and the most populous town of Andalusia. Less rich than Granada,
+Córdova, and Seville in Moorish monuments, or than Cádiz in historical
+traditions, it is indebted to its port and to the fertile country
+surrounding it for its commercial pre-eminence. Its exports, consisting
+of raisins (_pasas_), almonds, figs, lemons, oranges, wine, olive oil,
+&c., are the product of the immediate vicinity. There are foundries,
+sugar refineries, and factories. Seen from the sea, the cathedral
+appears to be almost as large as the rest of the town, but in the
+latter must be included not only the houses standing at the foot of
+the citadel of Gibralfaro, but also the numerous villas dotting the
+surrounding hills. Nay, even the picturesque towns and watering-places
+in the neighbouring mountains, such as Alora, Alhaurin, Carratraca, and
+Alhama, may be looked upon as dependencies of the city, for scarcely
+any but _Malagueños_ resort to them.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 157.—GIBRALTAR.
+
+Scale 1 : 150,000.]
+
+Antequera and Ronda, in the interior of the country, belong to the
+basin of the Mediterranean, for the one stands on the Guadalhorce,
+which enters the sea near Málaga, whilst the other occupies a position
+in the upper basin of the Guadiaro, which washes the foot of the hills
+of San Roque, to the north of Gibraltar. Antequera is one of the most
+ancient towns of Spain, and acts as an intermediary between Málaga and
+the valley of the Guadalquivir. On a hill near it stands a curious
+dolmen, twenty feet in height, known as _Cueva del Mengal_. {413} The
+picturesque Moorish town of Ronda is surrounded on three sides by a
+gorge 600 feet in depth, 120 to 300 feet wide, and spanned by three
+bridges, one Roman, one Arab, and the last (built 1740–88) Spanish.
+Ronda still possesses some strategical importance, for it defends the
+road leading from the valley of the Genil to that of the Guadiaro. The
+_Rondeños_ are noted for the skill with which they train horses for
+mountain travel. They are notorious smugglers, as are also many {414}
+of the inhabitants of the small seaport towns of Marbella, Estepona,
+and Algeciras, near Gibraltar.[146]
+
+The rock of Gibraltar, of which the English obtained possession in
+1704, has not only been converted into a first-rate fortress, but is
+likewise a busy place of commerce. Gibraltar produces nothing except a
+little fruit, and most of its provisions, including meat and corn, are
+imported from Tangiers, in Morocco. The inhabitants of the town are
+dependent for their support upon passing vessels, the English garrison,
+and a brisk contraband trade with Spain. Gibraltar affords very
+indifferent shelter, and only one-fourth of the vessels passing through
+the strait call there, and even these generally confine themselves
+to replenishing their stock of coal. Nor is a residence on this
+picturesque rock very pleasurable, for fevers prevail, and the military
+character of the place entails numerous restrictions. During the heat
+of summer many of the English residents—facetiously called “lizards of
+the rock”—seek refuge at San Roque, a village to the north of the bay,
+the neighbourhood of which affords excellent sport.[147]
+
+
+IV.—THE MEDITERRANEAN SLOPE OF THE GREAT PLATEAU. MURCIA AND
+VALENCIA.[148]
+
+In a few hours we are able to travel from the inhospitable plateaux to
+the hot valleys and plains of Murcia and Valencia debouching upon the
+Mediterranean.
+
+[Illustration: GIBRALTAR, AS SEEN FROM THE “LINES.”]
+
+The spurs from the Sierra Nevada, which approach the coast to the
+north of the Cabo de Gata, are separated by _ramblas_, or torrent
+beds, and gradually decrease in height as we proceed north. The
+torrent of Almanzora separates the Sierra de los Filabros from its
+northern continuation, the Sierra de Almenara, which for a considerable
+distance runs parallel with the coast. It sends out a spur in the
+direction of Cartagena, which terminates in Cabo de Palos. The inland
+ranges run almost parallel with this coast range, and are separated
+by longitudinal valleys opening out into the great transverse one of
+the Segura. These ranges are the Sierra de María, “el Gigante” (4,918
+feet), with the Sierra de Espuña (5,190 feet), the Sierra de Taibilla,
+the Calar del Mundo (5,440 feet), and the Sierra de Alcaraz {415}
+(5,910 feet). The ranges to the north and east of the Segura must be
+looked upon as continuations of those mentioned. They attain their
+greatest altitude in the Moncabrer (4,543 feet), and their spurs form
+several notable promontories, amongst which are the volcanic Peñon
+de Ifach and the Cabos de la Nao and San António. Near the latter
+rises the Mongo (2,337 feet), which has become known as a crucial
+trigonometrical station.
+
+The mountains which dominate the valley of the Júcar present the
+feature of a denuded plateau, above which rise a few isolated summits.
+The aspect of the basin of the Guadalaviar is far more mountainous. On
+the west it is bounded by the sierras having their nucleus in the Muela
+de San Juan (5,280 feet), and to the east rise the imposing mountain
+masses of the Javalambre (6,569 feet) and Peña Golosa (5,942 feet). The
+summits of the range which extends from the latter to the great bend
+of the Lower Ebro, such as the Muela de Ares (4,332 feet), the Tosal
+de Encanades (4,565 feet), and Bosch de la Espina (3,868 feet), bear
+Catalan names. A range of inferior heights runs parallel with it along
+the coast, the interval between the two forming a strath, or vale. This
+coast range terminates abruptly in the Sierra de Montsia (2,500 feet),
+close to the delta of the Ebro, and before the pent-up waters of the
+river had excavated themselves a path to the sea it extended right to
+the Pyrenees.
+
+All these mountains are for the most part naked, and shrubs appear like
+black patches upon their whitish slopes. They stand out clearly against
+the blue and limpid sky, whose transparency has won Murcia the title of
+the “most serene kingdom.” The climate in the valley of the Segura is
+even more African in its character than that of Andalusia. There are
+only two seasons, summer and winter, the latter lasting from October to
+January, but the temperature throughout the year is equable, owing to
+the mistral which blows from the cool plateau and the sea breezes.
+
+The flora, especially along the coast of Murcia, is a mixture of
+tropical and temperate plants. There are trees which shed their leaves
+in winter, others which retain their foliage throughout the year, and
+by the side of wheat, rice, maize, olives, oranges, and grapes are
+grown cotton, sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, nopals, agaves, and dates.
+Tropical diseases have found a congenial soil in this country. Yellow
+fever has been imported occasionally from America. The putrefying
+substances left upon the fields after floods poison the air, and the
+brackish waters of the lagoons, or _albuferas_, are the breeding-places
+of fever. The salt lakes to the south of the Segura, however, exercise
+no deleterious influence upon the climate.
+
+Nowhere else in Spain is the rainfall so inconsiderable. Between
+Almería and Cartagena only eight inches fall during the year; in the
+environs of Alicante and Elche the rains are, perhaps, a trifle more
+copious; and at Murcia and Valencia, which lie at the foot of mountains
+that intercept the moisture-laden winds, they are more abundant still,
+though even there they do not exceed eighteen inches. Moreover, most of
+the rain is immediately absorbed by the thirsty air, and only a very
+small quantity finds its way through _ramblas_ to the sea. The quantity
+is altogether insufficient for agricultural purposes, and if it were
+not for the rivers the {416} country would be a desert. Cultivation
+is carried on only along the rivers and in a few other favoured spots.
+Veritable steppes extend on both banks of the Segura. The _campos_
+between Almería and Villajoyosa, for a distance of 300 miles, are
+sterile and bare. The brine and magnesia springs, which rise at the
+foot of the saliferous triassic rocks, fill small lakes, which dry up
+in summer, and in August the lagoons near Orihuela become covered with
+a thick crust of salt.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 158.—STEPPES OF MURCIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 992,000.]
+
+{417}
+
+The beneficent rivers, whose waters are drunk by the _huertas_, or
+gardens, near their banks, are the Segura, Vinalapo, Júcar, Guadalaviar
+(known as Turia in its lower course), Mijaros, and several others.
+They all resemble each other as regards the ruggedness of their upper
+valleys and the savageness of the gorges through which they pass.
+The Segura forces itself a passage through several mountain defiles
+before it reaches the plain of Murcia. The Júcar and Guadalaviar
+(Wad-el-Abiad, or “white river”) have fewer obstacles to overcome,
+but some of the gorges through which they pass are nevertheless of
+surpassing beauty.
+
+The volume of these rivers is comparatively small, and the husbandmen
+dwelling along their banks economize the water as far as possible.
+Reservoirs, or _pantanos_, have been constructed at the outlet of
+each valley, whence the water is distributed over the fields by means
+of innumerable canals of irrigation. The irrigated huertas contrast
+most favourably with the cultivated campos in their neighbourhood.
+Irrigation has probably been practised at Valencia since the time of
+the Romans, but the Moors appear to have been the first to construct a
+regular system of canals. Eight of these, ramifying into innumerable
+_acequias_, have converted the environs of Valencia into an Eden.
+Carefully manured as they are, these fields are never allowed to lie
+fallow. Stalks of maize fifteen and even twenty-five feet in height
+may be seen in the gardens, the mulberry-tree yields three or four
+harvests annually, four or five crops are obtained from the same field,
+whilst the grass is mown as many as nine or ten times. This luxuriant
+vegetation, however, is said to be watery, and hence the proverb,
+“In Valencia meat is grass, grass is water, men are women, and women
+nought.”
+
+The huertas of the Júcar, though less famous than those of Valencia,
+are even more productive. Orange-trees predominate, and around Alcira
+and Carcagente alone 20,000,000 oranges are picked annually, and
+exported to Marseilles.
+
+The oases in the great steppe which extends from Alcoy to Almería are
+less fertile than those on the Júcar and Guadalaviar. That of Alicante
+is fertilised by the Castalla, the waters of which are collected
+in the reservoir of Tibi. The huerta of Elche, on the Vinalapo, is
+chiefly occupied by a forest of palm-trees, the principal wealth of the
+inhabitants, who export the dates to France, and the leaves to Italy
+and the interior of Spain.
+
+The huerta around Orihuela, on the Lower Segura, cannot boast of a palm
+forest like that of Elche, but is more productive. The inhabitants
+of Murcia, higher up on the same river, though they enjoy similar
+advantages, have failed to profit by them to the same extent. Their
+huerta, which contains a third of the total population of the province,
+is fertile, but cannot compare with that of their neighbours. Nor do
+the fields of Lorca equal them. They have not yet recovered from the
+bursting of a reservoir, the freed waters of which carried destruction
+as far as Murcia and Orihuela.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The moral and physical character of the inhabitants of a country
+exhibiting such great contrasts could hardly fail to present
+corresponding differences, and, indeed, we find that the inhabitants
+of the fertile gardens and those of the barren steppes and mountains
+differ essentially, in spite of their common origin. {418}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 159.—THE PALM GROVE OF ELCHE.]
+
+[Illustration: PEASANTS OF LA HUERTA, AND CIGARRERA OF VALENCIA.]
+
+The people of Murcia cannot be said to have issued victoriously from
+the struggle against barren rocks, desiccating winds, and a dry
+atmosphere. They abandon themselves to a fatalism quite oriental, and
+make hardly any effort at improvement. Lazily inclined, they take their
+siesta in and out of time, and even when awake preserve an aspect of
+impassiveness as if they pursued a reverie. They are not much given
+to gaiety, and, though neighbours of Andalusia and La Mancha, do not
+dance. They are full of rancour and savage hatred when offended, and
+have exercised but small influence upon the destinies of Spain. They
+cannot compare in industry with Catalans, Navarrese, and Galicians,
+nor in intelligence with natives of any other part of Spain. The
+Valencians, on the other hand, are an industrious race. They not only
+cultivate their plains, but scale the barren slopes of the rocks with
+their terraced gardens. They are a gay people, famous for their dances.
+Ferocious instincts are asserted to underlie this outward gaiety, and a
+proverb says that “the paradise of La Huerta is inhabited by demons.”
+Human life is held very {419} cheaply in Valencia. Formerly that
+town supplied the courtiers of Madrid with hired assassins, and the
+numerous crosses in and around it are evidence of so many murders
+committed in the heat of passion. In Valencia, however, the use of the
+knife is a tradition of chivalry, as are duels in some other parts of
+Europe. The conscience of the murderer is perfectly at ease; he wipes
+the blood-stained knife upon his girdle, and immediately afterwards
+cuts his bread with it. The dress of the Valencians consists of loose
+drawers confined round the waist by a red or violet scarf, velvet
+waistcoats with pieces of silver, white linen gaiters leaving the
+knees and ankles bare, a bright kerchief wrapped round the shaved
+head, and a low hat with brim turned up and ornamented with ribbons. A
+many-coloured cloak with a broad fringe completes this costume, and,
+draped in it, even the meanest beggar possesses an air of distinction.
+In their customs and modes of thought the Valencians differ equally
+from their neighbours. They speak a Provençal dialect, mixed with
+many Arabic words, but more closely related to the language of the
+troubadours than the dialect of the Catalans.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 160.—THE PALM GROVE OF ELCHE AND THE HUERTAS OF
+ORIHUELA.
+
+Scale 1 : 400,000.]
+
+Agriculture is the leading pursuit of Valencia and Murcia, and a few
+branches of industry are carried on. Many hands are occupied in making
+the white wines of Alicante and the red ones of Vinaroz and Benicarló;
+the grapes of the vineyards of Denia, Javea, and Gandia, to the north
+of Cabo de la Nao, are converted {420} by a complicated process into
+raisins; and the _esparto grass_ growing abundantly on the sunny slopes
+of Albacete and Murcia is employed in the manufacture of mats, baskets,
+sandals, and a variety of other objects.[149] There are hundreds of
+metalliferous lodes, but only the lead mines in the hills of Herrerías,
+to the east of Cartagena, are being worked on a large scale, and that
+by foreigners. Zinc has been worked since 1861, and mines of copper,
+lead, silver, mercury, and rock-salt abound at some distance from the
+coast; but, from want of means of communication, their exploitation
+would not pay.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 161.—RUINS OF THE DYKE OF THE RESERVOIR ABOVE
+LORCA.]
+
+Valencia is the more industrial province of the two. Albacete
+manufactures the dreaded _navajas_, or long knives; Murcia has
+silk-mills; Cartagena rope-walks and other establishments connected
+with shipping; Játiva has a few paper-mills; but Valencia and Alcoy are
+now the great centres of industry. The former {421} manufactures the
+plaids worn by the peasantry, silks and linens, earthenware and glazed
+tiles. Alcoy supplies most of the paper for making Spanish cigarettes.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 162.—PEASANTS OF MURCIA.]
+
+{422}
+
+The towns of Albacete and Almansa are important, as lying on the
+great high-road which connects the plateau of La Mancha with the
+Mediterranean seaboard. But they cannot vie in wealth and population
+with the towns situated on the coast, or within twenty-five miles of
+it. Lorca, the southernmost of these towns, lies picturesquely on the
+slopes and at the foot of a hill crowned by a Moorish citadel. The old
+town, with narrow tortuous streets and the remains of Arab palaces, has
+been given up to Gitanos, and a new town with wide and straight streets
+built in the fertile plain irrigated by the Guadalentin. A fine road
+joins Lorca to the small harbour of Aguilas, twenty miles to the south.
+
+In descending the valley of the Guadalentin we pass Totana, the
+head-quarters of the Gitanos of the country, and Alhama, well known
+on account of its hot springs, and finally enter the mulberry and
+orange groves which surround the capital of the province. Murcia,
+though an extensive city, hardly looks like it, for its streets are
+deserted, its houses without beauty, and the only objects of interest
+are the cathedral, the shady walks along the banks of the Segura, and
+the canals irrigating the terrace gardens. Far more interesting is
+the neighbouring Cartagena, which was destined by its Punic founders
+to become a second Carthage in truth, and its magnificent harbour
+certainly affords great advantages for commercial and military
+purposes. The discovery of the rich lead and silver mines near the town
+contributed much towards its prosperity. Successive Spanish Governments
+have attempted to restore to Cartagena its ancient strategical
+importance. They have constructed docks and arsenals, and erected
+impregnable fortifications, but, in spite of this, the population
+of the town is hardly a third of what it was in the middle of the
+eighteenth century. The character of its commerce is almost local,
+notwithstanding its excellent port, and esparto grass, mats, fruits,
+and ore constitute the leading articles of export.
+
+Alicante, though far less favoured by nature, is a much busier place,
+thanks to the fertility of the huertas of Elche, Orihuela, and Alcoy,
+and the railway which connects it with Madrid. Only small vessels
+can approach the quays and piers of the town, nestling at the foot
+of a steep rock crowned by a dismantled citadel. Larger vessels
+are compelled to anchor in an open roadstead. Other coast towns
+of Valencia, such as Denia and Cullera, offer still less shelter,
+but are nevertheless much frequented by coasting vessels. Formerly
+vessels which entered the Bay of Valencia during winter were bound
+to exercise the greatest caution, owing to violent easterly and
+north-north-easterly winds and fogs, for there existed not a single
+port of refuge. This want has now been supplied by the construction of
+a port at the mouth of the Guadalaviar, known as El Grao (strand) de
+Valencia.
+
+Valencia, the fourth city of Spain in population, is the natural centre
+of the most fertile huertas. The “City of the Cid” still preserves
+its crenellated walls, turrets, gates, narrow and tortuous streets,
+balconied houses, the windows of which are shaded by blinds, and
+awnings spread over the streets to protect passers-by from the rays
+of the sun. Amongst its numerous buildings there is but one which
+is really curious: this is the _Lonja de Seda_, or silk exchange, a
+graceful structure of the fifteenth century. Gardens constitute the
+real delight of Valencia, and {423} the Alameda, which extends along
+the banks of the Guadalaviar, is, perhaps, the finest city promenade in
+Europe. The commerce of Valencia rivals that of Cádiz.[150]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 163.—THE HARBOUR OF CARTAGENA.
+
+Scale 1 : 54,000.]
+
+To the north of Valencia the cultivable country along the coast is
+narrow, and incapable of supporting large towns. Castellon de la Plana,
+at the mouth of the Mijaros, has attained a certain importance, but
+farther north we only meet with small places inhabited by fishermen
+and vine-growers. Formerly the coast road was defended by castles,
+chief among which was Saguntum, famous for its glorious defence against
+Hannibal. Its site is occupied by the modern town of Murviedro, _i.e._
+“old walls,” and its ruins are not very imposing.[151]
+
+
+V.—THE BALEARIC ISLANDS.
+
+The Balearic Islands are attached to the mainland of Spain by a
+submarine {424} plateau, and are geographically as well as historically
+a dependency of Valencia and Catalonia. The ranges of hills traversing
+these islands have the same direction as those of Murcia and Valencia.
+On the other hand, the peninsula of La Baña, at the mouth of the Ebro,
+extends beneath the sea in the direction of Ibiza, and from this
+submarine tongue of land rises a group of volcanic rocks. These are the
+Columbretes, from the Latin _colubraria_, signifying “serpents’ islets.”
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 164.—EL GRAO DE VALENCIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 18,000.]
+
+The Baleares are small in area, but favoured by climate,
+productiveness, and natural beauty. They are the “Happy Islands” of
+the ancients, and, compared with many of the coast lands, are indeed a
+favoured region. War and pestilence have been no strangers to them, but
+continual troubles have not interfered with their development.
+
+The islands consist of two groups, the Pityuses and the Baleares
+proper. The name of the latter is said to refer to the expertness of
+the natives as slingers; and, when Q. Metellus prepared to land upon
+them, he took care to shelter his men beneath an awning of hides. The
+climate is moister and more equable than that of neighbouring Spain.
+Violent storms occur frequently.
+
+[Illustration: WOMEN OF IBIZA, BALEARIC ISLES.]
+
+The structures called _talayots_ (watch-towers) prove that the islands
+were inhabited before the historic epoch. These were built probably
+by the same race to whom the nuraghi of Sardinia owe their existence;
+but the present population is a very mixed one, for every nation of
+antiquity has successively invaded the island. {425} The language
+spoken is a Catalan dialect resembling that of Limousin. The Majorcans
+are generally small of stature, but well proportioned, and the women
+of some of the districts are famed for their beauty and expressive
+features. The peasantry are suspicious and thrifty, but honest and
+hospitable; and their dress, consisting of loose breeches, a belt, a
+bright-coloured vest, and a goatskin cloak, is picturesque. Dancing to
+the music of a guitar or flute is their favourite amusement.
+
+IBIZA (IVIZA), the largest island of the Pityuses, is hardly more than
+fifty miles from Cabo de la Nao. Its surface is hilly and intersected
+by numerous torrent beds. Puerto Magno (Pormany, or Grand Port) lies
+on the west side, and a similar bay, the trysting-place of numerous
+fishing-smacks, on the south side. On its shore stands the capital
+of the island, an ancient Carthaginian colony. A chain of islets and
+rocks, similar to the Adam’s Bridge of Ceylon, joins the southernmost
+cape of Ibiza to Formentera Island. The climate is said to be so
+salubrious that neither serpents nor other noxious reptiles can bear
+it. The population is small, in spite of the fertility of the island.
+Watch-towers and castles of refuge near every village recall the time
+when the inhabitants suffered from Moorish pirates. The islanders are
+happy, for the central Government leaves them pretty much to themselves.
+
+MALLORCA, or MAJORCA, the largest of the group, is the only one which
+can boast of a regular range of mountains, rising precipitously along
+the north-western coast, and culminating in the twin peaks of Silla
+de Torrella (4,940 feet) and Puig Mayor (4,920 feet). These mountains
+are amongst the most picturesque in all Europe, and from their summits
+may be enjoyed a magnificent prospect. The moufflon is said still
+to haunt their pine woods and recesses. The greater portion of the
+island consists of a plain lying at an elevation of 150 feet above the
+sea-level, and dotted over with isolated _puigs_, or conical peaks,
+surmounted in many instances by an old church or castle. The eastern
+extremity of the island is hilly, and the Bec de Farruch (1,863 feet)
+still bears its old Arabic name. Near it are the wonderful stalactite
+caverns of Arta, which extend beneath the sea. The extremities of the
+most depressed portion of the island open out towards two great bays,
+one in the north-east, the other in the south-west. Palma, the capital
+of the island, lies on the former of these, though the other, known
+as Puerto de Alcudia, would offer greater advantages were it not for
+the pestilential swamps which surround it. On the iron-bound northern
+coast there are no harbours, but coasting vessels frequent the creek of
+Soller, whence they export oranges.
+
+The peasants, or _pageses_, of Majorca have the reputation of being
+good agriculturists, but much of the progress made is due to Catalan
+immigrants. The island produces delicious wines (Benisalem), olive
+oil, oranges, vegetables, and pigs, all of which find a market at
+Barcelona or in France. The corn grown is not, however, sufficient for
+the support of the population, and Majorcans as well as “Mahonian”
+gardeners are met with in every town of the Mediterranean. Bay-salt
+is made at Cape Salinas. Shoes, cottons, linens, baskets, and porous
+vases are produced; but the manufacture of _majolica_ has ceased.
+Palma is a busy place of 40,000 inhabitants, and its bastioned walls,
+castle, cathedral, and amphitheatrically built houses present a fine
+appearance from the sea. The inhabitants are proud of {426} their
+public buildings, and assert that their _lonja_ is superior to that
+of Valencia. The _Chuctas_, or converted Jews, are a curious element
+of the population. They occupy a separate quarter, marry amongst
+themselves, and have preserved their race distinctions and mercantile
+genius. A large portion of the landed property of the island has passed
+into their hands. A railway traversing the rich districts of Santa
+María and Benisalem, to the south of the populous towns of Manacor and
+Felanitx, connects Palma with Alcudia.[152]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 165.—THE BALEARIC ISLANDS.
+
+Scale 1 : 3,700,000.]
+
+MENORCA, or MINORCA, twenty-four miles to the east of Majorca, is
+generally level, its culminating point, Monte Toro, in the centre of
+the island, only attaining a height of 1,171 feet. The strong northerly
+winds which sweep over its plains cause the trees to turn their
+branches in the direction of Africa, and orange-trees find shelter only
+in the _barrancas_, or ravines, which intersect them. The climate is
+less pleasant than that of the neighbouring island, and the soil less
+fertile, for, consisting for the most part of limestone, it rapidly
+absorbs the rain. There are two ports and two cities, one at each
+extremity of the island, which from time {427} immemorial have claimed
+precedence. Ciudadela (7,500 inhabitants) enjoys the advantage of
+closer proximity to Majorca, but its harbour is bad. Port Mahon (15,000
+inhabitants), on the other hand, possesses an admirable port, and
+Andreas Doria says with reference to it that “June, July, and Mahon are
+the best ports of the Mediterranean.” The English made Mahon a wealthy
+city, but its trade fell off immediately when they abandoned it in 1802.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 166.—VIEW OF IBIZA.]
+
+
+VI.—THE VALLEY OF THE EBRO. ARAGON AND CATALONIA.
+
+The central portion of the valley of the Ebro is as distinctly
+separated from the remainder of Spain as is that of the Guadalquivir.
+It forms a vast depression, bounded by the midland plateau of Spain and
+the Pyrenees, and if the waters of the Mediterranean were to rise 1,000
+feet, this ancient lake, which existed until its pent-up waters had
+forced themselves a passage through the mountains of {428} Catalonia,
+would be converted into a gulf of the sea. The Pyrenees in the north,
+the barren slopes of the plateaux to the south and south-west, form
+well-defined boundaries, but in the north-west the plain of the Ebro
+extends beyond Aragon, into a country inhabited by men of a different
+race.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 167.—THE PITYUSES.
+
+Scale 1 : 400,000.]
+
+Historically and geographically, Aragon and Catalonia form one of the
+great natural divisions of Spain, less extensive than the Castiles,
+but hardly less important, and far more densely populated.[153] The
+political destinies of Aragon and Catalonia have been the same for
+more than seven centuries, but, in spite of this, {429} there exist
+great contrasts, which have not been without their influence upon the
+character of the population. Aragon, a country of plains surrounded by
+mountains, is an inland province, and its inhabitants have remained for
+the most part herdsmen, agriculturists, and soldiers. Catalonia, on
+the other hand, possesses an admirable seaboard. Its natural wealth,
+joined to favourable geographical position, has developed commerce
+with neighbouring countries, and more especially with Roussillon and
+Languedoc. Indeed, seven or eight centuries ago, the Catalans were
+Provençals rather than Spaniards, and in their language and customs
+they were closely related to the people to the north of the Pyrenees.
+
+In the course of the great political revolution, the most terrible
+feature of which was the war of the Albigenses, Catalonia became a
+prey to the Castilians. As long as the Provençal world maintained its
+natural centre between Arles and Toulouse, the populations of the
+Mediterranean coasts, as far as the Ebro, Valencia, and the Baleares,
+were attracted towards it as to their common focus. Those Christian
+populations who found themselves placed between Provence on the one
+hand and the Arab kingdoms on the other, naturally gravitated towards
+the former, with whom they possessed community of race, religion, and
+language. Hence the wide range of the idiom known as Limousin, and
+its flourishing literature. But when an implacable war had converted
+several towns of the Albigenses into deserts; when the barbarians of
+the North had destroyed the civilisation of the South, and the southern
+slopes of the Cévennes had been reduced by violence to the position of
+a political dependency of the valley of the Seine, Catalonia was forced
+to look elsewhere for natural allies. The centre of gravity was shifted
+from the north to the south, from Southern France to the peninsula of
+the Pyrenees, and Castile secured what Provence had lost.
+
+The plateau to the south of the Ebro has been cut up, through the
+erosive action of rivers, into elongated sierras and isolated _muelas_
+(molars), and its edge is marked by numerous notches, through which
+these rivers debouch upon the plain. The Sierra de San Just (4,967
+feet), now separated from that of Gúdar by the upper valley of the
+Guadalupe, is a remnant of this ancient plateau, as are the Sierras de
+Cucalon (4,284 feet), de Vicor, and de la Virgen, which join it to the
+superb mass of the Moncayo, in the north-west; and the same applies to
+the Sierra de Almenara (4,687 feet), which rises to the west of them.
+
+The granitic mountain mass of the Moncayo (7,705 feet) has offered
+greater resistance to the erosive action of the waters than have the
+cretaceous rocks of the plateau to the east of it. The Moncayo is
+the storm-breeder of the plains of Aragon, and from its summit the
+Castilian can look down upon the wide valley of the Ebro. To the
+Aragonese the plateau is accessible only through the valleys of the
+Guadalupe, Martin, and Jiloca, and it is these which have enabled
+them to obtain possession of the upland of Teruel, which is of such
+strategical importance, from its commanding position between the basins
+of the Guadalaviar, Júcar, and Tajo.
+
+To the north of the Ebro rises the snow-clad range of the Pyrenees,
+which separates Spain from the rest of Europe. Several spurs descend
+from this master range into Aragon. But there are also independent
+ranges, one of which, that of {430} the Bardenas, rises immediately
+to the north of the Ebro, right opposite to the gigantic Moncayo. The
+parallel ridges of the Castellar and of the “district of the Five
+Towns” form a continuation of these hillocks to the east of the Arba,
+and then, crossing the valley of the Gallego, we reach the barren
+terraces of the Monegros, upon which rises the insular Sierra de
+Alcubierra, in the very centre of the ancient lake of Aragon. A saddle,
+elevated only 1,247 feet above the sea-level, connects the latter with
+the mountains of Huesca in the north.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 168.—PORT MAHON.
+
+Scale 1 : 50,000.]
+
+Several mountain masses of considerable height occupy the centre of
+the country, and separate these riverine hills from the main range of
+the Pyrenees. They consist for the most part of chalk, through which
+the bounteous rivers descending from the Pyrenees have excavated their
+beds. These channels, with their precipices, defiles, and cascades,
+form one of the most picturesque mountain districts of Spain. The most
+famous of these Pyrenean foot-hills is the Sierra de la Peña, which
+is separated from the Pyrenees by the deep valley of the Aragon. At
+the eastern extremity of this chain, high above the ancient city of
+Jaca, rises the pyramidal sandstone mass of the Peña de Oroel (5,804
+feet), from which we are able to embrace an immense horizon, extending
+from the Pyrenees to the Moncayo. The wild district which occupies the
+centre of this magnificent panorama is the famous country of Sobrarbe,
+held in high veneration by patriotic Spaniards, for it was there they
+commenced their struggles against the Moors.
+
+[Illustration: MONSERRAT, CATALONIA.]
+
+{431}
+
+An elevated saddle connects the Sierra de la Peña with the irregular
+mountain mass of the Sierra de Santo Domingo, to the south of it, whose
+spurs descend in terraces into the rugged plain of the Five Towns. It
+is separated by a narrow cleft, through which passes the Gallego from
+the Sierra de Guara, which extends to the river Cinca in the east, and
+several minor chains run parallel with it. This parallelism in the
+mountain ranges may be traced, likewise, as far as the river Segre.
+
+The Monsech, thus called from its arid calcareous ravines, presents the
+appearance of an unbroken rampart from the south, but is intersected
+at right angles by the gorges of two Nogueras—the Ribagorzana and
+Pallaresa. The Peña de San Gervas and the Sierra de Boumort, which rise
+to the north of it, are much less regular in their contours, but exceed
+it in height.
+
+The Pyrenees terminate with the gigantic mountains surrounding the
+valley of Andorra, and with the Peak of Carlitte (9,583 feet). The
+Sierra del Cadi (8,322 feet) belongs to a detached chain hardly
+inferior to them in height, and culminating on French soil in the
+superb pyramid of the Canigou (9,140 feet). Numerous spurs extend from
+this sierra towards the sea.
+
+In this rugged mountain region we meet with geological formations of
+every age, from the Silurian to the cretaceous. Iron, copper, and
+even gold abound, and might be worked with great profit if roads and
+railways penetrated into the upper valleys. A coal-field on the Upper
+Ter, near San Juan de las Abadesas, is being worked very sluggishly,
+and others on the western slope of the Cadi have not even been touched.
+The famous rocks of salt at Solsona and Cardona lie at the foot of the
+Sierra del Cadi, and that of Cardona alone, though it has been worked
+for centuries, is estimated to contain nearly 400,000,000 cubic yards.
+
+The abundance of mineral veins is due, perhaps, to the existence of
+subterranean lava lakes. The only volcanic hills in the north of Spain
+are those near Olot and Santa Pau, in the upper basin of the Fluvia.
+Immense sheets of basaltic lava have been ejected there during the
+tertiary age from fourteen craters, one of them, upon which stands the
+old town of Castelfollit, forming a huge rampart of picturesque aspect.
+Jets of steam issue even now from many fissures in the rocks.
+
+The mountains along the coast of Catalonia resemble in every respect
+those of Valencia, from which they are separated by the gorge of the
+Ebro. Near the mouths of that river the rugged and mountainous region
+extends about thirty miles inland, as far as the Llanos del Urgel;
+but farther north it widens, until it finally merges in the spurs
+descending from the Pyrenees. The principal summits are the Mont Sant
+(3,513 feet), the Puig de Montagut (2,756 feet), the Monserrat (4,057
+feet), and Monseny (5,276 feet). The best-known passes are at the head
+of the Francoli, through which runs the railway from Tarragona to
+Lérida, the pass at the head of the Noya, and the Pass of Calaf.
+
+Of the last-named mountains that of Monserrat is the most famous, for
+suspended upon one of its flanks hang the remains of the celebrated
+monastery in which Loyola deposited his sword. Monserrat has lost
+its prestige as a holy place, but still remains one of the most
+interesting subjects for the study of {432} geologists. It consists
+of conglomerate, and has been worn by atmospheric agencies into
+innumerable pillars, pinnacles, and earth pyramids surmounted by huge
+boulders. Hermitages and the ruins of castles abound, and the prospect
+from the highest summit extends from the Pyrenees to the Balearic Isles.
+
+Crossing the valleys of the Llobregat and Ter, we reach the
+swampy plain of Ampurdan, an old gulf of the sea, and with it the
+north-eastern extremity of Spain, separated from France by the
+Albères Mountains. The surrounding hills abound in the remains of
+ecclesiastical buildings. One of these, near Cabo de Creus, the
+easternmost promontory of Spain, and the Aphrodision of the ancients,
+marks the site of a temple of Venus.
+
+The basin of the Ebro forms a huge triangle, the mountains of Catalonia
+being the base, whilst its apex lies in the hills of Cantabria, close
+to the Atlantic. The surrounding hills differ much in height, but the
+nucleus of all consists of granite, upon which have been deposited
+sedimentary strata, the silent witnesses of the gradual filling up of
+the old inland lake. The river itself traverses the very centre of
+this triangle, at right angles to the Mediterranean, and only when it
+reaches the mountain barrier separating it from the sea does it wind
+about in search of an outlet.
+
+The Fontibre, or “fountain of the Ebro,” gives birth at once to a
+considerable stream, which, fed by the snows of the Peña Labra, rushes
+with great impetuosity past Reinosa (2,687 feet), then passes through a
+succession of defiles, and finally, having received the Ega and Aragon
+with the Argo from the north, emerges from Navarra a great river. Below
+Tudela (800 feet) it is large enough to feed two canals, viz. that of
+Tauste, which carries fertility into the once-sterile tracts at the
+foot of Bardenas, and the navigable Imperial Canal, which follows the
+valley down to Zaragoza. The ordinary volume of the latter amounts
+to no less than 494 cubic feet per second, but much of this water is
+sucked up by the calcareous soil.
+
+The tributary rivers which enter the Ebro in the plains of Aragon
+compensate for the loss sustained through canals of irrigation. The
+Jalon, Huerva, Martin, and Guadalupe join on the right; the Arba,
+Gallego, and Segre on the left. This last is the most important of all,
+for it drains the whole of the Pyrenean slope from Mont Perdu to the
+Carlitte.
+
+The Ebro, after its junction with the Segre, immediately plunges
+into the coast ranges of Catalonia, and though the fall thence to
+the sea amounts to 183 feet in 95 miles, no rapids or cataracts are
+met with. The suspended matter brought down by the river has been
+deposited in the shape of a delta which juts out fifteen miles into
+the Mediterranean, covers an area of 150 square miles, and abounds in
+salt marshes, lagoons, and dead river arms. A canal, twenty-two miles
+in length, connects the harbour of refuge at Alfaques with the Ebro,
+but is not available for ships of great draught, owing to the bar which
+closes its mouth. The other embouchures of the river are likewise
+closed by bars.
+
+The volume of the Ebro[154] decreases annually, on account of the
+increasing {433} quantities of water which it is called upon to
+furnish for purposes of irrigation, and sooner or later it will be
+reduced to the condition of the rivers of Valencia.
+
+The productiveness of the irrigated fields of Aragon and Catalonia
+bears witness to the fertility of the soil. Even saline tracts have
+been converted into gardens. Tropical plants, agaves, cacti, and a
+few feathery palms on the coast to the south of Barcelona recall the
+beautiful landscapes of Southern Spain. The valley of the Ebro holds an
+intermediate position between Murcia and Valencia and the bleak plateau
+and mountains of the interior; but water, except in the immediate
+neighbourhood of the rivers, is nowhere abundant. On some of the
+hill-tops may be seen houses the walls of which are dyed red, because
+it was found more economical to mix the mortar with wine than to
+convey thither water for that purpose. This deficiency of moisture is
+a great drawback to certain districts in the lower valley of the Ebro.
+The greater portion of Bárdenas, the Monegros, and the terraces of
+Calanda are treeless steppes. Cold and heat alternate abruptly, without
+reference to seasons, and the climate, in spite of the proximity of
+the sea, is quite continental in its character. The hot winds, so much
+dreaded on the coast of Catalonia, do not blow from Africa, but from
+the parched plains of Aragon.
+
+The climate of Catalonia, owing to the breezes blowing from the
+Mediterranean, is far more equable than that of Aragon, and to
+this circumstance, no less than to differences of race and greater
+facilities for commerce, this province is indebted for its distinct
+individuality.[155]
+
+Catalonia, being open to invasions from the sea as well as by land, has
+a much more mixed population than its neighbour Aragon. On the other
+hand, a conqueror once in possession of the latter had but little to
+fear expulsion at the hands of new-comers, and the Moors maintained
+themselves in Aragon three hundred years after they had been expelled
+from Barcelona.
+
+The inhabitants of the valley of the Ebro are offensively haughty, of
+sluggish minds, given to old customs and superstitions, but they are
+at the same time singularly persistent, and their bravery does credit
+to their Celtiberian ancestors. These fine broad-shouldered men, who
+follow their donkeys along the high-roads, the head enveloped in a
+silken kerchief, and the waist confined by a violet-coloured belt, are
+at all times ready for a fight. Up to the close of last century it was
+customary to get up fights between villages in mere wantonness, and
+the _rondallas_, a term now employed for open-air concerts, scarcely
+ever terminated without bloodshed. In trifles the Aragonese are as
+stubborn as in matters of importance, and they are said to “drive in
+nails with their head.” For several centuries the Aragonese struggled
+with the Moors, and the kings, dependent as they were upon the support
+of the people, felt constrained to submit to a considerable limitation
+of their power. It was Philip II. of Castile who suppressed these
+ancient provincial privileges, and condemned Aragon to lead a life of
+intellectual stagnation.
+
+The Catalans are as self-opinionated as their neighbours the Aragonese;
+noisy quarrels frequently take place amongst them; but they rarely
+come to blows. They {434} are said to be less firm of character than
+the Aragonese, yet they succeeded in maintaining their provincial
+independence much longer. Few towns have stood more sieges than
+Barcelona, and fewer still have offered a more valiant defence. The
+Catalans are undoubtedly industrious. They have not only converted
+the irrigable valleys facing the sea into gardens, but have likewise
+attacked the arid mountains, and, by triturating the rocks and
+carrying thither soil from the plain, have made them produce grapes,
+olives, and corn. Hence the proverb, “A Catalan can turn stones into
+bread.” Agriculture, however, does not wholly supply the wants of
+so dense a population, and Barcelona with its suburbs has become a
+huge manufacturing centre, where cottons, woollens, and other textile
+fabrics, hardware, chemical preparations, glass, paper, and various
+articles are produced. The province of Barcelona is the chief seat
+of the cotton industry in Spain, and fully deserves to be called the
+Spanish Lancashire.[156] The Catalans are a migratory race. They are
+met with not only in every other province of Spain, but in all the
+Spanish colonies. Everywhere they are reputed for their thrift, and in
+Cuba are hated as rivals or masters by creoles and blacks.
+
+The towns of Aragon and Catalonia present the same contrasts as do the
+inhabitants of the two provinces. Those of the former are of solemn
+and even gloomy aspect, whilst the picturesque cities of the maritime
+province are full of bustle and mirth. The former represent the Middle
+Age, the latter our modern era.
+
+Zaragoza (Saragossa) is most favourably situated in the very centre of
+the plain of Aragon. It has its Moorish alcázar (the Aljaferia), now
+used as a barrack; a curious leaning tower similar to that of Pisa; and
+fine promenades, including the Coso and shaded walks. But prouder than
+of all these attractions are the inhabitants of the epithet “heroic,”
+which was bestowed upon their city in consequence of the valiant
+resistance it offered in 1808 and 1809, when they not only defended
+their homes, but also their patron saint, the Virgen del Pilar.
+
+At Zaragoza a few wide avenues have been cut through the labyrinth of
+tortuous streets, but the other towns of the province have preserved
+their physiognomy of former days. Jaca, in the upper valley of the
+Aragon, between the Pyrenees and the Sierra de la Peña, with its grey
+houses, still retains its turreted walls and ancient citadel. It
+is the old capital of the kingdom of Sobrarbe, but would hardly be
+mentioned now if it were not for its position at the foot of the Pass
+of Canfranc, and the neighbouring monastery of La Peña. Huesca, at the
+base of the hills, the Osca of the Romans, recalls the dominion of the
+Ausks, or Euskarians. Standing in the midst of an irrigated plain, it
+still enjoys a certain importance. It boasts of a richly decorated
+cathedral, deserted monasteries, an old royal palace now occupied by
+the university, and the remains of a turreted wall. Barbastro, near
+the river Cinca, occupies a position similar to that of Huesca. The
+carriage road over the Somport connects it with France.
+
+The Arab city of Calatayud, on the river Jalon, is commercially the
+second city of Aragon, and replaces Bilbilis of the Iberians, which
+stood on a hill near it. {435} One of its most nauseous suburbs
+is wholly inhabited by mendicants. Teruel, on the Guadalaviar, the
+chief town of the Maeztrazgo, with its crenellated walls and turrets,
+resembles a mediæval fortress. The Arab tower of its church is one of
+the curiosities of “untrodden” Spain, and its aqueduct, which crosses a
+valley on 140 arches, is a remarkable work of the sixteenth century.
+
+Several towns of the interior of Catalonia are equally venerable
+in their aspect. “Proud” Puigcerda (Puycerda), close to the French
+frontier, on the Upper Segre, is hardly more than a collection of
+hovels surrounded by a rampart. Seo de Urgel, in a fertile portion of
+the same valley, is no doubt of some importance as a fortress, but its
+streets are dirty, its houses mean, and its mud walls dilapidated.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 169.—THE DELTA OF THE EBRO.
+
+Scale 1 : 375,000.]
+
+Still lower down the Segre we meet with the ancient city of Lérida,
+whose origin dates back to prehistoric times, and which, owing to
+its strategical position, has at all times played a prominent part
+in military history. The gardens of Lérida supply much produce for
+exportation, but the place cannot rise into importance until the
+Franco-Spanish coast railway shall have been completed.
+
+Tortosa, a picturesque city just above the delta of the Ebro, and
+formerly the capital of an Arab kingdom, commands one of the passages
+over the Ebro, {436} and its commerce would increase if the river
+offered greater facilities for navigation.
+
+Tarragona in the time of the Romans was the great maritime outlet
+of the valley of the Ebro. The city was then nearly forty miles in
+circumference, with arenas, amphitheatres, palaces, temples, and
+aqueducts, and a population of hundreds of thousands. The ruins of this
+ancient Tarraco have been made use of in the construction of the modern
+city, with its clumsy cathedral, towers, decayed ramparts, and Roman
+aqueduct intersecting the suburban orange groves. The manufacturing
+town of Reus may almost be looked upon as a suburb of it, and is
+rapidly increasing in population. Near it is the monastery of Poblet,
+in which are deposited the remains of the Kings of Aragon.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 170.—THE STEPPES OF ARAGON.
+
+According to Willkomm. Scale 1 : 2,000,000.]
+
+[Illustration: BARCELONA, SEEN FROM THE CASTLE OF MONJUL.]
+
+The country between Tarragona and Barcelona is densely populated. We
+pass through the fertile district of El Panadés, the equally fertile
+valley irrigated by the reddish waters of the Llobregat, with towns and
+villages in rapid succession, until we reach the suburbs of Barcelona.
+The city proper lies on the sea, at the foot of the fortifications
+crowning the steep heights of Monjuich. There is another citadel
+of immense size to the east of the city, yet this latter reposes
+gaily beneath its batteries, which could easily reduce it to ashes.
+Barcelona boasts of being the great pleasure town of Spain. Its
+population is less than that of Madrid, but there are more theatres
+and concert halls. The dramatic performances are of a superior class,
+and the taste of the people is more refined. The public promenades,
+such as the Rambla, occupying the bed of an ancient torrent, the
+{437} sea-walls, and the avenues of trees which separate Barcelona
+from the citadel and the suburb of Barceloneta, are crowded on fine
+evenings. Barcelona is no doubt the “unique city” of Cervantes, and
+perhaps “the home of courtesy and of valiant men;” but we doubt its
+being the “common centre of all sincere friendships.” Barcelona exceeds
+all other towns of Spain by its commerce.[157] The harbour is exposed
+to southerly winds, and somewhat difficult of access. Barcelona is ever
+renewing itself. There are broad streets of uniformly built houses,
+and some quarters, as that of Barceloneta, on a tongue of land to the
+east of the port, are laid out with all the regularity of an American
+city. The only architectural monuments of note are a Gothic cathedral
+and the old palace of the Inquisition. But all around the town, beyond
+the suburbs with their factories and workmen’s dwellings, we meet with
+numerous villas, occupying delightful nooks in verdant valleys or the
+steep hill-slopes. No more charming district exists in Spain than that
+to the north of Barcelona and Badalona, extending as far as Masnou,
+Mataró, and the river Tordera. Promontories covered with vines, pines,
+and cork-oaks, and sometimes crowned by the ruins of a castle, project
+into the sea; the valleys are laid out in gardens enclosed with aloe
+hedges; towns and villages follow in rapid succession; and the boats
+and nets of fishermen are seen on the beaches.
+
+Most towns of the province of Barcelona emulate the manufacturing
+industry of the capital. Igualada, at the foot of the Monserrat;
+Sabadell, in a valley, full of factories; Tarrasa, the old Roman city,
+near which are the famous baths of La Puda; Manresa, on the Cardoner
+rivulet; Vich, the old primatial city of Catalonia; and Mataró, on the
+coast, are all distinguished for the manufacture of cloth, linens,
+silks, cotton stuffs, ribbons, lace, leather, hats, faience, glass, or
+paper. Manufacturing industry has likewise spread into the neighbouring
+province of Gerona, and notably to the city of Olot; but the vicinity
+of the French frontier, the practice of smuggling, and the presence of
+large garrisons in the fortresses of Gerona and Figueras have hindered
+its development. Gerona has sustained many a siege, and Figueras, in
+spite of its huge citadel, has been repeatedly captured. The walls of
+Rosas are crumbling to pieces, and every vestige of the Greek city of
+Emporion has been buried beneath the alluvium brought down by the river
+Fluvia, but it still lives in the name of the surrounding district of
+Ampurdan.[158]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The crest of the Pyrenees constitutes for the most part the political
+boundary between France and Spain, but there are exceptions to this
+rule. At the western extremity of the chain Spain enjoys the advantage,
+for the valley of the Bidassoa, on the French slopes, belongs to it;
+but France is compensated in the east by the possession of Mount
+Canigou and the valley of the Upper Segre. As a rule, however, Spain
+has the best of the bargain, and this is only natural, as the Pyrenees
+are most accessible from the south, and the population there is more
+dense. The {438} herdsmen of Aragon and the Basque provinces never
+missed an opportunity of taking possession of pastures on the northern
+slopes of the mountains, and these encroachments were subsequently
+ratified by international treaties.
+
+The valley of Aran, in the very heart of the Pyrenees, is one of these
+bloodless conquests of Spain. The French Garonne rises in that valley,
+but the defile through which it leaves it is very narrow and easily
+obstructed. Up to the eighteenth century the Aranese enjoyed virtual
+independence; and as they are shut off from the rest of the world by
+mountains covered with snow during the greater part of the year, these
+21,000 mountaineers would appear to possess more claim to constitute
+themselves an independent republic than any other people in Europe.
+
+Farther east there is another mountain valley which, nominally at
+least, forms an independent republic. This is Andorra, a territory of
+230 square miles, with 6,000 inhabitants. A few pastures on the French
+slope excepted, the whole of this valley is drained by the beautiful
+stream of Embalira, or Valira, which joins the Segre in the smiling
+plain of Seo de Urgel. Most of the mountains of Andorra have been
+robbed of their trees, and the destruction of the few remaining forests
+is still going on. The vegetable soil is being rapidly washed away,
+and the moraines of ancient glaciers gradually slide down the mountain
+slopes.
+
+The republic of Andorra is said to owe its existence to a defeat of the
+Saracens by Charlemagne or Louis le Débonnaire, but in reality up to
+the French Revolution the valley enjoyed no sovereign rights whatever.
+It was a barony of the Counts of Urgel and of Aragon. In 1278 it was
+decided that Andorra should be held jointly by the Bishops of Urgel and
+the Counts of Foix. In 1793 the French republic declined to receive the
+customary tribute, and in 1810 the Spanish Cortes abolished the feudal
+régime. Andorra thus became an independent state. The inhabitants,
+however, continue to govern themselves in accordance with old feudal
+customs, which are not at all reconcilable with the principles of
+modern republics. The land belongs to a few families. There is a law
+of entail, and younger brothers become the servants of the head of the
+family, whose hospitality they enjoy only on condition of their working
+for him. The tithes were only abolished in 1842. The “liberty” of these
+mountaineers consists merely in exemption from the Spanish conscription
+and impunity in smuggling; and, to increase their revenues, they have
+recently established a gambling-table. Their legitimate business
+consists in cattle-breeding, and there are a few forges and a woollen
+factory.
+
+The republic of Andorra recognises two suzerains, viz. the Bishop
+of Urgel, who receives an annual tribute of £25, and the French
+Government, to whom double that sum is paid. Spain and France are
+represented by two provosts, the commandant of Seo de Urgel exercising
+the functions of viceroy. The provosts command the militia and appoint
+the bailiffs, or judges. They, together with a judge of appeal,
+alternately appointed by France and Spain, and two _rahonadores_, or
+defenders of Andorran privileges, form the Cortes. Each parish is
+governed by a consul, a vice-consul, and twelve councillors elected
+by the heads of families. A General Council, of which the consuls and
+delegates of the parishes are members, meets at the village of Andorra.
+But in spite of these fictions Andorra is an {439} integral part of
+Spain, and the carabineers never hesitate to cross the frontiers of
+this sham republic. By language, manners, and customs the Andorrans are
+Catalans. Exemption from war has enabled them to grow comparatively
+rich. They are intelligent and cunning, and well know how to assume
+an air of astonishment when their interests are at stake. Acting the
+fool, in order to take some one in or avoid being ensnared, is called
+by their neighbours “playing the Andorran.” Andorra, a neat village,
+is the capital of the territory, but San Julia de Loria is the most
+important place, and the head-quarters of the smugglers.
+
+
+VII.—BASQUE PROVINCES, NAVARRA, AND LOGROÑO.[159]
+
+The Basque provinces (Vascongadas) and the ancient kingdom of Navarra,
+though scarcely a thirtieth part of Spain, constitute a separate
+region, not only on account of geographical position, but also because
+they are inhabited for the most part by a distinct race, having its own
+language, manners, and political institutions.
+
+Looked at from a commanding position, the hills connecting the Pyrenees
+with the Castilian plateau resemble a sea lashed by contrary winds, for
+there are no prominent mountain ranges. Even the Pyrenees have sunk
+down to a mean height of 3,000 feet, and the Lohihulz (3,973 feet),
+where they cease to form the frontier, scarcely deserves to be called a
+mountain. They extend thence to the Pass of Azpiroz (1,860 feet), where
+they terminate. The vague range beyond is known as Sierra de Aralar
+(4,330 feet), and still farther west by a variety of local names.
+These mountains are traversed by several low passes, facilitating
+communication with the valley of the Ebro, the most important of which
+is the Pass of Orduña (2,134 feet), which is crossed by the railway
+from Bilbao to Miranda, and dominated by the Peña Gorbea (5,042 feet)
+and the Sierra Salvada (4,120 feet).
+
+The spurs which descend from these mountains towards the Bay of Biscay
+are likewise very irregular in their features. Most of them are
+connected by transversal chains, through which the rivers have only
+with difficulty forced for themselves an outlet towards the sea. The
+Bidassoa, for instance, sweeps far to the south, through the valley of
+Bastan, before it takes its course to the northward, in the direction
+of its estuary at Fuenterrabia. Within its huge bend it encloses a
+detached portion of the Pyrenees, the principal summit of which is the
+famous Mont La Rhune (2,954 feet), on the French frontier. Equally
+isolated is the Jaizquibel (1,912 feet), which rises from the plains of
+Irun, close to the mouth of the Bidassoa, and from whose summit there
+is a view of incomparable beauty. It terminates in Cape Higuer, or
+Figuer, the northernmost point of Cantabria.
+
+The maritime slope of the Basque countries presents a great variety
+of geological formations, including Jurassic limestones and chalk,
+granites and porphyries. The mineral resources are immense; copper
+and lead abound, but the great wealth consists in iron. The mines of
+Mondragon, in Guipúzcoa, have long been famous, but the most productive
+mining district is Somorrostro, to the west of Bilbao. {440}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 171.—THE ENVIRONS OF BARCELONA.
+
+Scale 1 : 100,000.]
+
+[Illustration: GORGES OF PANCORBO.]
+
+The sierras of Aragon running parallel with the Pyrenees extend also
+into Navarra and the Vascongadas, and are frequently connected with the
+main range by lateral branches. To the west of Pamplona they spread
+out into a rugged plateau, surmounted by the Sierra de Andía (4,769
+feet), the labyrinthine ramifications of which occupy the district of
+Amezcuas, a region offering great advantages to partisan warfare. The
+southern chain, not so well defined, bounds the Carrascal, or “country
+of evergreen oaks,” in the south. This region, too, has frequently been
+the scene of civil war. Farther west the famous defile of Pancorbo
+leads through the Montes {441} Obarenes (4,150 feet) to the plateau
+of Castile. The saddle of Alsásua (1,955 feet), over which passes the
+railway from Vitoria (1,684 feet) to Pamplona (1,378 feet), connects
+the Pyrenees with the Sierra de Andía, whilst as to the mountains of
+the province of Logroño, they are spurs of the mountain masses forming
+the northern edge of that plateau, viz. the Sierra de la Demanda in the
+west, and the Sierra de Cebollera in the east, the latter giving birth
+to the Sierras de Camero.
+
+Several of the mountain districts are quite Castilian in their asperity
+and nakedness, for the forests have been cut down to feed the iron
+furnaces. In Southern Navarra we meet with veritable deserts. But in
+the Basque countries and Western Navarra, where it rains copiously, the
+hills are clad with forests, the valleys with turf, and rivulets wind
+amongst groves of elder-trees. Naked precipices of sand or limestone
+contrast well with this verdure, from which peep out the small white
+houses of villages embosomed in orchards, and scattered in the valleys
+and hill-sides.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 172.—THE SAND-BANKS OF MATARÓ.
+
+Scale 1 : 125,000.]
+
+Moist north-westerly winds are frequent in the Bay of Biscay,
+and account for the equable temperature of the country. It rains
+abundantly, and in all seasons. The climate resembles that of Ireland,
+and, though damp, it is healthy and most conducive to the growth
+of vegetation. The country is rich in corn, wine, oil, and cattle;
+the northern slopes are covered with fruit trees of every kind, and
+_zagardua_, or cider, is a favourite drink; and in the more remote
+valleys of the Pyrenees we meet with some of the most magnificent
+forests in Spain. That of Val Cárlos (valley of Charlemagne), near the
+famous Pass of Roncevaux, or Roncesvalles, though none of the largest,
+is reputed for its beauty and legendary associations. {442}
+
+Who are the Basques, whose bravery is traditional? What is their
+origin? What their relationship to the other peoples of Europe?
+All these questions it is impossible to answer. The Basques are a
+mysterious race, and can claim kinship with no other nation. It is not
+even certain whether all those who pass by that name are of the same
+race. There is no typical Basque. No doubt most of the inhabitants of
+the country are distinguished by finely chiselled features, bright and
+firm eyes, and well-poised bodies, but the differences in stature,
+form of skull, and features are very considerable. Between Basque and
+Basque the differences are as great as between Spaniards, Frenchmen,
+and Italians. There are tall men and short, brown and fair, long
+skulls and broad, and almost every district has its distinct type.
+The solution of this problem is daily becoming more difficult, for,
+owing to a continual intermixture with their neighbours, the original
+type, if there really existed one, is gradually being obliterated. It
+is possible that at some remote time the remnants of various races
+occupied this country, and adopted the language of the most civilised
+among them. Instances of this kind abound in every people.
+
+Leaving out of sight the differences existing between the Basques
+of Spain and those of French Navarra, the Basques may be described
+as having broad foreheads, straight noses, finely shaped mouths and
+chins, and well-proportioned figures. Their features are exceedingly
+mobile, and every sentiment is reflected upon them by a lighting up of
+the eyes, a movement of the eyebrows, or a trembling of the lips. The
+women especially are distinguished by the purity of their features;
+their large eyes, smiling lips, and small waists are universally
+admired. Even in the towns, where the race is least pure, most of them
+are strikingly beautiful and full of grace. There are districts where
+obesity is a veritable phenomenon. Men and women carry themselves
+nobly; they are polite to strangers, but always dignified.
+
+The Basques call themselves Euskaldunac, or Euskarians, and their
+language Euskara, or Eskuara. The exact meaning of these terms is
+not known, but in all probability it is “speech.” This speech of the
+Basques differs in its words and structure from every other language
+of the world; but many words have been borrowed from neighbouring
+languages. Everything with which they became acquainted through
+foreigners, all ideas imported since prehistoric times, are designated
+by words not forming part of the original stock of the language. Even
+the names of domestic animals and metals are of foreign origin. The
+language may, perhaps, be classed with the polysynthetic languages of
+the American Indians, or with the agglutinant idioms of the Altai, and
+belongs, consequently, to the most remote period of human history. As
+to the Basques themselves, they declare their speech to be superior to
+every other, and according to some it was in Euskara that man first
+saluted the sun.
+
+For the present we are compelled to look upon the Basques as the last
+remnant of an ancient race. There are not wanting proofs that the
+Euskaldunac formerly occupied a far wider territory. No monuments,
+no inscriptions, nor even legends give a clue to this; but we find
+it, after thousands of years, in the names of mountains, rivers, and
+towns. Euskarian names abound in the Pyrenean valleys of Aran, Bastan,
+Andorra, and Querol, and in the plain to the north of them. {443}
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 173.—THE VALLEY OF ANDORRA.
+
+Scale 1 : 375,000.]
+
+Most writers on Spain identify these Euskarians with the Iberians of
+the ancients, and they have been credited with being the authors of
+various inscriptions upon coins written in unknown characters which
+have been discovered in Spain and Southern France, and which M. Boudard
+has shown to be really in Euskarian. They must thus have occupied the
+whole of the peninsula and Southern France, and even in Africa traces
+of their presence have been discovered. {444}
+
+The extent of territory occupied by Basque-speaking populations in the
+time of the Romans is not known, but probably it was not any greater
+than it is now, for the Euskarians have ever since maintained their
+independence, and nothing compelled them to adopt the language of their
+despised neighbours. Bilbao has almost become Spanish, as have also
+the towns in the plain of Álava. Pampeluna, the Irun of the Iberians,
+is Euskarian merely by historical tradition, whilst farther east
+Basque is only spoken in the upper valleys of Roncevaux, Orbaiceta,
+Ochagavia, and Roncal. The Peak of Anie marks the extreme limit of
+Basque on both slopes of the Pyrenees. Out of four Euskarian provinces
+there is only one—viz. Guipúzcoa—where Basque predominates; but even
+in that province the inhabitants of the cities of St. Sebastian and
+Irun speak Castilian. In the south of Navarra and of the so-called
+Basque provinces the inhabitants have spoken a Latin dialect from time
+immemorial. Spanish and French are slowly but surely superseding the
+Basque, and the time when it will be a thing of the past is not very
+distant.[160]
+
+Strabo speaks of the Cantabrians, the direct ancestors of the Basques,
+with an admiration akin to horror. Their bravery, love of freedom, and
+contempt of life he looked upon as superhuman qualities. In their wars
+against the Romans they killed each other to escape captivity, mothers
+strangled their children to spare them the indignities of slavery,
+and prisoners nailed to the cross burst into a chant of victory. The
+Basques have never been wanting in courage. History shows that they
+were superior to the surrounding nations in uprightness, generosity,
+love of independence, and respect for personal liberty. The serfs of
+the neighbouring provinces looked upon them as nobles, for in their
+abject condition they fancied that personal liberty was a privilege of
+nobility. This equality, however, existed only in Guipúzcoa and Biscay,
+whilst in Álava and Navarra, where the Moors gained a footing, and
+Castilian influences made themselves felt later on, there originated a
+feudal nobility, with its usual train of vassals and serfs. However,
+all the provinces have jealously watched over their local privileges.
+At a period when European history was one continual series of wars,
+the Basques lived in peace. Their small commonwealths were united into
+a fraternal confederation, and enabled to resist invaders. They were
+bound to sacrifice life and property in the defence of their common
+fatherland, and their standards were emblazoned with three hands
+joined, and the motto, _Irurak bat_, _i.e._ “The three (provinces) are
+but one.”
+
+Nothing exhibits more strikingly the comparative civilisation of these
+Euskarians than their respect for personal liberty. The house of a
+Basque was inviolable, and he could not be deprived of his horse or his
+arms. At their national meetings all voted, and in some of the valleys
+even the women were permitted to take part in the discussions. It was
+not, however, customary for the women to sit down at the same table
+with the _etcheco-jauna_, or master of the house, and his sons; they
+took their meals separately by the side of the hearth. This old custom
+is still observed in country districts; and so strong is the force of
+tradition, that the wife would almost consider it a disgrace to be seen
+sitting by {445} the side of her husband on any other occasion than
+her wedding-day. On fête-days the women keep apart; they dance amongst
+themselves, allowing the men to engage in ruder sports. If a nation
+may be judged from its pastimes, the Basques deserve to rank high in
+our estimation. They are fond of athletic sports, and mysteries and
+pastoral pieces are still performed in the open air.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 174.—JAIZQUIBEL.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+But the Basques have their faults. Anxious to retain their ancient
+privileges, or _fueros_, they have become the champions of despotism.
+These fueros date from 1332, when deputies from the provinces went
+to Burgos, and offered the title of Lord to Alfonso the Judge, King
+of Castile. In accordance with the treaty then {446} concluded, the
+sovereign is prohibited from possessing any fortress, village, or
+even house within the territory of the Euskarians. The Basques are
+exempt from the conscription, and their militiamen, or _miqueletes_,
+remain within the provinces except in time of war. The taxes can
+only be levied with the consent of the provincial juntas, and must
+be expended within the provinces, except what may be granted as a
+“gift.” Commerce is not subjected to the same restrictions as in the
+rest of Spain, and there are no monopolies. The municipalities enjoy
+absolute self-government, carried on by an alcalde, an _ayuntamiento_,
+or town council, and _parientes mayores_, or elders. In appearance
+this organization is quite democratic, but in reality there exist many
+feudal usages. In some places the town councils are self-elected;
+in others they are elected by persons paying a specified amount in
+taxes, or by nobles of a certain category; in others, again, they are
+appointed by the lord of the manor. The provincial juntas are elected
+in most diverse ways. The franchise, far from being universal, is a
+privilege, and its exercise is attended with puerile formalities. The
+laws of precedence are rigidly adhered to.
+
+It is quite clear that the exceptional position of the Basque provinces
+cannot be maintained. Navarra was assimilated with the rest of Spain
+in 1839, and this process is progressing irresistibly in the other
+provinces. If the descendants of the Euskarians decline to share free
+institutions with the rest of Spain, they can never maintain them on
+their own behalf. Twice already have they been defeated on an appeal
+to arms; but more powerful than war is the influence exercised by
+industry, commerce, and increased facilities for intercommunication.
+This fusion is being hastened by emigration and migration, for the
+Basques not only seek work during winter in the more hospitable lowland
+districts, but they also emigrate in thousands. They are very clannish,
+and at Madrid and elsewhere have founded “Patriotic Societies,” but in
+spite of these they soon become merged with the rest of the population.
+The few towns are principally inhabited by strangers, for the Basques
+prefer a country life. Their homesteads are scattered over hill-slopes
+and through the valleys, and beneath the oaks in front of them the
+inmates meet after the day’s labour to pass their time in music and
+dancing.
+
+Bilbao, the largest town of the Basque provinces, has at all times
+proved a rival of Valencia, Santander, and Cádiz. Its exports consist
+principally of iron ores from neighbouring mines. Most of its
+inhabitants are Spaniards, and during the Carlist wars the environs of
+the town were frequently stained with blood. It was under its walls
+that Zumalacarreguy, the Carlist leader, received his deadly wound. The
+river Nervion connects Bilbao with its harbour at Portugalete.
+
+[Illustration: LOS PASAGES.]
+
+St. Sebastian, the largest city of Guipúzcoa, is likewise Spanish. A
+seaport and fortress defended by a Castilian garrison, it resembles in
+aspect and language the towns of the interior of the peninsula. Monte
+Orgullo (475 feet), crowned by the Castle de la Mota, and bristling
+with fortifications; the beautiful Bay of La Concha, to the west of the
+town, with its fine beach; the river Urumea, which flows to the east of
+the citadel, and struggles at its mouth with the foam of the sea; shady
+walks and an amphitheatre of verdant hills dotted with villages, render
+St. Sebastian a delightful spot, the favourite resort of worn-out and
+idle {447} cosmopolitans. The town itself is devoid of interest,
+for since its destruction by the English in 1813 it has been rebuilt
+with monotonous regularity. Its harbour, though frequented by coasting
+vessels, is shallow and insecure. The magnificent Bay of Pasages,
+to the east of the town, might have been converted into a splendid
+harbour, but its great advantages have never been appreciated, and its
+mouth is now closed by a bar of alluvium brought down by the Oyarzun.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 175.—AZCOITIA AND AZPEITIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 50,000.]
+
+Delightful Fuenterrabia (Fontarabie), with its escutcheoned houses,
+is likewise shut off from the sea by a bar, and is indebted for such
+importance as it possesses to its sea baths and the vicinity of France,
+which is visible from its battered walls. Irun, the terminal station
+of the Spanish railways, close to the French frontier, is an important
+strategical position; and Tolosa, with its factories, is the capital of
+Guipúzcoa. Zarauz, Guetaria (on the neck of a peninsula), and Lequeitio
+are seaside resorts. Zumaya, at the mouth of the Urola valley, has
+quarries of gypsum, which furnish excellent cement. Near Vergara are
+ferruginous springs, and a famous college founded in 1776 by the Basque
+Society. The convention which put a stop to the first Carlist war in
+1839 was signed here. Durango, likewise, has frequently been mentioned
+in connection with the civil wars carried on in the north of Spain.
+Guernica, in Biscay, boasts of a palace of justice and an old oak
+beneath which the legislature is in the habit of meeting; but, like all
+other Basque towns, it is hardly more than a village.
+
+The centres of population are not more numerous on the southern
+slope of the Pyrenees. Vitoria, the capital of Álava, on the railway
+connecting Madrid with Paris, is a commercial and manufacturing town.
+Pamplona, or Pampeluna, recalls the name of Pompey, who rebuilt it. It
+is a fortress, often besieged and captured. Its cathedral is one of the
+finest in Spain. Tafalla, _la flor de Navarra_, the ancient capital of
+the kingdom, has the ruins of a palace, which Carlos the Noble, who
+{448} built it, desired to unite by means of a covered gallery with
+the palace of Olite, three miles lower down in the same valley. Puente
+la Reina is celebrated for its wines. Estella, one of the most charming
+towns of Navarra, commands several roads leading to Castile and
+Aragon, and its strategical importance is consequently considerable.
+The Carlists, during the late war, transformed it into a formidable
+fortress.
+
+Tudela, abounding in wines, Calahorra, and Logroño, all in the
+adjoining province of Logroño, are likewise of some value from a
+military point of view, for they command the passages over the Ebro.
+Calahorra, with its proud motto, “I have prevailed over Carthage and
+Rome,” was the great bulwark of defence when Sertorius fought Pompey,
+but was made to pay dearly for its heroism. Besieged by the Romans, its
+defenders, constrained by hunger, fed upon their women and children,
+and most of them perished. Though situated in the fertile district of
+Rioja, beyond the frontiers of the Euskarian language, the history of
+Calahorra is intimately connected with that of the Basque provinces,
+for upon its ancient laws were modelled the fueros of Álava.[161]
+
+
+VIII.—SANTANDER, THE ASTURIAS, AND GALICIA.
+
+The Atlantic slope of the Cantabrian Pyrenees is a region completely
+distinct from the rest of Spain. Mountains, hills, valleys, and
+running waters succeed each other in infinite variety, and the coast
+throughout is steep, with bold promontories and deep inlets, into
+which flow rapid torrents. The climate is moist and salubrious. The
+Celto-Iberian inhabitants of the country have in most instances escaped
+the commotions which devastated the other provinces of the peninsula,
+and the population, in proportion to the cultivable area, is more
+dense than elsewhere. This region, being very narrow compared with its
+length, has been split up into several political divisions, in spite of
+similarity of physical features. The old kingdom of Galicia occupies
+the west, the Asturias the centre, and Santander the east.[162]
+
+The mountain region of Santander begins immediately to the east of
+the Sierra Salvada and the depression known as Valle de Mena. The
+Cantabrian Mountains slope down steeply there towards the Bay of
+Biscay, whilst their height above the upland, through which the Ebro
+has excavated its bed, is but trifling. The Puerto del Escudo attains
+an elevation of 3,241 feet above Santander, its southern descent to
+the valley of the Virga hardly exceeding 500 feet. The Pass of Reinosa
+(2,778 feet), farther west, through which runs the railway from Madrid
+to Santander, is even more characteristic. An almost imperceptible
+height of land there separates the plateau from the steep declivity
+which leads down to the coast, and by means of a canal sixty feet deep,
+and a mile in length, the waters of the Ebro might be diverted into
+the river Besaya, which enters the Atlantic at San Martin de Suances.
+This height of land forms the natural outlet of {449} the Castiles to
+the sea, and its possession is as important to the inhabitants of the
+plateau as is that of the mouth of a river to a people dwelling on its
+upper course.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 176.—THE ENVIRONS OF BILBAO.
+
+Scale 1 : 200,000.]
+
+Immediately to the east of this pass the aspect of the mountains
+changes. They rise to a great height, piercing the zone of perennial
+snow, and their southern escarpments are of great steepness. The Peña
+Labra (8,295 feet) dominates the first of these mountain masses. Rivers
+descend from it in all directions: the Ebro in the east, the Pisuerga
+in the south, and the Nansa, or Tinamenor, in the north-west. Farther
+west the Peña Prieta rises to a height of 8,295 feet, its snows feeding
+the Carrion and Esla. It is joined in the north to a mountain mass even
+more considerable, which bears the curious name of Peñas de Europa, or
+“rocks {450} of Europe,” and culminates in the Torre de Cerredo (8,784
+feet), covered with snow throughout the year, and boasting even of a
+few glaciers, due to the excessive amount of precipitation.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 177.—ST. SEBASTIAN.
+
+Scale 1 : 30,000.]
+
+The valley of La Liébana, at the eastern foot of the Peñas de Europa,
+resembles a vast caldron of extraordinary depth. Shut in on the west,
+south, and east by huge precipices rising to a height of 6,500 feet,
+it is closed in on the north by a transversal chain, through which
+the waters of the Liébana have excavated for themselves a narrow
+passage. The village of Potes, in the centre of this valley, lies at
+an elevation of only 981 feet above the level of the sea. In Santander
+and the Asturias, even more frequently than in the Basque country, we
+meet with secondary chains running parallel with the coast. These are
+composed of triassic, Jurassic, and cretaceous rocks, and rise like
+advanced walls of defence in front of the main range of the mountains,
+which consist of Silurian slates upheaved by granite. It results from
+this that the course of the rivers is most erratic. On leaving their
+upper valleys, where they frequently form cascades, their farther
+progress is arrested by these parallel ranges, and they twist about
+to the east and west until they find an outlet through which they may
+escape.
+
+The two funnel-shaped valleys of Valdeon (1,529 feet) and Sajambre are
+enclosed between spurs of the Peñas de Europa. Their torrents drain
+into the Bay of Biscay, but they are most readily accessible from the
+plateau. Farther west the mountains decrease in height, and their main
+crest gradually recedes from the coast. They are crossed here by the
+Pass of Pajares (4,471 feet), which connects Leon with Oviedo. {451}
+
+The Asturian Mountains are objects of veneration to every patriotic
+Spaniard. Beautiful as they are, their lower slopes being covered with
+chestnut-trees, walnut-trees, and oaks, whilst higher up forests of
+beeches and hazel alternate with meadows, their beauty is enhanced by
+the fact of their having afforded a refuge to the Christians whilst the
+Moors held the rest of the country. Mount Ansena sheltered St. Pelagius
+and his flock, and at Covadonga he built himself an abbey. These
+“illustrious mountains” do not, however, merely boast of historical
+associations, delightful villages, herds, and pastures; they hide
+within their bowels a rich store of coal, one of the principal sources
+of wealth to the Asturias.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 178.—ST. SEBASTIAN.]
+
+Galicia is separated from the Castilian plateau by a continuation of
+the Cantabrian Pyrenees, which here swerve to the south, and through
+which the Sil has excavated its bed. To the north of that river they
+culminate in the Pico de Miravalles (6,362 feet), and are crossed by
+the Pass of Predrafita (3,600 feet), through which runs the main road
+from Leon to Galicia.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 179.—GUETARIA.
+
+Scale 1 : 8,000.]
+
+In Galicia the hills rarely form well-defined chains, and mostly
+consist of {452} primitive rocks or small table-lands, with peaks
+or summits rising a few hundred feet above the general level of the
+country. The disposition of the small ranges generally corresponds
+with that of the coast. The Sierra de Rañadoiro (3,612 feet), a spur
+of the Cantabrian Mountains, forms the natural boundary between the
+{453} Asturias and Galicia. West of it, the Sierra de Meira (2,982
+feet) runs in the same direction, but the chains which terminate in
+Capes Estaca de Vares and Ortegal (_i.e._ Nortegal, “north cape”) run
+from east to west, and are dominated by the pyramid of Monte Cuadramon
+(3,342 feet). The hills to the west of the river Miño (Minho) terminate
+in the famous promontories of Toriñana and Finisterre, or “land’s-end.”
+This latter, a steep cliff rising boldly above the waters to the west
+of the wide Bay of Corcubion, formerly bore a temple of the ancient
+gods, since replaced by a church dedicated to the Virgin.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 180.—GUERNICA.
+
+Scale 1 : 100,000.]
+
+{454}
+
+The coast of the Asturias abounds in small bays, or _rias_, bounded by
+steep cliffs. In Galicia these rias assume vast proportions, and are
+of great depth. They may fitly be likened to the fiords of Northern
+Europe, and their origin appears to be the same. The marine fauna of
+these Galician rias is Britannic rather than Lusitanian, for amongst
+two hundred species of testacea collected by Mr. MacAndrew there are
+only twenty-five which were not also found on the coasts of Britain.
+Moreover, the flora of the Asturian Mountains is very much like that of
+Ireland; and these facts go far in support of the hypothesis, started
+by Forbes, that the Azores, Ireland, and Galicia, anterior to the
+glacial epoch, were connected by land.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 181.—PASS OF REINOSA.
+
+Scale 1 : 300,000.]
+
+The climate, too, resembles that of Great Britain. The rainfall on
+the exterior slopes of the mountains is abundant, whilst to the south
+of them, in the arid plains of Leon and Castile, it hardly rains at
+all. There are localities in the Asturias where the rainfall amounts
+to more than six feet annually, a quantity only again met with on the
+western mountain slopes of Scotland and Norway, and on the southern
+declivities of the Swiss Alps. There is no season without rain, and
+{455} droughts are exceedingly rare. Equinoctial storms are frequent
+in autumn, and render the Bay of Biscay dangerous to mariners. The
+temperature is equable, and fogs, locally known as _bretimas_, are
+as frequent as in the British Islands. These fogs exercise a strong
+influence upon the superstitious minds of the Galicians, who fancy they
+see magicians, or _nuveiros_, ride upon the clouds, expand into mists,
+and shrink back into cloudlets. They also believe that the bodies of
+the dead are conveyed by the mists from cemetery to cemetery, these
+fearful nocturnal processions being known to them as _estadeas_, or
+_estadhinas_.[163]
+
+In spite of an abundance of running water, the Cantabrian provinces
+cannot boast of a single navigable river. In the Asturias the littoral
+zone is too narrow, and the slope too considerable, to admit of
+torrents becoming tranquil rivers. Nor are the Tambre and Ulla, in
+Galicia, of any importance; and the only true river of the country is
+the Miño, called Minho by the Portuguese on its lower course, where it
+forms the boundary between the two states of Iberia. The Miño is fed
+from both slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains, the Miño proper rising
+on the western slope, whilst the Sil comes from the interior of the
+country. The latter is the main branch. “The Miño has the reputation,”
+say the Spaniards, “but the Sil has the water.” The Sil, before leaving
+the province of Leon, passes through the ancient lake basin of the
+Vierzo, now shrunk to a small sheet of water known as the Lago de
+Carrocedo. It then passes in succession through a wild gorge, a second
+lake basin, the tunnel of Monte Furado (“pierced mountains”), excavated
+by the Romans to facilitate their mining operations, and finally rushes
+through a gorge intersecting the Cantabrian Mountains, and one of the
+wildest in all Spain, with precipitous walls more than 1,000 feet in
+height. Immediately below the confluence with the Miño a second gorge
+has to be passed, but then the waters of the river expand, and flow
+into the sea through a wide estuary. Below Tuy, for a distance of about
+twenty miles, the river is navigable. But though of small service to
+navigation, the Miño is nevertheless one of the eight great rivers of
+the Iberian peninsula, and proportionately to the extent of its basin
+it is the most copious.[164]
+
+The water of this and other rivers is not needed for agricultural
+purposes, for it rains abundantly in Galicia and the Asturias, and the
+emerald meadows of these provinces are as famous as those of England.
+The flora, however, is upon the {456} whole more southerly in its
+features than that of the countries to the north of the Bay of Biscay.
+The orchards produce not only apples, chestnuts, and walnuts, but
+also oranges, and in a garden at Oviedo dates ripen in the open air.
+The great moisture, however, prevents certain plants from attaining
+the commercial importance they would otherwise possess. The mulberry
+flourishes, but the culture of silk-worms has only yielded indifferent
+results, and even the grapes, except in a few favoured localities,
+yield but sour wine of disagreeable flavour. Cider, on the other hand,
+enjoys a high reputation, and is even exported to America.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 182.—THE PEÑAS DE EUROPA.
+
+Scale 1 : 660,000.]
+
+The Asturian boasts of having never submitted to the yoke of
+Mussulmans. Some of the mountain districts preserved their independence
+throughout, and nowhere could the Arabs maintain themselves for any
+length of time. Oviedo was called the “city of bishops,” from the
+great number of prelates who found a refuge there. The Galicians were
+equally successful in their resistance to the Moors, and the blood of
+the Celtic inhabitants of these remote provinces is thus purer than
+anywhere else in Spain.
+
+In some districts the customs are said to have remained unchanged
+since {457} the time of the Romans. The herdsmen, or _vaqueros_, of
+Leitariegos, on the Upper Narcea, form almost a distinct tribe. They
+keep apart from the rest of the Asturians, and always marry amongst
+themselves. Old dialects maintain their ground. The peasants on the
+coast of Cantabria talk their _bable_, and in Galicia the dialects
+differ even from village to village. The _gallego_, especially as
+spoken near the Miño, is Portuguese rather than Spanish, but a
+Lusitanian is nevertheless unable to understand a Galician, owing to
+the curious sing-song intonation of the latter.
+
+The country supports a dense population, but there are few towns. Many
+of these consist merely of a church, a town-hall, and an inn. The
+homesteads are scattered over the whole country. This may be due to
+an innate love of nature, or perhaps, as in the Basque provinces, to
+the security which the country has enjoyed during centuries. Foreign
+and civil wars have scarcely ever affected these outlying provinces of
+Spain. The manners are gentle, and the bloodthirsty bull-fights of the
+Castilians unknown. The isolation and peace in which the Cantabrians
+were permitted to exist did not, however, prove of advantage in
+all respects. Elsewhere in Europe, nobles, priests, citizens, and
+the peasantry, when threatened by danger, felt constrained to make
+concessions to each other. Not so in the Asturias, where the peasants
+were reduced to the condition of serfs, and sold with the land. At
+the commencement of this century nearly the whole of the land in the
+two Asturias was in the hands of twenty-four proprietors, and in the
+neighbouring Galicia the conditions were not much more favourable.
+Matters have changed since then. The lords have grown poor, the
+monasteries have been suppressed, and the industrious Asturians and
+Galicians have invested their hard-earned savings in land. Formerly the
+feudal lords leased the land to the cultivators, who rendered homage
+and paid a quit-rent, the lease remaining in force during the reign
+of two or three kings, for a hundred years, or even for three hundred
+and twenty-nine years, according to the custom of different districts.
+These leases, however, frequently led to disputes; the leaseholders, on
+the expiration of their leases, often refused to surrender possession,
+and in numerous instances the law courts sustained them in this refusal.
+
+The Galicians on the coast divide their time between the cultivation
+of the land and fishing. During the season no less than 20,000 men,
+with 3,000 or 4,000 boats, spread their nets in the Bays of La Coruña,
+Arosa, Pontevedra, and Vigo, where tunny-fish and sardines abound. The
+local consumption of sardines is enormous, and La Coruña alone exports
+about 17,000 tons annually to America. These pursuits, however, are
+not capable of supporting an increasing population, and thousands
+of Galicians emigrate annually. Thrifty and clannish, they usually
+succeed in amassing a small competency, and those among them who return
+exercise a civilising influence upon their less-cultivated countrymen.
+Ignorance and poverty, with all their attendant evils, are great in
+Galicia, and leprosy and elephantiasis are common diseases.
+
+One great hindrance to the development of the resources of the country
+consists in the paucity of roads and railways. A beginning has been
+made, but, looking to the financial condition of Spain, progress will
+hardly be rapid. {458}
+
+Most of the towns of the Asturias are close to the coast.
+Castro-Urdiales, Laredo, and Santoña, immediately to the west of
+the Basque provinces, have frequently served as naval stations. The
+roadstead of Santoña is one of the most commodious and best sheltered
+of the peninsula, and when Napoleon gave Spain to his brother Joseph he
+retained possession of that place, and began fortifications which would
+have converted it into a French Gibraltar.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 183.—RIAS OF LA CORUÑA AND FERROL.
+
+Scale 1 : 210,400.]
+
+The great commercial port of the country is Santander, with its
+excellent harbour, quays, docks, and warehouses, built upon land won
+from the sea. Santander is the natural outlet of the Castiles, and
+exports the flour of Valladolid and Palencia, as well as the woollen
+stuffs known as _sorianas_ and _leonesas_ from the places where they
+are manufactured. It supplies the interior with the colonial produce
+of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and its merchants keep up regular intercourse
+with France, England, Hamburg, and Scandinavia.[165] The ship-building
+yards at the head of the bay have lost their former importance, and
+the manufacture of cigars is now the great industry of the country.
+Sardinero, a bathing-place to the north of the town, and the hot
+springs of Alcedo, Ontaneda, Las Caldas de Besaya, in the hills to the
+south, are favourite places of resort.
+
+Along the coast to the west of Santander, as far as Gijon, we only
+meet with {459} villages, such as San Martin de la Arena (the port of
+the decayed town of Santillana), San Vicente de la Barquera, Llanes,
+Rivadesella, and Lástres. Nor is Gijon, with its huge tobacco factory,
+a place of importance, though formerly it was the capital of all
+Asturias. It exports, however, the coal brought by rail from Sarna
+(Langres), and with Aviles, on the other side of the elevated Cabo de
+Peñas, enjoys the advantage of being the port of Oviedo, situated in a
+tributary valley of the Nalon, fifteen miles in the interior. Oviedo
+has flourishing iron-works, a university, and a fine Gothic cathedral,
+said to be richer in relics than any other church in the world. The
+mountain of Naronca shelters the town against northerly winds, and
+its climate is delicious. The environs abound in delightful spots. At
+Cangas de Onis, which was the first capital of the kingdom, founded
+by St. Pelagius, but now merely a village in a charming valley, are
+the caverns of Covadonga, in which the ashes of the saint have found a
+last resting-place, and which are consequently objects of the highest
+veneration to patriotic Spaniards. Trubia, the Government gun and
+small-arms factory, lies seven miles to the west of Oviedo.
+
+Cudillero, Luarca, Navia (a place said to have been founded by Ham,
+the son of Noah), Castropol, and Galician Rivadeo are mere fishing
+villages, and only when we reach the magnificent rias opening out into
+the Atlantic do we again meet with real towns. The first of these is
+Ferrol, which was only a village up to the middle of last century,
+but has since been converted into a great naval station and fortress,
+bristling with guns, and containing dockyards and arsenals.
+
+La Coruña, the Groyne of English sailors, depends rather upon commerce,
+manufactures, and fishing than upon its military establishments and
+fortifications. It is one of the most picturesque towns of Spain, and
+its favourable geographical position will enable it, on the completion
+of the railway now building, considerably to extend its commerce, which
+at present is almost confined to England.[166] On a small island near
+it stands the Tower of Hercules, the foundations of which date back to
+the Romans, if not Phœnicians. It was from the ria of Coruña that the
+“Invincible Armada” set out upon its disastrous expedition.
+
+Each of the rias of Southern Galicia has its port or ports. That of
+Corcubion is sheltered by the Cape of Finisterre; on the ria of Noya
+are the small towns of Noya and Muros; that of Arosa is frequented by
+vessels which convey emigrants from the ports of Padron and Carril to
+La Plata; the ria of Pontevedra extends to the town after which it
+is named; and farther south still, the towns of Vigo and Bayona rise
+on the shore of a magnificent bay, protected by a group of islands
+known to the ancients as “Isles of the Gods.” Vigo, with its excellent
+harbour, has become the great commercial port of the country,[167] but
+is, perhaps, better known on account of the galleons sunk by Dutch and
+English privateers.
+
+Three of the principal inland towns of Galicia—viz. Lugo, Orense, and
+Tuy—rise on the banks of the Miño. The old Roman city of Lugo (Lucus
+Augusti) is enclosed within mediæval walls, and has warm sulphur
+springs. Orense, with its superb old bridge, is likewise celebrated for
+its hot springs, or _burgas_, which are {460} said to raise sensibly
+the temperature of the plain in winter, and supply the whole town with
+water for domestic purposes. Tuy, opposite the Portuguese town of
+Valença do Minho, is important only as a frontier fortress. Santiago
+de Compostela, the famous old capital of Galicia, on a hill near the
+winding banks of the Saria, is the most populous town of North-western
+Spain. It was here the grave of St. James the apostle was discovered
+in the ninth century. The attraction which it formerly exercised upon
+pilgrims was immense.[168]
+
+
+IX.—THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF SPAIN.
+
+Contemporaneous Spain is full of disorder. The political, financial,
+and social machinery is out of joint, and civil war, active or latent,
+is carried on almost in every province. The ruin wrought by these
+incessant domestic wars is incalculable.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 184.—SANTOÑA AND SANTANDER.
+
+Scale 1 : 360,000.]
+
+Successive Governments have had recourse to miserable expedients
+without being able to disguise the bankrupt condition of the country.
+The creditors of the State, no less than the Government officials,
+remained unpaid, and even schools had to be closed because the pittance
+due to the schoolmaster was not forthcoming.
+
+But in spite of this apparent ruin real progress has been made. In
+order to fairly judge Spain we must remember that the period when
+the Inquisition was permitted to commit its judicial murders is not
+very remote. In 1780 a woman of Seville was burnt at the stake for
+“sorcery and witchcraft.” At that time the greater part of Spain was
+held in mortmain, and the cultivation of the remainder {461} was very
+indifferently attended to. Ignorance was universal, more especially at
+the universities, where science was held in derision.
+
+The great events in the beginning of the nineteenth century have roused
+the Spaniards from their torpor, and the country, in spite of temporary
+checks, has increased in population and wealth. Labour is more highly
+respected now than it was formerly, and whilst monasteries and convents
+have been emptied, the factories are crowded with workmen. For much
+of this progress Spain is indebted to foreigners. Millions have been
+invested by them, and, though the expected profits have scarcely ever
+been realised, the country at large has permanently profited from
+this inflow of capital. The English have given an immense impetus to
+agriculture by buying the wines of Andalusia, the corn and flour of
+the Castilians, and the cattle of the Galicians. They have likewise
+developed the mining industry of Huelva, Linares, Cartagena, and
+Somorrostro. The French have vastly aided the manufacturing industry.
+Foreign capitalists and engineers have established steamboat lines
+and railways. The small towns of the interior are awakening from
+their lethargy, and modern life is beginning to pulsate through their
+veins.[169]
+
+In intellectual matters Spain has made even greater progress. Ignorance
+is still a great power, especially in the Castiles, where schoolmasters
+are little respected, populous towns are without libraries, and
+catechisms and almanacs are the only literature of the peasantry.
+But the position which Spain now holds in literature and the arts
+sufficiently proves that the country of Cervantes and Velasquez is
+about to resume its place amongst the other countries of Europe. In
+science, however, Spain lags far behind, and Michael Servetus is the
+only Christian Spaniard whose works mark an epoch in the progress of
+human knowledge. But the spirit of inquiry at one time alive amongst
+the Moors of Andalusia may possibly revive amongst their descendants.
+
+It is very much to be desired that intellectual progress should mollify
+the manners of the people.[170] It is a scandal that the “noble science
+of bull-baiting” should still meet with so large a measure of support
+in Spain. These bull-fights, as well as the cock-fights so popular in
+Andalusia, are sports unworthy a great nation, and should be put down,
+just as _autos da fé_ have been put down.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 185.—OVIEDO AND GIJON.
+
+Scale 1 : 300,000.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 186.—TOWER OF HERCULES (LIGHTHOUSE), CORUÑA.]
+
+Since a generation or two Spain has got rid of most of her colonies,
+which only {462} hindered her moral and material progress. The
+metropolis is no longer called upon to uphold slavery, the Inquisition,
+commercial monopolies, and similar institutions, “devised to insure the
+happy government of these colonies.” These {463} latter certainly have
+had their revolutions and counter-revolutions, but they have made some
+progress in population and wealth. Unfortunately the entire colonial
+empire was not lost. Cuba and the Philippine Islands are frequently
+represented {464} as adding to the wealth of Spain, and large sums
+have certainly been paid by them into the treasury. But these results
+have been achieved at the cost of fearful suffering and demoralisation
+to governors and governed, and unless Spain adopts the colonial system
+of England, by granting self-government to colonies, it will to a
+certainty lose the last shreds of its colonial empire, after having
+exhausted its strength in vain efforts to maintain it.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 187.—RIA DE VIGO.
+
+Scale 1 : 280,000.]
+
+But though the colonies be lost, the influence of Spain upon the rest
+of the world will endure for centuries. Spain has impressed her genius
+upon every country subjected at one time or other to her power. Sicily,
+Naples, Sardinia, and even Lombardy still exhibit traces of Spanish
+influence in their architecture and customs. In Spanish America we find
+towns inhabited by Indians which are quite Spanish in their aspect,
+and almost resemble detached portions of Badajoz and Valladolid. The
+Indians themselves have adopted the Castilian tongue, and with it
+Castilian manners and modes of thought. A vast territory, twice the
+size of Europe, and capable of supporting millions of inhabitants, is
+occupied now by Spanish-speaking peoples. {465}
+
+
+X.—GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
+
+Since September, 1868, when a revolution upset the Government of
+Isabella II., Spain has passed through a series of revolutions and
+convulsions, terminating in December, 1874, in the accession of Alfonso
+XII., a son of Isabella. Soon afterwards the revolt in the Basque
+provinces raised by Don Carlos, the “legitimate” king of the country,
+was suppressed, and the work of internal organization could begin.
+The legislative power is vested in the King and the Cortes. These
+latter include a Senate and a House of Deputies. The Senate consists
+of hereditary members (such as royal princes and grandees), of life
+members chosen by the King, and of senators elected by corporations.
+The members of the House of Deputies are elected for five years. The
+President and Vice-President of the Senate are appointed by the King,
+who enjoys the right of dissolving the Cortes on condition of fresh
+elections being ordered within three months.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 188.—RAILROADS OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.
+
+Scale 1 : 10,300,000.]
+
+These governmental revolutions scarcely affected the administration
+of the country. The treasury is always empty, the annual receipts do
+not suffice to pay the interest upon the national debt, taxes have
+increased, the conscription demands more men than ever, and the schools
+diminish in numbers.[171] {466}
+
+The political and administrative divisions of the country have remained
+the same since 1841. Spain is divided into forty-nine provinces,
+including the Canaries. Each province is subdivided into districts,
+and has its civil governor. The communes are governed by an _alcalde_,
+or mayor, assisted by an _ayuntamiento_, or municipal council, of from
+four to twenty-eight members. The judicial administration is modelled
+on that of France. There are 9,400 justices of the peace (one for each
+commune), about 500 inferior courts, 15 courts of appeal, and a supreme
+court sitting at Madrid.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 189.—FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.]
+
+For military purposes continental Spain is divided into twelve
+districts, each under a captain-general. These are New Castile,
+Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, Valencia with Múrcia, Galicia, Granada,
+Old Castile, Estremadura, Burgos, Navarra, and the Basque provinces.
+The Balearic Isles, the Canaries, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the
+Philippines constitute five additional districts. Military service is
+compulsory, but substitutes are admitted on payment of a heavy ransom.
+The annual levy varies exceedingly, and as many as 80,000 men are
+officially stated to have been levied in a single year, though 60,000
+would appear to be the utmost the population can supply. The term of
+service is seven years in the cavalry and artillery, eight years in
+the infantry, of which three are passed in the “provincial militia.”
+About 100,000 men are supposed to be actually under arms in the {467}
+peninsula, 130,000 are on furlough, and 70,000 men are stationed in
+the colonies, mostly in Cuba, where about one-fourth of the total
+strength perish annually.
+
+The principal fortresses are St. Sebastian, Santoña, and Santander, on
+the Bay of Biscay; Ferrol, La Coruña, and Vigo, on the rias of Galicia;
+Ciudad Rodrigo, on the Portuguese frontier; Cádiz and Tarifa, at the
+entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar; Málaga, Cartagena, Alicante, and
+Barcelona, on the Mediterranean; Figueras, Pamplona, and Zaragoza, at
+the foot of the Pyrenees.
+
+The navy consists of 123 steamers, propelled by engines of 24,694
+horse-power, armed with 755 guns, and manned by 14,000 sailors and
+5,500 marines. Six of these vessels are ironclad frigates. The number
+of superior officers is exceedingly large, and their salaries weigh
+heavily upon the treasury.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 190.—DIAGRAM EXHIBITING THE EXTENT OF THE CASTILIAN
+LANGUAGE.
+
+Scale 1 : 36,000,000.]
+
+Officially the privileges of the nobility have been abrogated. The
+number of “noblemen” is, perhaps, larger in Spain than anywhere else in
+Europe, for the population of entire provinces, such as the Vascongadas
+and the Asturias, claims to have “blue blood” in its veins. In 1787 no
+less than 480,000 “gentlemen” were enumerated, not including minors,
+and if the proportion is the same now, there must exist at the least
+3,000,000 Spaniards who claim to be _hidalgos_, or “sons of somebody.”
+About 1,500 grandees are privileged by custom to remain covered in the
+presence of the King, and about 200 of these belong to the highest
+rank. All of these do not, however, owe their rank to birth, for many
+plebeians, taking advantage of the financial miseries of the country,
+have succeeded in getting themselves ennobled. The order of the Golden
+Fleece, founded in 1431 by Philip the Good, is one of the distinctions
+most coveted by princes and diplomatists. {468}
+
+The Roman Catholic religion is that of the State, and its prelates
+enjoy great privileges, but all other confessions are supposed to
+be tolerated. The schools, unfortunately, still remain in the hands
+of ecclesiastics, who likewise exercise a censorship with respect
+to pieces to be produced on the stage. Formerly Spain was the most
+priest-ridden country in Europe. At the close of last century there
+were 144,000 priests, 71,000 monks, and 35,000 nuns, but only 34,000
+merchants. War and revolutions played havoc with the conventual
+institutions, but as recently as 1835 they still harboured 50,000
+inmates. Subsequently the whole of them were suppressed, and in 1869
+the last Spanish monk retired from the Carthusian monastery of Granada
+to find a refuge in Belgium. Since then, however, the laws of the land
+have again been relaxed in favor of monks and priests. There are 9
+archbishops and 54 bishops.
+
+AREA AND POPULATION OF SPAIN AND ITS COLONIES.
+
+ Area. Population
+ Sq. m. (1870). Density.
+ NEW CASTILE (Castilla):―
+
+ Madrid 2,997 487,482 162
+ Toledo 5,586 342,272 61
+ Guadalajara 4,870 208,638 41
+ Cuenca 6,725 238,731 35
+ Cuidad Real 7,840 264,649 34
+
+ OLD CASTILE:―
+
+ Santander 2,113 241,581 114
+ Burgos 5,650 353,560 62
+ Logroño 1,945 182,941 94
+ Ávila 2,981 175,219 60
+ Segovia 2,714 150,812 53
+ Soria 3,836 158,699 41
+ Palencia 3,126 184,668 59
+ Valladolid 3,043 242,384 80
+
+ LEON:―
+
+ Salamanca 4,940 280,870 57
+ Zamora 4,135 250,968 61
+ Leon 6,167 350,992 56
+
+ ESTREMADURA:―
+
+ Cáceres 8,013 302,455 34
+ Badajoz 8,687 431,922 49
+
+ ANDALUSIA:―
+
+ Almería 3,302 361,553 110
+ Cádiz 2,809 426,499 152
+ Córdova 5,190 382,652 73
+ Granada 4,937 485,346 98
+ Huelva 4,122 196,469 48
+ Jaen 5,184 392,100 75
+ Málaga 2,824 505,010 180
+ Seville 5,295 515,011 97
+
+ VALENCIA:―
+
+ Castellon de la Plana 2,446 296,222 121
+ Valencia 4,352 665,141 153
+ Alicante 2,098 440,470 210
+
+ MURCIA:―
+
+ Albacete 5,972 220,973 37
+ Murcia 4,478 439,067 98
+
+ BALEARIC ISLES:―
+
+ Baleares 1,860 289,225 155
+
+ CATALONIA (Cataluña):―
+
+ Lérida 4,775 330,348 69
+ Gerona 2,272 325,110 143
+ Barcelona 2,985 762,555 256
+ Tarragona 2,451 350,395 143
+
+ ARAGON:―
+
+ Huesca 5,878 274,623 47
+ Zaragoza (Saragossa) 6,607 401,894 61
+ Teruel 5,491 252,201 46
+
+ NAVARRA AND BASQUE PROVINCES (Vascongadas):―
+
+ Navarra 4,046 318,687 80
+ Vizcaya (Biscay) 849 187,926 221
+ Guipúzcoa 728 180,743 248
+ Alava 1,205 103,320 86
+
+ ASTURIAS:―
+
+ Oviedo 4,091 610,883 152
+
+ GALICIA:―
+
+ Orense 2,739 402,796 147
+ Pontevedra 1,739 480,145 282
+ La Coruña 3,079 630,504 210
+ Lugo 3,787 475,836 126
+ ――――――― ――――――――――
+ TOTAL SPAIN 192,959 16,835,506 87
+ ――――――― ――――――――――
+
+ AFRICA:―
+
+ Canaries 2,808 283,859 101
+ West Coast 850 35,000 41
+
+ AMERICA:―
+
+ Cuba 45,983 1,400,000 30
+ Puerto Rico 3,596 625,000 173
+
+ OCEANIA:―
+
+ Philippines 65,870 6,000,000 91
+ Carolines 534 18,800 35
+ Pelew Islands 345 10,000 29
+ Marianas 417 8,000 19
+ ――――――― ―――――――――
+ TOTAL COLONIES 120,403 8,380,659 70
+ ――――――― ―――――――――
+
+ SPAIN AND COLONIES 313,362 25,216,165 80
+
+{469}
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PORTUGAL.[172]
+
+
+I.—GENERAL ASPECTS.
+
+Portugal, one of the smallest states of Europe, was nevertheless during
+a short epoch one of the most powerful.
+
+It might appear at the first glance that Portugal ought to be a member
+of a state including the whole of the Iberian peninsula; but it is
+neither to chance nor to events purely historical that Portugal owes
+its separate existence. The country is one by its climate, fauna, and
+vegetation, and the inhabitants dwelling within it naturally adopted
+the same sort of life, nourished the same ideas, and joined in the same
+body politic. It was by advancing along the coast, from river to river,
+from the Douro to the Minho and Tejo, from the Tejo to the Guadiana,
+that Portugal constituted itself an independent state.
+
+Soil and climate mark off Portugal very distinctly from the rest of
+the Iberian peninsula. Speaking generally, that country embraces
+the Atlantic slopes of the plateau of Spain, and the limit of the
+heavy rains brought by westerly winds coincides very nearly with the
+political boundary between the two countries. On one side of the line
+we have a humid atmosphere, frequent rains, and luxuriant forests;
+on the other a brazen sky, a parched soil, naked rocks, and treeless
+plains. These abundant rains convert the feeble streams flowing
+from the plateau into great rivers. The natural obstacles, such as
+rapids, which obstruct the principal amongst them, are met with near
+the political frontier of the country. The harbour of Lisbon was the
+kernel, as it were, around which the rest of the country has become
+crystallized. Its power of attraction proved equal to that which caused
+the rest of the peninsula to gravitate towards Madrid and Toledo.
+
+As frequently happens where neighbouring nations obey different laws
+and are made to fight each other at the caprice of their sovereigns,
+there is no love lost between Spaniards and Portuguese. The former,
+being the stronger, sneer at “Portugueses pocos y locos” (small and
+crack-brained). The Portuguese are far more demonstrative in giving
+expression to their aversion. Formerly “Murderer {470} of the
+Castilians” was a favourite sign-board of houses of entertainment, and
+the national poetry breathes passionate hatred of the Spaniard. This
+animosity must interfere with the Iberian union, advocated only by a
+handful of people.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 191.—RAINFALL OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.
+
+According to Jelinek and Hann. Scale 1 : 10,300,000.]
+
+Ancient Lusitania was inhabited by Celtic and Iberian tribes, who
+resisted for a considerable time the conquering arms of Rome. Those
+dwelling near the coast had been subjected to the influence of Greek,
+Phœnician, and Carthaginian colonists; but the influence exercised
+by the Romans, who forced their language and form of government upon
+the people, was far more durable. Suevi and Visigoths have left
+but few traces of their presence. The Mohammedans of various races
+have largely modified the blood and manners of the inhabitants,
+especially in Algarve, where they maintained themselves to the middle
+of the thirteenth century. The numerous ruins of fortresses existing
+throughout the country bear witness to the severe struggles which took
+place between these races before uniformity of government and religion
+was established.
+
+The Kings of Portugal, taking the advice of the Inquisition, expelled
+all heretics. The persecution of the Moors was pitiless, but the Jews
+were occasionally granted a respite. The Spanish Jews settled near the
+frontier, having outwardly embraced {471} the Christian religion, were
+permitted to remain; but the more conscientious Jews kept true to their
+faith, and carried the knowledge they possessed to other countries of
+Europe and to the East. At the time of their exile they were engaged in
+literature, medicine, and law, as well as in commerce; at Lisbon they
+had founded an academy of high repute; it was a Jew who introduced the
+art of printing into Portugal; and Spinoza, that noble and powerful
+thinker, was a Jew of Portuguese extraction.
+
+But the Portuguese have not only the blood of Arabs, Berbers, and
+Jews in their veins, they are likewise much mixed with negroes, more
+particularly in the south and along the coast. The slave trade existed
+long before the negroes of Guinea were exported to the plantations
+of America. Damianus a Goes estimated the number of blacks imported
+into Lisbon alone during the sixteenth century at 10,000 or 12,000 per
+annum. If contemporary eye-witnesses can be trusted, the number of
+blacks met with in the streets of Lisbon equalled that of the whites.
+Not a house but had its negro servants, and the wealthy owned entire
+gangs of them. The immunity of Portuguese immigrants who face the
+deadly climates of the tropics is sometimes ascribed to this infusion
+of negro blood, but erroneously as we think. Most of these immigrants
+come from the mountains of the north, where the race is almost pure;
+and if the Portuguese become acclimatized more rapidly than individuals
+of other nations, they owe it to their sobriety.
+
+At the present day it is the Galicians who exercise most influence upon
+the population of Lusitania. They immigrate in large numbers to Lisbon
+and other towns, where they gain their living as bakers, porters,
+doorkeepers, and domestic servants. Being ridiculed on account of their
+uncouth language and rustic manners, they mix but little with the rest
+of the population. Their numbers, however, are ever increasing, and
+their thrift and industry soon place them in a position of ease.
+
+The mixture of these diverse elements has not produced a handsome race.
+The Portuguese possess but rarely the noble mien of the Spaniard. Their
+features, as a rule, are irregular, the nose is turned up, and the lips
+are thick. Cripples are rare amongst them, but so are tall men. Squat
+and short, they are inclined to corpulency. The women cannot boast the
+fiery beauty of the Spaniards, but have brilliant eyes, an abundance of
+hair, animated features, and amiable manners.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 192.—PORTUGUESE TYPES: PEASANT OF OVAR; WOMAN OF
+LEÇA; PEASANT WOMAN OF AFFIFE.]
+
+Travellers speak highly of the manners, civility, and kindness of the
+peasantry not yet contaminated by commerce. The cruelties committed
+by Portuguese conquerors in the Indies and the New World have given
+the nation a bad reputation, though, as a rule, the Portuguese has
+compassion for all sorts of suffering. He is a gambler, but never
+quarrels; he is fond of bull-fights, but takes care to wrap up the
+bull’s horns in cork, in order that the animal may be saved for future
+contests; and he is exceedingly kind to domestic animals. In their
+intercourse the Portuguese are good-tempered, obliging, and polished.
+To tell a Lusitanian that he has been “brought up badly” is to offend
+him most seriously. Their oratory is elegant, though ceremonious. Even
+the peasants express themselves with a facility and command of words
+remarkable in a people so badly educated. Oaths {472} and indecent
+expressions scarcely ever pass their mouth, and, though great talkers,
+and even boasters, they are most guarded in their conversation.
+Portugal has {473} produced great orators, and one of her poets,
+Camões, is amongst the most illustrious the world has ever seen. On
+the other hand, Portugal has given birth to no great artist, for Gran
+Vasco is a mythical personage. Camões himself avows this when he says,
+“Our nation is the first because of its great qualities. Our men are
+more heroic than other men; our women better-looking than other women;
+and we excel in all the arts of peace and war, excepting in the art of
+painting.”
+
+Portuguese is very much like Castilian as far as root-words and general
+construction are concerned, but is far less voluminous and sonorous.
+Nasal and hissing sounds, which a foreigner finds it difficult to
+pronounce, abound, but there are no gutturals. Arab words are less
+numerous in Portuguese than in Castilian, but the Lusitanians, as well
+as the Spaniards, still swear by the god of the Mohammedans—_Oxala_
+(_Ojalà_); that is, “If Allah wills it.”
+
+The Portuguese cannot compare in numbers with the other nations
+of Europe, and their influence upon the destinies of the world is
+consequently small. At one time of their history, however, they
+surpassed all other nations by their maritime enterprise. The Spaniards
+certainly shared in the great discoveries of the fifteenth century,
+but it was the Portuguese who made them possible by first venturing to
+navigate the open ocean. It was a Portuguese, Magalhães, who undertook
+the first voyage round the world, terminated only after his death. A
+similar pre-eminence amongst nations will never be met with again,
+for the increased facilities of communication exercise a levelling
+influence upon all. Portugal, therefore, can never again hope to resume
+the national status which she held formerly, but her great natural
+resources and favourable geographical position at the extremity of the
+continent must always insure her an honourable place amongst them.
+
+
+II.—NORTHERN PORTUGAL. THE VALLEYS OF THE MINHO, DOURO, AND MONDEGO.
+
+The mountains of Lusitania are a portion of the great orographical
+system of the whole peninsula; but they are not mere spurs, gradually
+sinking down towards the sea, for they rise into independent ranges;
+and the individuality of Portugal is manifested in the relief of its
+soil quite as much as in the history of its inhabitants.
+
+The mountains rising in the north-eastern corner of Portugal, to
+the south of the Minho, may be looked upon as the outer barrier of
+an ancient lake, which formerly covered the whole of the plains of
+Old Castile. From the Pyrenees to the Sierra de Gata this barrier
+was continuous, and the breaches now existing date only from a
+comparatively recent epoch, and are due to the erosive action of
+torrents. The most considerable of these breaches, that of the Douro,
+could have been effected only by overcoming most formidable obstacles.
+
+The most northern mountain mass of Portugal, that of the Peneda of
+Gavieiro (4,727 feet), rises abruptly beyond the region of forest, and
+commands the Sierra Peñagache (4,065 feet) on the Spanish frontier to
+the east, as well as the hills of Santa Luzia (1,814 feet) and others
+near the coast. Another mountain mass rises {474} immediately to
+the south of the gorge through which the Limia passes after leaving
+Spain. This is the Serra do Gerez (4,815 feet), a range of twisted,
+grotesquely shaped mountains, the only counterpart of which in the
+peninsula is the famous Serranía de Ronda. This range, together with
+the Larouco (5,184 feet), to the east of it, must be looked upon as the
+western extremity of the Cantabrian Pyrenees, and like them it consists
+of granitic rocks.
+
+The flora of these northern frontier mountains of Portugal much
+resembles that of Galicia, and on their slopes the botanist meets with
+a curious intermingling of the vegetation of France, and even Germany,
+with that of the Pyrenees, Biscay, and the Portuguese lowlands. On the
+southern summits, however, and more especially on the Serra de Marão
+(4,665 feet), which forms a bold promontory between the Douro and its
+important tributary the Tamega, and shelters the wine districts of
+Oporto from north-westerly winds, the opportunities for examining into
+the arborescent flora are but few, for the forests which once clad
+them have disappeared. The schistose plateaux to the east of them and
+to the north of the Douro have likewise been robbed of their forests
+to make room for vineyards. Most wild animals have disappeared with
+the forests, but wolves are still numerous, and are much dreaded by
+the herdsmen. The mountain goat (_Capra ægagrus_), which existed until
+towards the close of last century in the Serra do Gerez, has become
+extinct. The Serra da Cabreira (4,196 feet), to the east of Braga, is
+probably indebted for its name to these wild goats.
+
+If the Serra do Gerez may be looked upon as the western extremity of
+the Pyrenean system, the magnificent Serra da Estrella (6,540 feet),
+which rises between the Douro and Tejo, is undoubtedly a western
+prolongation of the great central range of Spain which separates the
+plateaux of the two Castiles. These “Star Mountains” are attached
+to the mountains of Spain by a rugged table-land, or _mesa_, of
+comparatively small height. The great granitic Serra da Estrella rises
+gently above the broken ground which gives birth to the Mondego. It can
+easily be ascended from that side, and is hence known as the _Serra
+Mansa_, “the tame mountain.” On the south, however, above the valley
+of the Zezere, the slopes are abrupt and difficult of access, and are
+known for that reason as _Serra Brava_; that is, “wild mountain.”
+Delightful lakelets, similar to those of the Pyrenees and Carpathians,
+are met with near the highest summit of the range, the Malhão de
+Serra. The tops of the Serra da Estrella remain covered with snow
+during four months of the year, and supply the inhabitants of Lisbon
+with the ice required for the preparation of their favourite sherbet.
+The orographical system of the Estrella ends with the Serra de Lousão
+(3,940 feet), for the hills of Estremadura, which terminate in the
+Cabo da Roca, a landmark well known to mariners, belong to another
+geological formation, and consist for the most part of Jurassic strata
+overlying the cretaceous formation.
+
+The mountains of Beira and Entre Douro e Minho are exposed to the full
+influence of the moisture-laden south-westerly winds, and the rainfall
+is considerable. The rain does not descend in torrents, as in tropical
+countries, but pours down steadily. It is more abundant in winter and
+spring, but not a month passes {475} without it. Fogs are frequent at
+the mouths of valleys and along the coast as far south as the latitude
+of Coimbra. At that place as much as sixteen feet of rain has fallen in
+a single year, an amount only to be equalled within the tropics.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 193.—THE VALLEY OF THE LIMIA, OR LIMA.
+
+Scale 1 : 300,000.]
+
+The humidity of the air accounts for the great equability of the
+climate of Northern Portugal. At Coimbra the difference between the
+coldest and warmest month amounts to but 20° F. Frosts are severe
+only on the plateaux exposed to the north-easterly winds, and the
+heat becomes unbearable in deep valleys alone, where the air cannot
+circulate freely.[173] At Penafiel, where the rays of the sun are
+thrown back by the rocky precipices, the heat is almost that of a
+furnace. This, however, is an exception, and the climate generally can
+be described as temperate.
+
+Running water is abundant. Camões has sung the beauties of the fields
+of Coimbra watered by the Mondego, the charms of cascades sparkling
+amidst foliage, and the purity of the springs bursting forth from rocks
+clad with verdure. The Vouga, the affluents of the Douro, the Ave,
+Cavado, and Lima, likewise take their {476} devious courses through
+smiling landscapes whose beauties are set off by rocks and mountains.
+The Lima, whose delights might well cause Roman soldiers to forget the
+rivers of their own country, is the only river of the peninsula still
+in a state of geological transition. All others have drained the lakes
+which gave birth to them, but in the case of the Lima that old lake
+basin is still occupied by a swamp, known as Laguna Beon, or Antela,
+the only remains of a mountain-girt inland lake as large as that of
+Geneva.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 194.—DUNES OF AVEIRO.
+
+Scale 1 : 400,000.]
+
+The current of the rivers of Northern Portugal is too great to permit
+of their being utilised as high-roads of commerce. They have ports at
+their mouths, but the Douro, which drains nearly a sixth of the Iberian
+peninsula, is the only one amongst them which facilitates access to an
+inland district. Mariners dread to approach the coast when the wind
+blows on shore. Between the Minho and Cabo Carvoeiro, a distance of
+200 miles, the coast presents features very much like those of the
+French landes. Its original indentations and irregularities have been
+obliterated by barriers of sand. The lower valley of the Vouga was
+formerly an inlet of the sea extending far inland. The basin of Aveiro
+resembles geologically that of Arcachon. Its waters abound in fish, but
+the Douro is the southernmost river of Europe visited by salmon. The
+abundance of life in certain localities of it is figuratively expressed
+by a Spanish proverb, which says, “The water of the Douro is not water,
+but broth.”
+
+The rectilinear beach of Beira-mar is lined for the most part with
+dunes, the old gulfs behind which are gradually being converted into
+insalubrious swamps, fringed by heath, ferns, strawberry-trees, and
+broom, whilst the neighbouring forests consist of oaks and pines.
+Formerly these dunes invaded the cultivated portions of the country,
+as they still do in France, where like geological causes have produced
+like results. But long before a similar plan was thought of in France
+these Portuguese dunes were planted with pines, and as early as the
+reign of King Diniz “the Labourer,” at the beginning of the fourteenth
+century, they had ceased to “march.” {477}
+
+The population of the cultivable portions of the basins of the Minho
+and Douro is very dense, and in order to maintain themselves the
+inhabitants are forced to work zealously. Their country is the most
+carefully cultivated of the peninsula. In a large measure this industry
+is due to the fact of the peasantry being the owners of the land they
+cultivate, or at least _affarádos_—that is, copyholders—who only pay
+a few shillings annually to the lords of the manors. Many of the
+peasants are wealthy, and the women are fond of loading themselves with
+jewellery, amongst which necklaces made in the Moorish taste are most
+prominent. The cultivation of the fields is attended to with scrupulous
+care; and the most ingenious methods are employed for the irrigation
+of the upper slopes of the hills, which are frequently cut up into
+terraces, or _geios_. These Northern Portuguese are as distinguished
+for moral excellence as they are for industry. Their sweetness of
+disposition, gaiety and kindliness are the theme of universal praise,
+and as regards their love of dancing and music they are veritable
+Theocritan shepherds. Challenges in improvised verses form one of the
+amusements of young men. Nor is the population devoid of physical
+beauty. The women of Aveiro, though often enfeebled by malaria, have
+the reputation of being the prettiest in all Portugal.
+
+The cultivation of the vine and the making of port wine constitute the
+principal branch of industry of the country. The chief vine-growing
+district, ordinarily known as _Paiz do Vinho_, lies to the north of
+the Douro, between the Serra de Marão and the Tua, and is exposed to
+the full force of the rays of the summer sun. In the middle of the
+seventeenth century the cultivation of this district had hardly begun.
+The English had not then learnt to appreciate these growths, and were
+content with the various Portuguese wines shipped from Lisbon. It
+was only after the treaty concluded by Lord Methuen in 1702 that the
+cultivation of the vine assumed certain dimensions in the district
+of the Douro, and ever since the reputation of port has been on the
+increase. The Marquis of Pombal founded a company for the production
+of wine, and the small town of Pezo da Regoa, on the Corgo, then
+became famous for its wine fairs, at which fortunes were lost and won,
+and a town of wine cellars and stores sprang up opposite the town of
+Porto, or Oporto, near the mouth of the Douro. For more than a hundred
+years port and sherry have kept their place on the tables of English
+gentlemen, and nearly all the wine produced on the banks of the Dóuro
+finds its way to England or to British colonies. Indeed, up to 1852 the
+best quality, known as “factory wine,” could be exported to England
+alone. Next to the English the Brazilians are the best customers of
+Oporto: they receive nearly 1,000,000 gallons of wine annually.[174]
+
+The breeding of mules and fattening of Spanish cattle for the London
+market yield considerable profit. Early vegetables are forwarded not
+only to London but also to Rio de Janeiro. Manufactures were already
+of some importance in the {478} Middle Ages, and have recently been
+much developed by enterprising English capitalists. Oporto has cotton,
+linen, silk, and woollen mills, foundries and sugar refineries, and
+its jewellers and glove-makers enjoy a good repute. But agriculture,
+industry and legitimate commerce, and even the smuggling carried on
+in the frontier district of Bragança, do not suffice to support the
+ever-increasing population, and thousands emigrate annually to Lisbon
+and Brazil.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 195.—OPORTO AND THE PAIZ DO VINHO.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,000,000.]
+
+Northern Portugal may be described as the cradle of the existing
+kingdom, and it was Porto Cale, on the site of Villanova de Gaia,
+the southern suburb of Oporto, which gave a name to all Lusitania.
+At Lamego, to the south of the Douro, the Cortes met, according to
+tradition, in 1143, and constituted the new kingdom of which Oporto
+became the capital. When the country recovered its independence after
+the short dominion of Spain, the Dukes of Bragança were invested
+with the regal power. Though Lisbon occupies a more central position
+than Oporto, the latter frequently takes the initiative in political
+movements, and the success of any revolution is said to depend upon the
+side taken by the energetic population of the north. If we may accept
+the estimate of the _Portuenses_, they are morally and physically
+the superiors of the _Lisbonenses_. They alone are the true sons of
+the great people whose vessels ploughed the ocean during the age
+of discoveries, and there can be no doubt that their gait is more
+determined, their speech and their glance more open, than those of the
+inhabitants of the capital. In vulgar parlance, people of Oporto and
+Lisbon are known as _tripeiros_ and _alfasinhos_; that is, tripe and
+lettuce eaters.
+
+[Illustration: OPORTO.]
+
+Porto, or O Porto, the “Port” _par excellence_, is the natural capital
+of Northern Lusitania, the second city of Portugal on account of its
+population and commerce, the first in manufactures. As seen from
+the banks of the Douro, here hardly {479} more than 200 yards in
+width, and spanned by a magnificent railway bridge, it rises like a
+double amphitheatre, whose summits are crowned by the cathedral and
+the belfry _dos Clerigos_, and the narrow valley separating them
+covered with houses. The lower town has broad streets, intersecting
+each other at right angles, but the streets climbing the hills are
+narrow and tortuous, and even stairs have frequently to be ascended
+in order to reach the more elevated quarters of the town. Cleanliness
+is attended to throughout, and the citizens are most anxious in that
+respect to insure the praises of their numerous English visitors. Gaia,
+a long suburb, occupies the opposite side of the river. It abounds
+in factories and storehouses, and its vast cellars are stated on an
+average to contain 80,000 pipes of wine. Beautiful walks extend along
+the river bank and its terraces, and the long reaches of the stream are
+covered with shipping, and fringed with gardens and villas. The hills
+in the distance are crowned with ancient convents, fortifications, and
+villages half hidden amongst verdure. Avintes, famous for the beauty
+of its women, who supply the town daily with _broa_, or maize bread,
+is one of them. Suburbs extend along both banks of the river in the
+direction of the sea. The river at its mouth is only two fathoms in
+depth during low water, and dangerous of access when the wind blows
+from the west. Even at Oporto vessels of 400 or 500 tons are exposed to
+danger from sudden floods of the river, which cause them to drag their
+anchors. The port of the Douro has therefore to contend with great
+difficulties in its rivalry with Lisbon.[175]
+
+The small town of São João da Foz, at the mouth of the Douro, has a
+lighthouse, but carries on no commerce. Near it are Mattozinhos and
+Leça, the latter of which boasts of an ancient monastery resembling
+a fortress, and is much frequented on account of its fine beach and
+refreshing sea breezes. Espinho, to the south of the Douro, is another
+favourite seaside resort, in spite of the all-pervading smell of
+sardines. The small ports to the north of the Douro are frequented only
+by coasting vessels or by seaside visitors. The entrance to the Minho
+is defended by the castle of Insua, on a small island, as its name
+implies, and by the insignificant fortress of Caminha. The river is
+accessible only to vessels drawing less than six feet. The mouth of the
+Lima, though even more difficult of access, is nevertheless occupied by
+a town of some importance—coquettish Vianna do Castello, beautifully
+ensconced amidst the verdure of its fertile plain. Other towns are
+Espozende, at the mouth of the Cávado, and Villa do Conde, at that of
+the Ave. Formerly most of the vessels engaged in the slave trade and
+those employed in the great maritime enterprises of the Portuguese were
+built here, and it still boasts of a few ship-yards.
+
+Amongst the inland towns of Entre Douro e Minho are Ponte de Lima,
+famous for the beauty of the surrounding country; Barcellos,
+overhanging the shady banks of the Cávado; and Amarante, celebrated for
+its wines and peaches, and proud of a fine bridge spanning the Tamega.
+But the only towns important on account of their population are Braga
+and Guimarães, both placed on commanding heights overlooking a most
+fertile country. Braga (Bracara Augusta), an ancient Roman colony, the
+capital of the Galicians, then of the Suevi, and later on the residence
+of {480} the Kings of Portugal, became the primatial city of the whole
+of the peninsula when the two kingdoms were temporarily united under
+the same sovereign. But Braga is not only a town of the past, it is
+even now a bustling place, where hats, linens, arms, and beautiful
+filigree are manufactured for exportation to the rest of Portugal
+and the Portuguese colonies. Guimarães is equally as interesting as
+Braga on account of its monuments and mediæval legends. Visitors are
+still shown the sacred olive-tree which sprang from a seed placed in
+the soil by King Wamba, when still a common labourer; and Affonso,
+the founder of the Portuguese monarchy, was born in the old castle.
+Guimarães is a busy manufacturing town; it produces cutlery, hardware,
+and table-linen, and English visitors never fail to purchase there
+a curiously ornamented box of prunes. Near it are much-frequented
+sulphur springs, known to the Romans as _Aquæ Levæ_. But the most
+famous mineral springs of modern Portugal are the Caldas do Gerez, in a
+tributary valley of the Upper Cávado.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 196.—SÃO JOÃO DA FOZ AND THE MOUTH OF THE DOURO.]
+
+The towns of Traz os Montes and Beira Alta are too far removed from
+highways to have attracted a considerable population. Villa Real,
+on the Corgo, is the busiest place of Traz os Montes, owing to the
+vineyards in its neighbourhood. {481} Chaves, an old fortress near
+the Spanish frontier, boasts of one of those Roman bridges which have
+rendered the century of Trajan famous: it was formerly noted for its
+mineral springs (_Aquæ Flaviæ_). Bragança, the old provincial capital,
+has a commanding citadel, and, owing to its geographical position, is
+an important place for smugglers, the legitimate exports fluctuating
+regularly with the customs tariff. It is the most important place in
+Portugal for the production of raw silk. Lamego, a picturesque town
+to the south of the Douro, opposite the Paiz do Vinho, enjoys a great
+reputation for its hams; Almeida, which keeps in check the garrison of
+Spanish Ciudad Rodrigo, was anciently one of the strongest fortresses
+of Portugal; and Vizeu is an important station between the Douro and
+the Mondego. Its fairs are more frequented than any others in Portugal,
+and in its cathedral may be seen the famous masterpiece painted by the
+mythical Gran Vasco. The herdsmen around Vizéu are noted for their
+strength and beauty. Their uncovered heads and bare legs give them an
+appearance of savagery, but their manners are as polished and dignified
+as those of the rest of their countrymen.
+
+Coimbra (_Æminium_), in Beira-mar, is the most populous town between
+Oporto and Lisbon. It is known more especially for its university,
+whose professors and students impart to it the aspect of a mediæval
+seat of learning. The purest Portuguese is spoken there. The environs
+are delightful, and in the botanical garden the plants of the tropics
+mingle with those of the temperate zones. From the banks of the
+Mondego, upon which the city is built, visitors frequently ascend to
+the _Quinta das Lagrimos_ (“house of tears”), the scene of the murder
+of the beauteous Inez de Castro, whose death was so cruelly revenged by
+her husband, Peter the Judge.
+
+Few countries in the world can rival the beautiful valley of the
+Mondego, that “river of the Muses” held dear by all the Lusitanians,
+because it is the only one which belongs to them exclusively. Condeixa,
+a town near Coimbra, fully deserves to be called the “Basket of Fruit,”
+for its gardens produce most exquisite oranges. In the north the ruins
+of the monastery of Bussaco occupy a mountain terrace covered with a
+dense forest of cypresses, cedars, oaks, elms, and exotic trees. This
+delightful place and the hot springs of Luso, near it, are a favourite
+summer residence of the citizens of Lisbon and Coimbra.
+
+Figueira da Foz, the port of Coimbra, is well sheltered, but, like most
+other ports of Northern Portugal, is obstructed by a bar of sand. It
+is nevertheless much frequented by coasting vessels, and amongst its
+exports are the wines of Barraida. Ovar and Aveiro, in the “Portuguese
+Netherlands,” on the banks of a lagoon separated by a series of dunes
+from the high sea, are the two other ports of this part of the coast.
+They were important places during the Middle Ages, but the shifting
+bars, which render access to them difficult, have put a stop to their
+prosperity. The seamen of these two places have a high reputation
+for daring. They engage in sardine-fishing, oyster-dredging, and the
+manufacture of bay-salt.[176] {482}
+
+
+III.—THE VALLEY OF THE TEJO (TAGUS).
+
+The lower course of the Tejo, called Tajo in Spain, separates Portugal
+into two portions differing much in their general aspect, climate, and
+soil. The valley itself is a sort of intermediary between the north and
+south, and the vast estuary into which the river discharges itself.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 197.—COIMBRA.]
+
+Where the Tejo enters Portugal, below the magnificent bridge of
+Alcántara, it is still hemmed in between precipitous banks, and is
+neither navigable nor available for purposes of irrigation. Having
+traversed the defile of Villa Velha do Rodão, its valley gradually
+widens, and after having received its most considerable tributary,
+the Zezere, it becomes a tranquil stream, abounding in islands and
+sand-banks, and is navigable during the whole of the year. Below
+Salvaterra the river bifurcates, its two branches enclosing the marshy
+island of Lezirias. The vast estuary which begins below this island
+is an arm of the sea rather than a river; its waters are saline, and
+between Sacavem and Alhandra there are {483} salt-pans. The Tejo
+affords one of the most striking instances of a river encroaching upon
+its western bank, which is steep and hilly, whilst the left bank is low.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 198.—ESTUARY OF THE TEJO (TAGUS).
+
+Scale 1 : 580,000.]
+
+The irregular range of hills which forms the back-bone of the peninsula
+enclosed by the Lower Tejo and the ocean is attached to the mountain
+of Estrella by a ravined plateau of trifling elevation, crossed by the
+railway connecting Coimbra with Santarem. From the summit of the Serra
+do Aire (“wind mountain,” 2,222 feet) we look down upon the verdant
+valley of the Tejo and the reddish-hued plains of Alemtejo beyond it.
+Monte Junto (2,185 feet), farther south, is another commanding summit.
+The rocky promontory of Carvoeiro is joined to the mainland by a sandy
+beach. Upon it stands the little fortress of Peniche, whose inhabitants
+lead a life of seclusion, and are engaged in the manufacture of lace. A
+submarine plateau connects this promontory with Berlinga Island, with
+an old castle now used as a prison, and with the Farilhãos, dreaded by
+mariners.
+
+The hills on the narrow peninsula to the north of Lisbon are of small
+height, but, owing to their rugged character, they present great
+obstacles to intercommunication. It was here Wellington constructed
+the famous lines of Torres Vedras, which converted the environs of
+Lisbon into a vast entrenched camp. To the south of these rise the
+beautiful heights of Cintra, celebrated for their palaces, shady
+valleys, delightful climate, and historical associations. Sheets of
+basalt, {484} ejected from some ancient volcano, cover the hills
+between Lisbon and Sacavem, and the great earthquakes of 1531 and 1755
+prove that subterranean forces were then not quite extinct. The second
+of these earthquakes was probably the most violent ever witnessed in
+Europe. The very first shock destroyed 3,850 houses in Lisbon, burying
+15,000 human beings beneath the ruins; a minute afterwards an immense
+wave, nearly forty feet in height, swept off the fugitives who crowded
+the quay. Only one quarter of the town, that anciently inhabited by the
+Moors, escaped destruction. The Marquis de Pombal erected a gallows in
+the midst of the ruins to deter plunderers. From the focus of vibration
+the oscillations of the soil were propagated over an immense area,
+estimated at no less than 1,000,000 square miles. Oporto was destroyed
+in part, the harbour of Alvor in Algarve was silted up, and it is said
+that nearly all the large towns of Morocco tumbled into ruins.
+
+The gully which connects the open ocean with the inland sea of Lisbon,
+and through which the Tejo discharges its waters, separates the
+cretaceous hills of Cintra from the isolated Serra da Arabida (1,537
+feet), to the west of Setúbal, which belong to the same geological
+formation. These two groups of hills were probably portions of one
+range at a time when the Tejo still took its course across what are now
+the tertiary plains of Alemtejo, and reached the sea much farther to
+the south, through the estuary of the Sado.
+
+Lisbon (Lisbõa), though the number of its inhabitants is less than half
+what it was in the sixteenth century, exhibits no trace of the havoc
+wrought in 1755. Even the central portions of the town have risen from
+the ruins, and huge blocks of houses, imposing by their size, if not
+by their architecture, have taken the places of the older structures.
+The present city extends four miles along the Tejo, but including its
+suburbs, between Poco do Bispo and the Tower of Belem, its extent is
+nine miles. The city stretches inland a distance of two or three miles,
+and, like Rome, is said to be built upon seven hills. A beautiful
+promenade connects it with Belem. As seen from the Tejo, or from the
+hills opposite, Lisbon, with its towers, cupolas, and public walks,
+certainly presents a magnificent spectacle, and there is some truth in
+the proverb which says―
+
+ “Que não tem visto Lisbõa, Não tem visto cosa bõa !”
+ (“Who has not seen Lisbon has not seen a thing of beauty.”)
+
+Unfortunately the interior of the superb metropolis does not correspond
+with the imposing beauty of its exterior. Lisbon has a noble square,
+called Largo do Comercio; it has all the various buildings which one
+expects to meet with in the capital of a kingdom and an important
+maritime town; but, with the exception of the chapel of São João
+Baptista, not one amongst them is remarkable for its architecture. The
+only important structure outside the city is the famous aqueduct Os
+Arcos das Agoas, which was built by João V., the _Rei Edificador_, in
+the beginning of the eighteenth century, and sustained no injury during
+the earthquake of 1755. On approaching the city it crosses a valley on
+a superb marble bridge of thirty-five arches, the highest of which is
+246 feet in height.
+
+[Illustration: LISBON.]
+
+Lisbon is relatively poor in interesting monuments, but few towns can
+rival it in natural advantages of soil, climate, and geographical
+position. Its situation is {485} most central; its harbour, at the
+mouth of a navigable river, is one of the most excellent in the world;
+and its entrance can be easily defended, the principal works erected
+for that purpose being Fort São Julião and the Tower of Bugio.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 199.—PENICHE AND THE BERLINGAS.
+
+Scale 1 : 142,860.]
+
+Lisbon is important not only as regards Portugal, but also, on account
+of its position, with reference to the rest of Europe—nay, of the
+entire world. As long as the Mediterranean was the theatre of human
+history it remained in obscurity, but no sooner had mariners ventured
+beyond the columns of Hercules than the beautiful harbour at the mouth
+of the Tejo became one of the principal points of departure for vessels
+starting upon voyages of discovery. Lisbon became the most advanced
+outpost of Europe on the Atlantic, for it offered greater facilities
+than any other port for voyages directed to the Azores, Madeira,
+the Canaries, and the western coasts of Africa. The achievements of
+Portuguese mariners have passed into history. Vast territories in every
+quarter of the globe became tributary to little Portugal, and it needed
+the epic force of a Camões to celebrate these wonderful conquests.
+
+That age of glory lasted but a short time, for proud Lisbon, which had
+become known to Eastern nations as the “City of the Franks,” as if it
+were the capital of Europe, lost its pre-eminent position towards the
+close of the sixteenth century. {486} Portugal capsized suddenly, like
+a small barge overcrowded with sails. Crushed by the terrible reign of
+Philip II., enervated by luxury, and grown disdainful of honest labour,
+as slaveholders always will, Lisbon was constrained to see much of
+its commerce and most of its valued colonies pass into the hands of
+Spaniards and Dutchmen. But, in spite of these disasters, Lisbon is
+still a commercial port of great importance, although as yet no direct
+line of railway connects it with Madrid and the rest of Europe. England
+occupies the foremost position amongst the customers of the town, and
+the Brazilians, whose severance from the mother country was at first
+looked upon as an irremediable disaster, follow next.[177] Spain,
+though it borders upon Portugal for several hundred miles, scarcely
+enters into commercial relations with it. Civil wars have, however,
+driven many Spanish exiles to Lisbon, and these have already exercised
+a considerable influence upon manners. Formerly only men were to be
+seen in the streets of Lisbon, the women being confined almost with the
+same rigour as in a Mohammedan city, but the example set by Spanish
+ladies has found many imitators amongst their Portuguese sisters. The
+towns in the immediate vicinity of Lisbon are celebrated for their
+picturesque beauties.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 200.—MOUTH OR THE TEJO (TAGUS).
+
+Scale 1 : 162,400.]
+
+Portuguese Estremadura, which neither suffers from northern frosts nor
+from fogs and aridity, can boast of a climate approaching that of the
+fabled Islands of the Happy. At Lisbon snow, or “white rain,” as it
+is called, falls {487} rarely, but it may be seen glittering on the
+summits of the Serras da Estrella and de Lousão. Its fall near the
+sea-coast is looked upon as an evil omen, and a heavy snow-storm, as
+recently as last century, frightened the inhabitants of Lisbon to such
+an extent that they fancied the day of judgment had come, and rushed
+into the churches.
+
+The regular alternation between land and sea breezes is likewise an
+advantage possessed by the neighbourhood of Lisbon. From the beginning
+of May throughout the fine season the wind blows from the land in the
+morning, by noon it has shifted to the south, in the evening it blows
+from the west and north-west, and during the night from the north.
+Hence its name of _viento roteiro_; that is, “rotary wind.” As to the
+winds forming part of the regular system of atmospheric circulation,
+they blow with far less regularity. The polar winds, stopped by the
+transversal mountain ranges of the country, either follow the direction
+of the coast or are diverted to the plateaux of Spain, and make
+their appearance in Portugal as easterly winds. It is these latter
+which render the summer oppressively hot. At Lisbon the thermometer
+rises occasionally to 100° F., and in 1798 even 104° were observed.
+Experience has taught us that although the heat at Rio de Janeiro is
+in excess of that of Lisbon, the dog-days at the latter place are more
+unbearable.[178]
+
+The vegetation of the happy district where the climate of North and
+South intermingle is twofold in its aspect. The date-palm makes its
+appearance in the gardens of Lower Estremadura; the dwarf palm grows
+in the open air along the coast; the agave raises its candelabra-like
+branches as on the coast of Mexico; the camellias are more beautiful
+than anywhere else in Europe; and the hedges are composed of prickly
+cacti (_Nopal_), as in Sicily and Algeria. The fruits of the
+Mediterranean ripen to perfection; and even the mango of the Antilles,
+only recently introduced, has found a congenial climate. Oranges are
+known as _portogalli_ in several countries as far as Egypt, as if the
+inhabitants of Portugal had been the first to whom these golden apples
+were known; and even the word _chintarah_, or _chantarah_, by which the
+orange is known in some parts of India, is supposed to be a corruption
+of the name of the Portuguese town of Cintra.
+
+Belem (Bethlehem) is the nearest of the suburban towns of Lisbon, being
+separated from it merely by a rivulet named Alcántara, after an old
+Moorish bridge. It is the first place beheld by a mariner approaching
+Lisbon, and its square tower, built by King John the Perfect, is seen
+from afar. It was hence Vasco da Gama started upon the memorable
+expedition which taught the Portuguese the road to India, and a
+magnificent monastery, now converted into an educational institution,
+was built in commemoration of this glorious event.
+
+Oeiras, at the mouth of a small rivulet coming down from the heights of
+Cintra, defends the entrance to the Tejo by means of Fort São Julião;
+Carcavellos, noted for its wines, lies farther on; and Cascães, with
+a small harbour defended by a citadel, brings us to the open ocean.
+The coast beyond this is protected by {488} towers, but there are no
+inhabitants. The hills of Cintra, however are one of the most populous
+districts of the country, and they are much frequented by foreigners.
+Whether we follow the carriage road or the tramroad from Lisbon, we
+pass the castles and villas of Bomfica, the royal palace of Queluz, and
+the country seats of Bellas, the fountain of which supplies the capital
+with water. Cintra itself is surrounded by hotels and gardens. On a
+hill to the south of it stands the sumptuous Castle de la Penha, whose
+eccentricities of architecture are softened down by luxuriant masses of
+vegetation. Strangers likewise visit the ruins of an old Moorish castle
+and the caverns of the “Monastery of Cork,” thus named because its
+walls are covered with cork as a protection against damp. The prospect
+from all the surrounding heights is magnificent, and most so from the
+cliffs terminating in the famous Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of
+continental Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 201.—ZONES OF VEGETATION IN PORTUGAL.
+
+Scale 1 : 6,000,000.]
+
+The city of Mafra occupies a sterile plateau not far from the seaside
+resort of Ericeira. Like Cintra, it boasts of an immense palace,
+the Escorial of the kings of the house of Bragança, now used as a
+military school. João V., who erected this structure, with its numerous
+churches, chapels, and cells, expended for that purpose all the coin
+he could command, and when he died there was not enough money left in
+the treasury to pay for a mass for the repose of his soul. Far more
+{489} curious than this immense barrack, with its 5,200 windows, is
+the forsaken monastery of Alcobaça, about sixty miles farther north,
+which was built in the twelfth century to commemorate the victories
+over the Moors. Near it stands the monastery of Batalha, which recalls
+the defeat of the Castilians in the plain of Aljubarrota in 1385. The
+portals, cloisters, chapel, and chapter-room abound in sculptures of
+marvellous finish, though of doubtful taste.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 202.—CASTLE DE LA PENHA DE CINTRA.]
+
+Leiria, the town nearest to Batalha, occupies a fine site at the
+confluence of the rivers Liz and Lena, and is commanded by a Moorish
+castle, the old residence of King Diniz the “Labourer,” who planted the
+_pinhal_ of Leiria, the finest forest in Portugal. After a long period
+of decadence this portion of the country has entered upon a new epoch
+of activity. At Marinha Grande, near it, there are large glass-works,
+which communicate by rail with the circular harbour of Concha (shell)
+de São Martinho.
+
+Thomar, formerly famous on account of its monastery, stands on the
+eastern {490} slope of the hills commanding the plains of Batalha
+and Alcobaça. It is the capital of the Knights of Christ, to whom was
+conceded the privilege of conquering the Indies and the New World.
+They performed great deeds, but in the end their rapacity led to the
+decadence of their native country. Thomar is a town of cotton-mills
+now, but commerce is more active in the places on the Tejo, and notably
+at Santarem, which, from its “marvellous” hill, looks down upon the
+verdant isles of the river and the plains of Alemtejo. Santarem and the
+neighbouring fortress of Abrantes supply Lisbon with vegetables and
+fruit, and the country around them is a veritable forest of olive-trees.
+
+The sandy soil and shallow rivers bounded by marshes of the country to
+the south of the Tejo oppose serious obstacles to the establishment of
+important towns, and if it were not for the vicinity of Lisbon it would
+probably be uninhabited. Almada, opposite Lisbon, Seixal, Barreiro,
+Aldea Gallega, and Alcochete are mere suburbs of the capital, and share
+in its prosperity or adversity. Setúbal, or St. Ives, however, which
+lies farther to the south, on the estuary of the Sado, and which has an
+excellent harbour, suffers from too great a proximity to Lisbon, for
+Portugal is not rich enough to feed two ports so close to each other.
+Cezimbra, on the steep coast which terminates in Cape Espichel, to the
+west of Setúbal, is likewise a decayed place, and Troja, which preceded
+Setúbal as the emporium of the Sado, now lies buried beneath the dunes.
+Excavations recently made on its site have led to the discovery of
+Roman mosaics and of a street laid out, perhaps, by the Phœnicians; and
+Link, the botanist, who visited the spot at the end of last century,
+still found there the ruined courts of Moorish houses.
+
+Setúbal, though its commercial activity is very much inferior to that
+of Lisbon, still exports muscat wines, delicious oranges, and salt
+procured from the ponds in its vicinity.[179] The sea near Setúbal and
+Cezimbra abounds in fish and other marine animals, and in comparison
+with it the Mediterranean and Bay of Biscay may almost be described
+as deserts. Long before scientific men explored the bottom of the sea
+the fishermen of Setúbal hauled up from a depth of 300 fathoms immense
+sharks. Ordinary fish are caught in myriads, and the inhabitants of
+Cezimbra feed their pigs upon sardines. When Portugal was at the
+height of its commercial prosperity it supplied a considerable portion
+of Europe with fish, and almost enjoyed a monopoly in cod, which was
+exported even to Norway.[180]
+
+
+IV.—SOUTHERN PORTUGAL. ALEMTEJO AND ALGARVE.
+
+The mountains beyond the Tejo rarely assume the aspect of chains. For
+the most part they rise but little above the surrounding plateau. This
+region is the least attractive of all Portugal, and between the Tejo
+and the mountains of Algarve there are only plains, monotonous hills,
+woods, and naked landes. Human habitations are few and far between. The
+lowlands along the Tejo and {491} the coast are covered with a thick
+layer of fine sand resting upon clay, and they still exhibit clumps of
+maritime pines and holm-oaks, the remains of the ancient forests which
+formerly covered the whole of the country. Farther inland we reach
+the great landes, or _charnecas_, covered with an infinite variety of
+plants. There are heaths growing sometimes to a height of six feet,
+rock-roses, juniper-trees, rosemary, and creeping oaks. But the general
+aspect of the country is dreary, in spite of the white and yellow
+flowers which cover it until the middle of winter, for there are hardly
+any cultivated fields. The hills consist for the most part of micaceous
+schists, and are covered with a monotonous growth of labdanum-yielding
+rock-roses. This is a western extension of the zone of _jarales_, which
+covers so many hundred square miles of the Sierra Morena and other
+mountain regions of Spain.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 203.—MONASTERY OF THE KNIGHTS OF CHRIST AT THOMAR.]
+
+The Serra de São Mamede (3,363 feet), on the confines of Portugal,
+between the valleys of the Tejo and Guadiana, is the highest mountain
+mass of Southern Portugal; but its granitic ridges, enclosing narrow
+valleys between them, hardly {492} rise 1,500 feet above the general
+level of the plateau. A second granitic mountain mass rises to the
+south of the depression crossed by the railway from Lisbon to Badajoz.
+This is the Serra de Ossa (2,130 feet). An undulating tract of country
+joins it to other serras, forming steep escarpments towards the valleys
+of the Guadiana and Sadão, and the monotonous plain known as Campo de
+Beja (870 feet). The famous Campo de Ourique (700 feet), upon which
+200,000 Moors, commanded by five kings, were defeated by the Portuguese
+in the middle of the twelfth century, forms a southern continuation
+of that plain. This battle, and the massacres which succeeded it,
+converted the plains to the south of the Tejo into deserts.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 204—ESTUARY OF THE SADO.
+
+Scale 1 : 350,000.]
+
+The hills of that portion of Alemtejo which lies to the east of the
+Guadiana belong to the system of the Sierra Morena of Spain. The
+river, which separates them from the hills and plateaux of the west,
+is confined in a deep and narrow gorge. At the _Pulo do Lobo_ (“wolf’s
+leap”) it still descends in cataracts, and becomes navigable only at
+Mertola, thirty-seven miles above its mouth.
+
+The hills of Southern Alemtejo and Algarve, to the west of the
+Guadiana, are at first mere swellings of the ground known as
+_cumeadas_, or “heights of land,” but in the Serra do Malhão (1,886
+feet) and the Serra da Mezquita they attain some height. A plateau,
+traversed by the upper affluents of the Mira, joins the range last
+mentioned to the Serra Caldeirão (1,272 feet), supposed to be named
+after some ancient crater, or “caldron,” which terminates, to the
+north of Cape Sines, with the Atalaya, or Sentinel (1,010 feet).
+The principal range continues towards the west, and in the Serra
+de Monchique (2,963 feet), a mountain mass filling up the {493}
+south-western corner of Portugal, it attains its culminating point. A
+steep ridge, known as Espinhaço de Cão (“dog’s back”), extends from the
+latter in the direction of the Capes of St. Vincent and Sagres.
+
+The latter was selected by Henry the Navigator as the seat of the
+naval school founded by him, and from its heights he watched for the
+return of the vessels which he dispatched on exploratory expeditions.
+Associations such as these are far more pleasurable than those
+connected with the neighbouring Cape St. Vincent, where Admiral Jervis,
+in 1797, destroyed a Spanish fleet.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 205.—SERRA DE MONCHIQUE AND PROMONTORY OF SAGRES.
+
+Scale 1 : 500,000.]
+
+The hills of Sagres are of volcanic origin, and the subsidence of
+portions of the coast of Algarve appears to prove that subterranean
+forces are still active. Wherever this subsidence has been observed the
+coast is fringed by sand-banks, thrown up by the waves of the sea, the
+channel separating them from the mainland being navigable for small
+vessels.
+
+If a traveller ascend one of the culminating points of the mountains
+of Algarve, he cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable contrast
+existing between the districts to the north and south of him. On the
+one side he looks down upon vast solitudes resembling deserts; on
+the other he perceives forests of chestnut-trees, numerous villages,
+towns bordering the seashore, and fleets of fishing-boats rocking
+upon the blue waves. The contrasts between the inhabitants of these
+two districts {494} are scarcely less striking. The inhabitants of
+Alemtejo are the most solemn of Portuguese, and even object to dancing.
+Very thinly scattered over the landes which they inhabit, they either
+engage in agriculture or follow their herds of pigs and sheep into
+the forests of holm-oaks and thickets of rock-roses. In summer they
+cross the Tejo with their pigs, and pasture them in the mountains of
+Beira. The population of Algarve, on the other hand, is thrice as
+dense as that of Alemtejo, and not only are fields, vineyards, and
+orchards carefully tended, but the sea likewise is made to yield a
+portion of its food. The contrast between the two provinces is partly
+accounted for by the fact that most of the great battles were fought
+on the undulating plains of Alemtejo. When the Romans held the country
+Alemtejo supported a numerous population, as is proved by the large
+number of inscriptions found.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 206.—GEOLOGY OF ALGARVE.
+
+Scale 1 : 1,500,000.]
+
+Differences of altitude and geographical position sufficiently account
+for the differences of climate existing between the two provinces.
+Alemtejo, with its monotonous plains and stunted vegetation, is almost
+African in its aspect, whilst Algarve, with its forests of olive-trees,
+groves of date-palms, agaves, and prickly cacti, presents us with
+tropical features. The mean temperature near the coast is probably no
+less than 68° F. The Serra de Monchique bars the cool winds of the
+north, whilst the sandy islands fringing a portion of the coast keep
+off refreshing sea breezes. The hottest wind of all is that which blows
+from the east. It is often laden with fever-breeding miasmata, and a
+proverb says, _De Espanha nem bom vento nem bom casamento_: “Neither
+good winds nor good weddings are bred in Spain.”
+
+Villanova de Portimão, to the south of the Serra de Monchique, has
+long been looked upon as the hottest place in Europe; there are,
+however, several localities in Spain which rival it in that respect.
+Thus much is certain, that Algarve, with {495} the lower valley of
+the Guadalquivir and the southern coasts of Andalusia and Murcia,
+constitutes the most torrid portion of Europe. The Arabs were quite
+right when they designated Southern Lusitania and the opposite shore of
+Morocco by the same name of “el Gharb;” that is, the two Algarves, or
+“eastern districts.” Portuguese Algarve, in spite of the conversion of
+its inhabitants to Christianity, has retained its ancient Moorish name;
+and the Berber and Semitic blood is very conspicuous there.
+
+In Upper Alemtejo there are but few towns, and these would be
+altogether insignificant if it were not for the overland commerce
+carried on with Spain. Crato, which is the most considerable station
+on the railway which joins the Tejo to the Guadiana, and its neighbour
+Portalegre, were formerly important stages on the great overland
+route. Elvas, farther to the south, is surrounded by orchards, and
+defended by forts which were looked upon in the last century as
+masterpieces of military architecture. It faces the Spanish fortress
+of Badajoz, as well as Olivença, which was assigned to Portugal by
+the treaty of Vienna, but never surrendered by Spain. Estremoz, on
+a spur of the Serra de Ossa, is famous throughout Portugal for its
+_búcaros_—elegantly modelled earthen jars which diffuse a sweet odour.
+Montemor looks down from its hill upon vast landes and monotonous
+woods. Evora, likewise built on a hill, commands an extensive plain.
+It was a populous place during the dominion of the Romans, and in the
+Middle Ages became the second residence of the Kings of Portugal.
+There exist now only a Roman aqueduct, the ruins of a temple of Venus,
+Corinthian columns, and the remains of mediæval castles to remind us of
+its ancient splendours.
+
+Beja, the ancient _Pax Julia_ or _Colonia Pacensis_ of the Romans, has
+likewise lost its former importance, but Minas de São Domingos, on the
+peninsula formed by the confluence of the Guadiana and the Chanza,
+is rapidly increasing, thanks to its mines of pyrites of copper and
+other minerals, which are being worked by an English company. The ore
+is conveyed by rail to Pomarão, on the Guadiana, and thence on barges
+to Villa Real de Santo Antonio, at its mouth, formerly a mere fishing
+village, but now a busy port. Castro Marim, where the expeditions
+against the Moors used to be fitted out, is close to it.
+
+Silves, the ancient Moorish capital of Algarve, lies in the interior
+of the country, far removed from the present highways of commerce.
+Faro, the modern capital, has the advantage of lying on the seashore,
+and of possessing a secure harbour, whence small coasters are able to
+export fruit, tunny-fish, sardines, and oysters. Tavira possesses the
+same advantages, and exports the same articles: it is said to be the
+prettiest town of Algarve. Loulé, in a delightful inland valley, is a
+pretty place, and, when invalids have learnt the road to Algarve, may
+obtain some importance as a winter resort. The Caldas (warm baths) de
+Monchique (600 feet) enjoy a world-wide reputation even now, not only
+because of their efficacy, but also on account of the delicious climate
+and charming environs. This district is said to produce the best
+oranges in Portugal.[181] {496}
+
+
+V.—THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF PORTUGAL.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 207.—FARO AND TAVIRA.
+
+Scale 1 : 500,000.]
+
+Little Portugal no longer shares with her neighbour, Spain, in the
+dominion of the world, as in the fifteenth century. The secrecy
+observed with a view to the retention of the monopoly of trade with
+countries newly discovered proved in the end most injurious to
+Portugal. Other nations appeared upon the stage which the Portuguese
+had dreamt of occupying for ever, and though the latter still hold
+colonies vastly superior in area to the mother country, this is nothing
+in comparison with what has been irretrievably lost. Vasco da Gama
+discovered the ocean high-road to India, but the few settlements which
+Portugal still holds there she owes to the favour of England. In the
+Malay Archipelago Portugal has been supplanted almost completely by
+the Dutch, and Macao, at the entrance of the Canton River, was hardly
+more than a slave market until quite recently, from which Chinese
+“emigrants” were exported to Peru. In Africa Portugal holds vast
+possessions, if we are to believe in official documents and maps, but
+in reality only a very small tract of territory is under the dominion
+of the Portuguese, and most of the commerce is carried on through Dutch
+and other foreign houses. As to Brazil, it now surpasses the mother
+country in population and wealth. Madeira and the {497} Azores, the
+first conquests made by Lisbon navigators, are looked upon as integral
+portions of Portugal; they enjoy the same rights, and are quite equal
+to it in wealth.[182]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 208.—GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT OF THE PORTUGUESE
+LANGUAGE.]
+
+When Brazil was lost to Portugal that small country found itself
+in a position of lamentable prostration. Exhausted by foreign and
+internecine wars, its finances utterly ruined, and without roads to
+enable it to export its produce, it might have disappeared from our
+maps without any interests, except those of a few English vine-growers
+and Spanish smugglers, being affected. Even in 1851 there only existed
+a single carriage road in the country, namely, that which connected
+Lisbon with the royal palace at Cintra. No attention whatever was paid
+to education, and about a generation ago a girl able to read was a
+phenomenon. At the same time we must not forget that these illiterate
+Portuguese knew how to discuss a subject without quarrelling, had great
+command of their language, and were able even to improvise verses
+of great poetical merit, in all of which respects they contrasted
+favourably with the peasantry of Northern Europe.
+
+In the course of the last generation education has made much progress
+in Portugal;[183] and in other respects, too, the country has gradually
+assimilated with the rest of Europe. Roads and railways have been
+constructed,[184] and the latter connect Lisbon not only with the
+leading provincial towns, but also with Spain. The commerce with the
+latter country increases regularly with the occurrence of civil war,
+when Portugal profits at the expense of the Spanish ports of the
+Mediterranean. {498} Much of the ordinary commerce with Spain never
+appears in the customs registries, for it is carried on by smugglers,
+who glory in evading the vigilance of the frontier police.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 209.—TELEGRAPH FROM LISBON TO RIO DE JANEIRO.]
+
+The commerce of Portugal has increased very much in the course of the
+last thirty years. More than half of it falls to the share of Great
+Britain, a circumstance not to be wondered at when we bear in mind
+the relative geographical position of the two countries, for Portugal
+lies upon the direct route followed by English steamers proceeding to
+the Mediterranean, Western Africa, or Brazil. The assistance which
+England rendered Portugal during the peninsular war has cemented these
+commercial bonds.
+
+The commercial relations with Brazil, now joined to Lisbon by a
+submarine cable, are likewise the natural result of the relative
+positions of the two countries and of the common origin of their
+populations. Portugal, in fact, participates in every progress made by
+its old colony, and its commerce will assume immense proportions when
+slavery is abolished in Brazil, when the solitudes of the Amazonas
+resound with the stir of industrious populations, and the coasts of the
+Pacific are joined to the Atlantic by means of railways crossing the
+Andes.[185]
+
+But, after all, it will be Spain with which the most intimate
+commercial relations must finally be established, in spite of national
+prejudices and dynastic interests. The two nations will in the end
+become one, as the Aragonese and Castilians, the Andalusians and
+Manchegos, have become one. It is merely a question of time; but who
+can doubt that community of industrial and social relations will lead
+to a political union. We only trust that this union may be brought
+about without a resort to brute force, and with due regard to special
+interests.
+
+
+VI.—GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.
+
+Portugal is an hereditary and constitutional monarchy. In accordance
+with the Carta de Ley of 1826, as revised in 1852, the King is charged
+with the executive, {499} and shares the power of making laws with two
+chambers. He receives a civil list of £144,000, enjoys the income from
+certain Crown lands, and possesses magnificent Crown jewels, amongst
+which the “diamond of Bragança” is the most famous. In default of
+male heirs the crown descends in the female line. “His most faithful
+Majesty” still claims to be “King of the two Algarves, Lord of Guinea
+and of the Conquests.” The seven ministers of the Crown are responsible
+for the King’s actions; they may be impeached by the Chamber of
+Deputies, and are judged by the Chamber of Peers. A Privy Council of an
+indefinite number of members, appointed for life, advises the King in
+all questions of administration. The heir presumptive takes part in its
+deliberations on attaining his eighteenth year.
+
+The Chamber of Peers consists of about a hundred members, some of
+them hereditary and others appointed by the King. Its meetings are
+presided over by the Patriarch of Lisbon. The Chamber of Deputies is
+elective, and the discussion of the budget and granting of supplies
+are specially reserved to it. All males more than twenty-five years
+of age are entitled to the franchise if they pay 4s. 6d. in direct
+taxes, or 22s. from real estate. Graduates of universities, certified
+teachers, officers, and priests are not required to possess any
+property qualification, and they, as well as all married men, become
+enfranchised on completing their twenty-first year. All electors are
+eligible as deputies if they pay 18s. in direct taxes, or 90s. from
+real estate. Every 25,000 inhabitants are represented by a deputy. The
+President of the Chamber is selected by the King from five candidates
+presented by the deputies. The latter are entitled to remuneration.
+
+For judicial purposes the country is divided into twenty-six districts,
+or _comarcas_, with eighty-five courts. There are courts of appeal at
+Lisbon and Oporto, and a supreme court at Lisbon. Parish judges (_juiz
+eleito_), elected by the people, exercise the inferior jurisdiction.
+Juries give their verdict on questions of fact in civil as well as in
+criminal cases. The principal codes still in force are the “Codigo
+Alfonsino” of the fifteenth century, the “Codigo Manoelino” (1513), and
+the “Codigo Filippino,” introduced by Philip IV. of Spain. A Commercial
+Code was published in 1833.
+
+The Roman Catholic religion is that of the State, but Protestant places
+of ship are suffered to exist in the seaports. The hierarchy includes
+a patriarch residing at Lisbon, two archbishops at Braga and Evora,
+and fourteen bishops. The Inquisition was abolished in 1821, and the
+monasteries, 750 in number, as well as most of the convents, were
+suppressed in 1834, and their revenues confiscated for the benefit of
+the State.
+
+The army numbers 1,650 officers and 38,000 men, of whom about
+two-thirds are under colours during peace. On a war footing it is
+to be raised to 2,418 officers and 70,687 men. All men are obliged
+to serve either in the army or in the reserve, and exemption can no
+longer be purchased. The fortresses are numerous, but only a few of
+them are capable of being defended against modern artillery. The most
+important are Elvas, Abrantes, and Valença, near the Spanish frontier,
+the fort of São Julião and the citadel of Peniche on the coast.
+The navy no longer numbers a thousand vessels, as it did when King
+Sebastian started for {500} the invasion of Morocco. It consists now
+of twenty-seven steamers, including an ironclad corvette, and eleven
+sailing vessels, manned by 3,000 men and armed with 171 guns.
+
+The public revenue approaches £6,000,000 sterling, and ever since 1834
+there has been annually a deficit, which has resulted in a national
+debt of more than £80,000,000, a burden almost too heavy for a small
+country like Portugal. The revenue is, however, increasing, a balance
+between income and expenditure has been established within the last
+year or two, and the wretched expedient of deducting from 5 to 30 per
+cent. of the salaries of Government officials could be dispensed with
+for the first time in 1875.
+
+POLITICAL DIVISIONS, AREA, AND POPULATION.
+
+ Provinces. Districts. Area, Sq. Population, Density.
+ Miles. 1874.
+
+ Entre Douro e Minho Vianna 864 221,049 256
+ Braga 1,054 346,429 329
+ Porto 903 451,212 500
+
+ Traz os Montes Villa Real 1,718 239,591 140
+ Bragança 2,573 177,170 ――
+
+ Beira Alta Aveiro 1,216 272,763 69
+ Vizeu 1,922 398,477 207
+ Coimbra 1,500 305,237 203
+
+ Beira Baixa Guarda 2,148 234,912 109
+ Castello Branco 2,559 178,703 69
+
+ Estremadura Leiria 1,348 194,944 145
+ Santarem 2,651 217,316 82
+ Lisbon 2,936 491,205 168
+
+ Alemtejo Portalegre 2,497 109,192 44
+ Évora 2,740 112,477 41
+ Beja 4,198 154,327 37
+
+ Algarve Faro 1,875 193,877 104
+ ―――――― ――――――――― ―――
+ Continental Europe 34,702 4,298,881 124
+ ══════ ═════════ ═══
+
+COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
+
+ Area, Sq. Miles. Population. Density.
+ Azores 921 60,072 65
+ AFRICA:―
+ Madeira 310 118,609 383
+ Cape Verde Island 1,487 90,704 61
+ Senegambia 27 9,282 344
+ St. Thome and Principe 417 31,692 75
+ Fort Ajuda 13 700 54
+ Angola, Benguela, and Mossamedes 312,000 2,000,000 6
+ Moçambique and Sofala 40,000 300,000 8
+ ASIA:―
+ Goa, &c. 1,395 474,234 339
+ Damão 30 40,980 1336
+ Diu 12 12,303 1025
+ Timor and Kambing 5,527 250,000 45
+ Macao 1½ 71,834 47·223
+ ――――――― ――――――――― ――――――
+ Colonies 362,140 3,460,410 10
+ ――――――― ――――――――― ――――――
+ Total, Portugal and Colonies 396,842 7,759,291 20
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+NOTES:
+
+[1] Houzeau, “Histoire du Sol de l’Europe.”—Carl Ritter,
+“Europa.”—Kohl, “Die Geographische Lage der Haupstadte Europa’s.”
+
+[2] Modern Sea of Azof and River Don.
+
+[3] Latham, Benfey, Cuno, Spiegel, and others.
+
+[4] Population of Europe, about 305,000,000:―
+
+Greco-Latin.
+
+ Greeks 2,600,000
+ Albanians 1,250,000
+ Italians 27,700,000
+ French 39,700,000
+ Spaniards and Portuguese 20,210,000
+ Rumanians 8,400,000
+ Rhætians (“Romans”) 42,000
+ ――――――――――
+ 99,902,000
+ ══════════
+
+Germanic.
+
+ Germans 53,400,000
+ Dutch and Flemish 6,720,000
+ Scandinavians 5,640,000
+ Anglo-Saxons 30,600,000
+ ――――――――――
+ 96,360,000
+ ══════════
+
+Slavonic.
+
+ Russians 59,000,000
+ Poles 11,800,000
+ Chechians, &c. 6,750,000
+ Servians 5,750,000
+ Slovenes 1,200,000
+ Bulgarians 3,100,000
+ ――――――――――
+ 87,600,000
+ ══════════
+
+ Finns 4,700,000
+ Osmanli 1,300,000
+ Magyars 5,770,000
+ Tartars 2,500,000
+ Calmucks 100,000
+ Celts 1,600,000
+ Basks 700,000
+ Letts, &c. 2,900,000
+ Armenians 280,000
+ Gipsies 590,000
+ Circassians 400,000
+
+Included above are 4,500,000 Jews.
+
+[5] W. H. Smith, “The Mediterranean.”—Dureau de la Malle, “Géographie
+Physique de la Mer Noire et de la Mediterranée.”—Böttger, “Das
+Mittelmeer.”
+
+[6] Area of the Mediterranean basin:―
+
+ Europe 683,500 square miles.
+ Asia 232,000 square miles.
+ Drainage of Africa 1,737,500 square miles.
+ Mediterranean Sea 1,153,300 square miles.
+ ―――――――――
+ 3,806,300
+ ═════════
+
+[7]
+
+ Western Eastern Archi- Black Mediter-
+ basin. basin. Adriatic. pelago. Sea. ranean.
+ Area 355,200 502,000 50,200 60,600 185,300 1,153,300
+ Greatest depth, fathoms 1,640 2,170 565 540 1,070 2,170
+ Average depth, fathoms 640 960 110 320 320 640
+
+[8] Quantity of salt held in solution in the Atlantic, 36 parts in
+1,000; in the Mediterranean (mean), 38 parts; in the Black Sea, 16
+parts.
+
+[9] There are found in the Mediterranean 444 species of fish (Goodwin
+Austen), 850 species of molluscs (Jeffreys), and about 200 species of
+foraminiferæ.
+
+[10] The production of salt on the coasts of the Mediterranean is thus
+distributed among its coast-lands:—Spain, 200,000 tons; France, 250,000
+tons; Italy, 300,000 tons; Austria, 70,000 tons; Russia, 120,000; other
+countries, 200,000 tons. Total, 1,140,000 tons, valued at £480,000.
+
+[11] The annual produce of the fisheries has been estimated at
+£3,000,000, of the coral fisheries at £640,000, of the sponge fisheries
+at £40,000. Total, £3,680,000.
+
+[12] Shipping and commerce of the Mediterranean (estimated):―
+
+ ENTERED AND VALUE OF EXPORTS
+ COMMERCIAL MARINE. CLEARED. AND IMPORTS.
+ Sail-vessels. Steamers. Tonnage. Tons. £
+ Spain (Mediterranean) 2,500 100 250,000 5,000,000 24,000,000
+ France (Mediterranean) 4,000 230 300,000 6,000,000 80,000,000
+ Italy 18,800 140 1,030,000 21,000,000 104,000,000
+ Austria 3,000 92 380,000 8,000,000 18,000,000
+ Greece 5,400 20 502,000 8,500,000 8,000,000
+ Turkey in Europe and Asia 2,200 10 210,000 25,000,000 24,000,000
+ Rumania ――――― ―― ――――――― 1,300,000 8,000,000
+ Russia (Mediterranean) 500 50 50,000 2,000,000 24,000,000
+ Egypt (Mediterranean) 100 25 15,000 4,000,000 20,000,000
+ Malta and Gibraltar 200 13 39,000 12,000,000 23,000,000
+ Algeria 170 ―― 10,000 2,000,000 16,000,000
+ Tunis, Tripoli, &c. 500 ―― 10,000 500,000 4,000,000
+ ―――――― ――― ――――――――― ―――――――――― ―――――――――――
+ 37,370 680 2,796,000 95,300,000 353,000,000
+ ══════ ═══ ═════════ ══════════ ═══════════
+
+[13] Greece within its political limits:―
+
+ Area. Population
+ Sq. m. (1870). Density.
+ Continental Greece 7,558 466,918 62
+ Peloponnesus 8,288 545,389 66
+ Ægean Islands 2,500 205,840 82
+ Ionian Islands 1,007 218,879 217
+ Army, navy, and sailors ───── 20,868 ───
+ ────── ───────── ────
+ Total 19,353 1,457,894 75
+ ══════ ═════════ ════
+
+[14] Altitudes of mountains in continental Greece (in feet):―
+
+ Gerakavuni (Othrys) 5,673
+ Velukhi (Tymphrestus) 7,610
+ Khonia 8,186
+ Vardusia 8,242
+ Katavothra (Œta) 6,560
+ Mountains of Acarnania 5,216
+ Varassova 3,010
+ Liakura (Parnassus) 8,068
+ Palæovouni (Helicon) 5,738
+ Elatea (Cithæron) 4,630
+ Parnes 4,645
+ Pentelicus 3,693
+ Hymetius 3,400
+ Gerania (Pera Khora) 4,482
+
+[15] Orchomenus, a town on the Cephissus, the capital of Northern
+Bœotia, destroyed by the Thebans 371 B.C.
+
+[16] Heights of the principal mountains in the Peloponnesus (in English
+feet):―
+
+ Cyllene (Zyria) 8,940
+ Aroanian Mountain (Khelmos) 7,726
+ Erymanthus (Olonos) 7,297
+ Artemisium (Malevo) 5,814
+ Parnon (Hagios Petros) 6,355
+ Lycæus (Diaforti) 4,660
+ Ithome 2,630
+ Taygetus 7,904
+ Arachnæus (Argolis) 3,935
+ Mean height of peninsula 2,000
+
+[17] The isthmus is 6,496 yards wide, and rises to a height of 250 feet
+where it is narrowest, its mean height being 130 feet.
+
+[18] Principal altitudes of the islands of Greece:―
+
+ Feet.
+ Mount Delphi, on Eubœa 5,730
+ Mount St. Elias, on Eubœa 4,840
+ Mount Kokhilas, on Scyros 2,565
+ Mount Kovari, on Andros 3,200
+ Mount Oxia, on Naxos 3,290
+ Mount St. Elias, on Siphnos 2,280
+ Mount St. Elias, on Nios 2,410
+ Mount St. Elias, on Santorin 1,887
+
+[19] Ionian Islands:―
+
+ Area. Inhabitants.
+ Sq. m. Highest Mountains. Feet. (1870.)
+ Corfu 224 Pantokratoros 3,280 72,450
+ Paxos and Antipaxos 27 3,600
+ Leucadia 183 Nomali 3,870 21,000
+ Cephalonia 292 Elato 5,310 67,500
+ Ithaca 42 Neriton 2,640 10,000
+ Zante 162 Skopos 1,300 44,500
+
+[20] Population of the principal towns of Greece (1870):―
+
+ Towns. Population.
+ Athens and Piræus 59,000
+ Patras 26,000
+ Corfu 24,000
+ Hermopolis, or Syra 21,000
+ Zante 20,500
+ Lixuri (Cephalonia) 14,000
+ Pyrgos, or Letrini 13,600
+ Tripolis, or Tripolitza 11,500
+ Chalcis, in Eubœa 11,000
+ Sparta 10,700
+ Argos 10,600
+ Argostoli (Cephalonia) 9,500
+ Calamata 9,400
+ Histiæa, in Eubœa 8,900
+ Karystos, in Eubœa 8,800
+ Ægion, or Vostitza 8,800
+ Nauplia 8,500
+ Spezzia 8,400
+ Kranidhi, in Argolis 8,400
+ Lamia 8,300
+ Missolonghi 7,500
+ Andros 9,300
+
+[21] Commerce of Greece (1873):—Mercantile marine: 6,135 vessels of
+419,350 tons; entered, 112,814 vessels of 6,336,487 tons; imports,
+£4,166,239; exports, £2,721,877.
+
+[22] Public income (1875), £1,404,053; expenditure, £1,409,288; debt,
+£15,232,202.
+
+[23] Authorities:—R. Pashley, “Travels in Crete;” Raulin, “Description
+Physique de l’Ile de Crète;” G. Perrot, “L’Ile de Crète;” Viquesnel,
+“Voyage dans la Turquie d’Europe;” Ami Boué, “La Turquie d’Europe;”
+A. Dumont, “Le Balkan et l’Adriatique;” Lejean, “Ethnographie de la
+Turquie d’Europe;” Von Hammer, “Konstantinopel und der Bosporus;”
+P. de Tchihatchef, “Le Bosphore;” Heuzey, “Voyage archéologique en
+Macédoine;” Fanshawe Tozer, “Researches in the Highlands of Turkey;”
+Barth, “Reisen in der europäischen Türkei;” Von Hahn, “Albanesische
+Studien;” Hecquard, “Histoire et Description de la Haute-Albanie;” Dora
+d’Istria, “Nationalité albanaise;” F. Maurer, “Reise durch Bosnien;”
+F. de Sainte-Marie, “L’Herzégovine;” Kanitz, “Donau-Bulgarien und der
+Balkan;” H. Kiepert, Map of Turkey in Europe.
+
+For changes made by the Berlin treaty, see page 153.
+
+[24] We mention Palma, Vaudoncourt, Lapic, Boué, Viquesnel, Lejean,
+Kanitz, Barth, Hochstetter, and Abdullah Bey.
+
+[25] Heights of principal mountains:—Aspra Vuna (White Mountain of
+Leuca-Ori), 8,100 feet; Psiloriti, or Ida, 8,000 feet; Lasithi, or
+Dicte, 7,100 feet. Towns:—Canea, 12,000 inhabitants; Megalokastron,
+12,000; Retimo, 9,000. Total population of the island, 210,000.
+
+[26] The islands of Thracia:―
+
+ Sq. m. Inhabitants. Highest Mountains. Feet.
+ Thasos 74 10,000 Mount Ipsario 3,000
+ Samothrace 66 200 Mount Phengari 5,240
+ Imbro 85 4,000 Mount St. Elias 1,950
+ Lemnos 170 22,000 Mount Skopia 1,410
+
+[27] Consul Sax (1873) estimates the population as follows:—Stamboul,
+210,000; Pera, 130,000; European suburbs, 150,000; Asiatic suburbs,
+110,000; total, 600,000 souls, including 200,000 Mohammedans. Dr.
+Yakshity, on the other hand, estimates the population of Constantinople
+(exclusive of its Asiatic suburbs) at 358,000 souls, of whom 193,540
+are Mohammedans, 144,210 oriental Christians, and 30,000 Franks.
+
+[28] Length of the Bosphorus, 98,500 feet, or 18·6 miles; average
+width, 5,250 feet; average depth, 90 feet; greatest depth, 170 feet.
+
+[29] Dimensions of the Dardanelles:—Length, 42·3 miles; average width,
+2·7 miles, or 13,100 feet; minimum width, 6,400 feet; average depth,
+180 feet; greatest depth, 320 feet.
+
+[30] Altitudes:—Mount Pilav Tepe, 6,183 feet; Kortach, 3,893 feet;
+Athos, 6,786 feet.
+
+[31] Mount Olympus, 9,750 feet; Mount Ossa, 5,250 feet; Mount Pelion,
+5,130 feet.
+
+[32] The following are the principal towns of the Greek provinces of
+Turkey, together with the number of their inhabitants:―
+
+ Adrianople (Edirneh) 110,000
+ Saloniki (Salonica) 80,000
+ Seres 30,000
+ Larissa 25,000
+ Rodosto 20,000
+ Gallipoli (Geliboli) 20,000
+ Trikala (Tirhala) 11,000
+ Demotika 10,000
+ Verria 10,000
+ Enos 7,000
+
+[33] Altitudes in Albania:―
+
+ Feet.
+ Skhar 8,200
+ Tomor 5,413
+ Zygos (Lachmon) 5,500
+ Smolika 5,970
+ Kundusi 6,270
+ Acroceraunian Mountain 6,700
+ Lake Okhrida 2,270
+ Lake of Yanina 1,700
+
+[34] Population of the principal cities of Albania:—Prisrend, 35,000;
+Soutari (Shkodra), 35,000; Yanina, 25,000; Jakovitza (Yakova), 17,000;
+Ipek (Pech), 16,000; Elbasan, 12,000; Berat, 11,000; Prishtina, 11,000;
+Tirana, 10,000; Koritza, 10,000; Argyrokastro, 8,000; Prevesa, 7,000
+Dulcigno, 7,000; Durazzo, 5,000.
+
+[35] Altitudes:—Mount Kom, 9,350 feet; Mount Durmitor, 8,860 feet;
+Glieb, 5,775 feet.
+
+[36] According to Blau (1872), Bosnia, including the Herzegovina and
+Rascia, has 1,150,000 inhabitants, comprising 590,000 Greek Catholics,
+164,000 Roman Catholics, 378,000 Mussulmans, 12,300 gipsies, and 5,700
+Jews. The same author states the population for 1855 to have amounted
+to 893,384 souls, including 286,000 Mussulmans. According to an English
+Consular Report (1873), the population is 1,084,162, including 461,048
+Mussulmans; and according to Professor Yakshity, 1,357,984 souls,
+including 474,000 Mussulmans.
+
+[37] Principal towns of Bosnia:—Sarayevo, 50,000 inhabitants;
+Banyaluka, 18,000 inhabitants; Zvornik, 14,000 inhabitants; Travnik,
+12,000 inhabitants; Novibazar, 9,000 inhabitants; Trebinye, 9,000
+inhabitants; Mostar, 9,000 inhabitants; Tuzla, 7,000 inhabitants.
+
+[38] Altitudes in Bulgaria, according to Hochstetter, Viquesnel, Boué,
+Barth, and others:—Vitosh, 8,080 feet; Balkan, mean height, 5,600 feet;
+Chatal, 3,600 feet; hills of the Dobruja, 1,650 feet; Trajan’s Gate,
+2,625 feet; Pass of Dubnitza, 3,560 feet; Rilo Dagh, 9,500 feet; Perim
+Dagh, 7,875 feet; Gornichova, or Nije, 6,560 feet; Peristeri, 7,700
+feet; basin of Sofia, 1,710 feet; basin of Monastir, 1,820 feet; Lake
+of Ostrovo, 1,680 feet; Lake of Kastoria, 2,050 feet.
+
+[39] Cleared from Sulina (1873), 1,870 vessels of 532,000 tons. Value
+of cereals exported, £6,000,000.
+
+[40] The following are the principal towns of Bulgaria, with the number
+of their inhabitants:―
+
+ Shumna (Shumla) 50,000
+ Rustchuk 50,000
+ Philippopoli (Felibe) 40,000
+ Bitolia (Monastir) 40,000
+ Skoplie (Uskub) 28,000
+ Kalkandelen 22,000
+ Sofia 20,000
+ Vidin 20,000
+ Silistria 20,000
+ Shishtova 20,000
+ Varna 20,000
+ Eski-Za’ara 18,000
+ Bazarjik 18,000
+ Nish 16,000
+ Veleze (Koprili) 15,000
+ Razgrad 15,000
+ Turnov (Tirnova) 12,000
+ Sliven (Slivno) 12,000
+ Prilip 12,000
+ Kezanlik 10,000
+ Stanimako 10,000
+ Florina 10,000
+ Kurshova 9,000
+ Sulina 5,000
+
+[41] Receipts for 1874, £20,400,000; debts in 1875, £220,000,000.
+
+[42] Races and religions of Turkey in Europe (Servia, Montenegro, and
+Rumania excluded):―
+
+ Total. Mussulmans. Greek Roman Other
+ Catholics. Catholics. Christians.
+
+ Slavs Servians 1,114,000 442,000 492,000 180,000 ――
+ Bulgarians 2,861,000 790,000 2,051,000 20,000 ――
+ Russians, &c. 10,000 ―― ―― 2,000 8,000
+ Greeks 1,176,000 38,000 1,138,000 ―― ――
+ Greco-Latins Rumanians 50,000 ―― 50,000 ―― ――
+ Zinzares 150,000 ―― 150,000 ―― ――
+ Albanians Gheges 1,031,000 773,000 178,000 80,000 ――
+ Tosks
+ Turks Osmanli 1,352,000 1,352,000 ―― ―― ――
+ Tartars 40,000 40,000 ―― ―― ――
+ Semites Arabs 3,000 3,000 ―― ―― ――
+ Jews 72,000 ―― ―― ―― ――
+ Armenians 100,000 ―― ―― 10,000 ――
+ Circassians 144,000 144,000 ―― ―― ――
+ Tsiganes (Gipsies) 104,000 52,000 52,000 ―― ――
+ Franks 60,000 ―― ―― 50,000 10,000
+ ――――――――― ――――――――― ――――――――― ――――――― ―――――――
+ Total 8,267,000 3,584,000 4,111,000 342,000 108,000
+ ═════════ ═════════ ═════════ ═══════ ═══════
+
+[43] Area and population of the Turkish Empire:―
+
+ Area, Mohammedans
+ Square Miles. Population. per cent.
+
+ Constantinople (including Army, &c.) 1,040 531,000 55
+ _Vilayets_:―
+ Edirneh, or Adrianople (Thracia) 26,160 1,307,000 39
+ Tuna (Danube), or Bulgaria 34,120 2,303,000 40
+ Saloniki (Macedonia) 12,950 499,000 50
+ Prisrend (Upper Macedonia) 18,320 1,392,000 57
+ Shkodra, or Scutari (Upper Albania) 5,310 171,000 48
+ Bosna Serai, or Serayevo (Bosnia) 17,900 940,000 42
+ Herzegovina 5,720 144,000 41
+ Yanina (Epirus and Thessaly) 18,320 711,000 35
+ Crete, or Candia 3,326 210,000 18
+ European Islands 400 60,000 7
+ ―――――――― ―――――――――― ――
+ Turkey in Europe 143,566 8,267,000 44
+ Turkey in Asia 745,000 13,176,000 86
+ Tripoli, &c. 344,000 1,150,000 99
+ ――――――――― ―――――――――― ――
+ Total Ottoman Empire 1,231,566 22,593,000 71
+ Tributary States
+ Rumania 46,710 5,180,000 ――
+ Servia 16,820 1,377,000 ――
+ Egypt 869,360 17,000,000 70
+ Tunis 45,700 2,000,000 99
+ ――――――――― ―――――――――― ――
+ Total Turkish Empire 2,210,156 48,150,000 63
+ ═════════ ══════════ ══
+
+[44] Officially called Romania, and frequently spelt Roumania: in
+French it is Roumanie.
+
+[45]
+
+ Wallachia and Moldavia 4,460,000
+ Austro-Hungary 2,896,000
+ Bessarabia and other parts of Russia 600,000
+ Servia 155,000
+ Turkey 200,000
+ Greece 4,000
+ ―――――――――
+ Total 8,315,000
+
+[46] Mean temperature at Bucharest, 46° F.; maximum, 113° F.; minimum,
+−22° F.; difference, 135° F.
+
+[47] Mean volume of the Danube (according to C. Hartley), 2,000,000
+gallons per second; maximum volume, 6,160,000 gallons; mean volume of
+Kilia mouth, 1,276,000 gallons; mean of St. George’s mouth, 572,000
+gallons; mean of Sulina mouth, 176,000 gallons per second. Mean
+alluvial deposits of Danube, 2,119 cubic feet per annum.
+
+[48] Approximate population of Rumania in 1875, 5,232,500 souls, of
+whom 3,260,000 were in Wallachia, and 1,972,500 in Moldavia. There
+were 4,460,000 Rumanians, 90,000 Bulgarians, 40,000 Russians and other
+Slavs, 50,000 Magyars, 130,000 Tsigani, 400,000 Jews, 10,000 Armenians,
+and 52,500 foreigners (30,000 Austrians, 10,000 Greeks, 5,000 Germans,
+1,500 French).
+
+[49] Of the total area of Rumania 6,000,000 acres are corn-lands,
+600,000 acres produce wine, tobacco, &c., 5,000,000 consist of forests,
+9,000,000 of pastures and meadows, and 8,000,000 are uncultivated.
+In 1874 there were 600,000 horses, 2,900,000 head of cattle, 100,000
+buffaloes, 5,000,000 sheep, 1,200,000 pigs, and 500,000 goats.
+
+[50] Exports, average of 1865–75, £6,700,000; imports, £4,300,000.
+
+[51] Railroads, 1,800 miles; high-roads, 2,650 miles; telegraphs, 2,500
+miles; steamers on the Danube, 29, of 7,620 tons burden.
+
+[52] Number of inhabitants of the principal towns of Rumania (official
+spelling; vulgar or phonetic spelling in parenthesis):―
+
+_Wallachia._—Bucuresci (Bucharest), 221,800; Ploiesti (Ploeshti),
+33,000; Braila, 28,270; Craiova, 22,764; Giurgiu (Jurjevo, or
+Giurgevo), 20,866; Buzeu (Busau), 11,100; Alecsandria, 11,000;
+Campulung, 9,900; Pitesci (Piteshti), 8,500; Caracalu, 8,600.
+
+_Moldavia._—Jasi (Yassy), 90,000; Galati (Galatz), 80,000; Botosani,
+39,900; Barladu (Byrlat), 26,600; Smeilu (Ismail), 21,000; Focsani,
+20,300; Peatra, 20,000; Husi, 18,500; Roman, 16,900; Falticeni, 15,000;
+Bacau, 13,000; Dorohoi, 10,000; Bolgradu, 9,600; Chilie (Kilia), 8,900;
+Reni, 7,600.
+
+[53] Average annual expenditure, 1871–76, £3,650,000; public debt,
+£19,500,000, including £13,000,000 expended upon railways; estimated
+value of the domains, £20,000,000.
+
+[54] Authorities:—Kanitz, “Serbien;” Ubicini, “Les Serbes de Turquie;”
+Cyprien Robert, “Les Slaves de Turquie;” Louis Léger, “Le Monde Slave;”
+Lejean, “Visite au Montenegro.”
+
+[55] Mean temperature at Belgrad, 48° F.; extremes, 106° and 3°; range,
+103° F.
+
+[56] The population of Servia in 1875 was 1,377,068, of whom about
+1,110,000 were Servians, 160,000 Wallachians, 20,000 Zinzares, 50,000
+Bulgarians, 30,000 gipsies, &c.
+
+[57] The exports in 1874 were valued at £1,400,000, and included 34,104
+head of cattle, 271,219 pigs 1,172,571 sheep and goat skins, wheat,
+raki, &c.
+
+[58] There are a university, a military academy, a seminary, an
+agricultural school, 11 superior schools, and 377 elementary schools,
+with 567 teachers, and about 20,000 pupils.
+
+[59] Authorities:—Zuccagni Orlandini, “Corografia fisica, storica e
+statistica dell’ Italia e delle sue Isole;” Marmocchi, “Descrizione
+d’Italia;” Amato Amati, “L’Italia sotto l’aspetto fisico, storico,
+artistico e statistico;” Taine, “Voyage en Italie;” Gregorovius,
+“Wanderjahre in Italien,” “Geschichte der Stadt Rom;” Ann. di Saluzzo,
+“Le Alpi che cingono l’Italia;” Cattaneo e Lombardini, “Notizie
+naturali e civili su la Lombardia;” Lombardini, “Pianura subapennina,”
+“Condizione idraulica del Po;” Martins, Gastaldi, “Terrains
+superficiels de la vallée du Pô;” De Mortillet, “Anciens glaciers
+du versant méridional des Alpes,” “Mémoires divers;” Bertolotti,
+“Liguria maritima;” Targioni Tozzetti, “Voyage en Toscane;” Salvagnoli
+Marchetti, “Maremme Toscane;” Noël des Vergers, “L’Étrurie et les
+Étrusques;” Beulé, “Fouilles et découvertes;” Giordano, “Roma e suo
+territorio;” Ponzi, “Histoire naturelle du Latium;” De Prony, “Marais
+Pontins;” Works of D’Ampère and Stendhal, &c.; Davies, “Pilgrimage
+of the Tiber;” Francis Wey, “Rome;” Spallanzani, “Voyage dans les
+Deux-Siciles;” Smyth, “Sicily and its Islands;” Dolomieu, “Voyage aux
+îles de Lipari;” De Quatrefages, “Souvenirs d’un naturaliste;” La
+Marmora, “Voyage en Sardaigne, Description statistique, physique et
+politique de l’île;” Mantegazza, “Profili e paesaggi della Sardegna;”
+Von Maltzan, “Reise auf der Insel Sardinien;” Spano, “Itinerario della
+Sardegna;” Correnti e Maestri, “Statistica dell’ Italia.”
+
+[60] Area of the kingdom of Italy, 114,413 square miles; population in
+1875, 27,482,174.
+
+[61] Pié di Monte, Piedmont, or Piemonte, _i.e._ mountain-foot.
+
+[62] Principal Alpine summits of Italy:—Monte Viso, 12,585 feet; Grand
+Paradis, 13,271 feet; Monte della Disgrazia, 11,840 feet; Adamello,
+11,677 feet; Antelao, 10,680 feet; Brunone (Orobia range), 10,370 feet;
+Generoso, 5,670 feet; Monte Baldo, 7,310 feet; Monte Bolca, 3,143 feet.
+
+[63] Altitudes:—Source of the Po, 6,400 feet; Saluzzo, 1,200 feet;
+Turin, 755 feet; Pavia (mouth of Ticino), 330 feet; Piacenza, 217 feet;
+Cremona, 150 feet; Mantua, 89 feet; Ferrara, 20 feet.
+
+[64] Italian Alpine lakes having an area of more than five square
+miles:―
+
+ Average Area. Average Altitude. Depth, Feet. Capacity.
+ Name. Sq. Miles. Feet. Max. Average. Millions of Galls.
+ Lake of Orta 5·4 1,122 820(?) 490(?) 462,000
+ Verbano, or Lago Maggiore 81·4 646 1,230 690 9,680,000
+ Lake of Varese 6·2 771 85 33 35,200
+ Ceresio, or Lake of Lugano 19·3 889 950 490 1,584,000
+ Lario, or Lake of Como 60·2 663 1,352 810 7,700,000
+ Sebino, or Lake of Iseo 23·0 646 980 490 1,980,000
+ Lake of Idro 5·4 1,240 400(?) (?) (?)
+ Benaco, or Lake of Garda 115·8 226 960(?) 490 9,900,000
+
+[65] Volume of Adda and Ticino at their point of egress from the Alpine
+lakes, according to Lombardini:―
+
+_Adda._—Average 6,600, minimum 567, maximum 29,000 cubic feet per
+second. _Ticino._—Average 11,400, minimum 1,770, maximum 77,400 cubic
+feet per second.
+
+[66] Principal rivers of Northern Italy:―
+
+ Length. Area of Basin. Volume in Cubic Feet per Second.
+ Miles. Sq. Miles. Maximum. Minimum. Average.
+
+ Isonzo 80 1,235 ―― ―― 4,240?
+ Tagliamento 105 800 ―― ―― 5,300?
+ Livenza 72 795 25,400 ―― 1,400?
+ Piave 134 2,010 ―― ―― 11,300
+ Sile 37 540 1,550 350 700?
+ Brenta 105 1,510 30,000 137 1,930
+ Bacchiglione 74 187 320 ―― 1,270
+ Adige 246 8,648 85,000 70 16,950
+ Po 416 26,799 182,500 550 60,700
+ Reno 112 1,930 53,500 35 8,300
+
+[67] Average volume of the canals of the valley of the Po (cubic feet
+per second):—Muzza, 2,153; Naviglio Grande, 1,800; Canal Cavour, 1,482;
+Martesana, 918 cubic feet.
+
+[68] Humidity of the air at Milan, 74·5 per cent.; annual rainfall
+at Milan, 38·8 in.; at Turin, 31·8 in.; at Tolmezza, on the Upper
+Tagliamento, 82·3 in.
+
+[69] Mean annual temperature of Turin, 53·10° F.; hottest month
+(April), 73·13°; coldest month (January), 33·10°. Milan: mean, 14·04°;
+July, 74·84°; January, 23·26°. Venice: mean, 55·52° F.; July, 25·06°;
+January, 35·28°.
+
+[70]
+
+ Area, Square Miles.
+ Dec. 31st, 1875. Population. Density.
+
+ Piemont 11,308 2,995,213 265
+ Lombardy 9,084 3,553,913 391
+ Venice 9,060 2,733,406 302
+ Emilia 7,921 2,153,381 272
+ ―――――― ―――――――――― ―――
+ Total 37,373 11,435,913 306
+
+[71] Population of the principal towns of Piemont (1871):—Turin,
+192,442; Alessandria, 29,102; Novarra, 24,185; Vercelli, 20,626; Casale
+Monferrato, 20,436; Asti, 19,466; Novi Ligure, 12,162; Mondovi, 11,958;
+Cuneo, 11,859; Pinerolo, 11,832; Biella, 11,814; Saluzzo, 9,796;
+Savigliano, 9,544; Bra, 9,196; Alba, 9,147; Chieri, 8,986; Tortona,
+8,620; Acqui, 8,332; Fossano, 7,272; Carmagnola, 3,830.
+
+[72] Population of the towns of Lombardy (1871):—Milan (Milano),
+261,985; Brescia, 38,906; Bergamo, 34,555; Cremona, 30,919; Pavia,
+29,618; Mantua (Mantova), 26,687; Como, 24,350; Lodi, 19,088; Monza,
+17,431; Vigevano, 14,096; Busto Arsizio, 12,909; Varese, 12,605;
+Voghera, 11,903; Treviglio, 11,883.
+
+[73] Population of the principal towns of Emilia (1871):—Bologna,
+89,104; Parma, 41,915; Piacenza, 34,908; Ferrara, 33,327; Modena,
+30,854; Faenza, 23,752; Ravenna, 21,774; Reggio, 19,131; Imola, 18,189;
+Cesena, 17,594; Forli, 15,324; Rimini, 9,747; Lugo, 8,664; Comacchio,
+7,007.
+
+[74] Tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared (including the
+coasting trade):—588,095 tons in 1865; 1,070,600 tons in 1875. Value of
+imports by sea (1874):—£5,960,200; of exports, £2,848,040.
+
+[75] Population of the principal towns of Venetia (1871):—Venice
+(Venezia), 128,901; Verona, 65,876; Padua (Padova), 52,011; Vicenza,
+26,994; Udine, 22,692; Chioggia, 19,841; Treviso 18,547; Cavarzere,
+12,336; Vittoria (formerly called Ceneda), 10,533; Adria, 9,834;
+Rovigo, 7,974; Feltre, 6,570; Belluno, 5,770; Este, 5,743.
+
+[76] Area, 2,153 square miles; population (1871), 843,250; density, 391.
+
+[77] Principal altitudes in Liguria:—Clapier de Pagarin, 10,073 feet;
+Col di Tenda, 6,146 feet; Monte Carsino, 8,794 feet; Col d’Altare,
+1,600 feet; Col di Giovi, 1,538 feet; Monte Penna, 5,709 feet.
+
+[78] Average temperature of Genoa, 60·8° F.; days with rain, 121;
+rainfall, 45 inches. Average temperature of San Remo, 62·6; days with
+rain, 45; rainfall, 3·15 in.
+
+[79] Tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared (including coasting
+vessels):—1861, 1,936,764; 1867, 2,330,000; 1875, 3,109,796 tons. In
+the last-named year 3,144 sailing vessels and 970 steamers entered in
+the coast trade, 1,462 sailing vessels and 860 steamers from abroad.
+
+[80] Annual produce of olive oil in the province of Porto Maurizio,
+which includes San Remo, 778,500 gallons.
+
+[81] Population of the principal towns of Liguria (1871):—Genoa
+(Genova), 132,521; Savona, 24,851; Spezia, 15,636; San Pier d’Arena,
+15,568; Sestri Ponente, 9,605; San Remo, 9,017; Chiavari, 8,414;
+Oneglia, 7,944.
+
+[82] Area of Tuscany, 9,287 square miles; population (1871), 1,983,810;
+density, 214.
+
+[83] Altitudes (in English feet):―
+
+_Apennines._—Alps of Succiso, 6,625; Alps of Camporaghena (Garfagnana),
+6,565; Monte Cimone, 7,111; Monte Falterone, or Falterona, 5,407.
+
+_Passes._—Pass of Pontremoli, or La Cisa (Sarzana to Parma), 3,410;
+Pass of Fiumalbo (Lucca to Modena), 3,940; Pass of Futa, or Pietramala
+(Florence to Bologna), 3,002; Pass of Camaldoli, 3,290.
+
+_Anti-Apennines._—Pisanino (Alpe Apuana), 6,608; Pietra Marina (Monte
+Albano), 1,886; Prato Magno, 5,183; Alpe di Catenaja, 4,595 feet.
+
+[84] 134,000 tons of marble were quarried in 1873, valued at nearly
+£500,000 sterling.
+
+[85] In 1873 5,466 vessels of 920,626 tons entered: 5,314 vessels of
+901,533 tons cleared, inclusive of coasting vessels.
+
+[86] Area, 85 square miles; population, 21,722 souls.
+
+[87] Population of the principal towns of Tuscany (in 1871):—Florence
+(Firenze), 167,093; Leghorn (Livorno), 89,462; Pisa, 41,796; Siena,
+22,965; Lucca, 21,286; Prato, 15,924; Carrara, 10,848; Pistoja, 12,966;
+Arezzo, 11,151; Viareggio, 9,983; Pontedera, 7,991; San Casciano,
+6,862; Fojano della Chiana, 6,127; Empoli, 5,949; Volterra, 5,796;
+Massa Maritima, 5,766; Porto Ferrajo, 5,779; Fucecchio, 5,755; Figline
+Valdarno, 5,673; Montalcino, 5,186; Pontassieve, 5,141; Pontelungo,
+5,039; Buti, 5,029; Massa, 4,786; Orbetello, 4,674; Pontremoli, 4,473.
+
+[88]
+
+ Area, Square Population Density.
+ Miles. (1871).
+
+ Rome 4,552 836,700 184
+ Umbria 3,720 549,600 148
+ Marches 3,751 915,420 244
+ Abruzzos 4,898 918,770 188
+ ―――――― ――――――――― ―――
+ 16,921 3,220,490 190
+ ══════ ═════════ ═══
+
+[89] VOLCANIC LAKES:—_Bolsena_: area, 42 sq. m.; height, 995 ft.;
+depth, 460 ft. _Bracciano_: area, 22 sq. m.; height, 495 ft.; depth,
+820 ft. _Albano_: area, 2·3 sq. m.; height, 1,000 ft.; depth, 466 ft.
+_Nemi_: area, 0·8 sq. m.; height, 1,108 ft.; depth, 164 ft. SHALLOW
+LAKES:—_Trasimeno_: area, 46 sq. m.; height, 843 ft.; depth, 21 ft.
+_Fucino_ (in 1860): area, 61 sq. m.; height, 2,300 ft.; depth, 92 ft.
+
+[90] Basin, 6,475 square miles; length, 260 miles, of which 60 are
+navigable.
+
+[91] Annual rainfall at Rome, 30·7 inches; at the foot of the
+Apennines, 43·3 in.; on the summits, 94·5 in. Volume of the Tiber:
+average 10,180 cubic ft.; maximum, 60,400 cubic ft.; minimum, 4,650
+cubic ft., a second.
+
+[92] Water supply of some leading cities (in gallons):―
+
+ Per Second. Per Day. Per Inhabitant.
+ Rome (1869) 481 41,580,000 208
+ Paris (1875) 904 78,100,000 44
+ London (1874) 1,262 110,000,000 27·5
+ Glasgow (1874) 373 32,482,500 52
+ Washington (1870) 741 66,000,000 660
+
+[93] Value of exports and imports, 1863, £1,348,000; 1868, £999,660.
+
+[94] Tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared at the ports of
+Latium in 1873:—Cività Vecchia, 520,000 (1875, 600,351); Fiumicino,
+63,000; Porto d’Anzio, 30,900; Terracina, 335,000 tons.
+
+[95] Towns of Latium (1871):—Rome, 229,356 (1876, 264,280); Viterbo,
+16,326; Velletri, 14,798; Cività Vecchia, 10,484; Ferentino, 8,360;
+Tivoli, 7,730; Frosinone, 7,714; Subiaco, 6,990; Sezze, 6,659; Alatri,
+6,393 inhabitants.
+
+[96] Population of the principal towns of Umbria (1871):—Perugia,
+16,708; Rieti, 12,905; Terni, 12,419; Foligno, 8,471; Spoleto, 7,490;
+Orvieto, 7,423; Città di Castello, 6,588; Assisi, 6,225; Gubbio, 5,343.
+
+[97] Tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared from Ancona in the
+coast and foreign trade; 258,292 tons in 1858, 372,877 tons in 1867,
+751,689 tons in 1875.
+
+[98] Towns of the Marches having over 10,000 inhabitants:—Ancona,
+35,111; Jesi, 13,472; Sinigaglia, 11,173; Ascoli-Piceno, 11,373; Fermo,
+15,862; Macerata, 11,194; Pesaro, 12,375; Urbino, 10,194.
+
+_Abruzzos_:—Lanciano, 15,432; Chieti, 14,321; Aquila, 13,513;
+Campobusso, 13,345; Solmona, 12,583; Vasto, 10,093.
+
+[99] Area of San Marino, 24 square miles; population (1874), 7,816.
+
+[100] Area, exclusive of the Abruzzos, 28,002 square miles; population,
+6,251,750.
+
+[101] Mean annual temperature of Naples, 62° F.; extremes, 23° and
+104°; rainfall, 37 inches.
+
+[102] In 1868 69 per cent. of the men and 88 per cent. of the women
+married in the Campania, the most educated province of Naples, were not
+able to sign their names. In the Basilicata the proportions were 85 and
+96 per cent. !
+
+[103] In 1873 there were 363 fishing-boats, and 90,000 lbs. of coral,
+valued at £92,000, were obtained.
+
+[104] In 1864 10,694 vessels, of 1,496,500 tons burden, entered and
+cleared the port of Naples; in 1875 11,288 vessels, of 2,923,922 tons.
+
+[105] In 1862 1,100 vessels, of 75,000 tons, entered and cleared at
+Brindisi; in 1875, 1,342 vessels, inclusive of 396 steamers, of 771,096
+tons, in the foreign trade.
+
+[106] Towns of Naples having over 10,000 inhabitants (in 1870):—Naples
+(Napoli), 421,803; Bari, 49,423; Foggia, 34,181; Andria, 32,678;
+Reggio, 29,854; Barletta, 27,444; Molfetta, 26,516; Corato, 26,018;
+Trani, 24,026; Bitonto, 23,087; Taranto, 22,858; Castellamare di
+Stabia, 22,037; Cerignola, 21,739; Lecce, 21,081; Salerno, 20,611;
+Aversa, 19,734; Bisceglia, 19,007; Torre del Greco, 18,950; Catanzaro,
+18,781; Potenza, 18,513; Gaeta, 18,385; Avellino, 18,260; Gerlizzi,
+18,175; Maddaloni, 17,578; Afragola, 17,541; Francavilla Fontana,
+17,457; Benevento, 17,370; Altamura, 17,004; Santa Maria di Capua
+Vetere, 16,785; San Severo, 16,545; Torre dell’ Annunziata, 15,321;
+Ruvo di Puglia, 15,055; Monte Sant’ Angelo, 14,902; Rossano, 14,818;
+San Marco in Lamis, 14,540; Cosenza, 14,522; Caserta, 14,578; Canosa
+di Puglia, 14,458; Ostuni, 14,422; Ariano di Puglia, 14,347; Matera,
+14,262; Monopoli, 13,800; Minervino Murge, 13,630; Martina Franca,
+13,440; Campobasso, 13,345; Brindisi, 13,194; Lucera, 13,064; Acerra,
+12,858; Ceglia Messacapio, 12,582; Gioja del Colla, 12,442; Pagani,
+12,208; Fasano, 12,190; Capua, 12,174; Cittanova, 12,137; Palo di
+Colla, 11,887; Mola di Bari, 11,775; Pozzuoli, 11,751; Rionera in
+Voltara, 11,520; Amalfi, 11,225; Resina, 11,132; Sarno, 10,933; San
+Giovanni del Teduccio, 10,898; Nola, 10,771; Giugliano in Campania,
+10,751; Lauria, 10,609; Frattamaggiore, 10,486; Corigliano Calabro,
+10,481; Nicastro, 10,418; Cairano, 10,081; Montecorvo, 10,020;
+Conversano, 10,012.
+
+[107] Minimum width of the Strait of Messina, 10,330 feet; maximum
+depth, 1,090 feet; average depth, 246 feet.
+
+[108] Area of Sicily, 11,290 square miles; population in 1870,
+2,565,300 souls; density, 227.
+
+[109] Mean annual temperature at Palermo and Messina, 64° F.; at
+Catania and Girgenti, 68° F.; rainfall at Palermo, 26 inches.
+
+[110] The salt marshes of the province of Trapani cover an area of
+2,100 acres, and yielded, in 1865, 55,000 tons of salt, valued at
+£24,200.
+
+[111] In 1862 27,596 vessels, of 1,825,232 tons burden, entered and
+cleared from Sicilian ports; in 1869 34,989 vessels, of 2,869,327
+tons; in 1873 70,974 vessels, of 5,942,700 tons. In 1875 the number of
+vessels and tonnage which entered and cleared was—at Messina, 9,213
+vessels, of 2,335,144 tons; at Palermo, 11,692 vessels, of 1,812,195
+tons; at Catania, 5,137 vessels, of 529,539 tons; and at Trapani, 5,407
+vessels, of 288,475 tons.
+
+[112] Towns of Sicily having more than 10,000 inhabitants (in
+1871):—Palermo, 186,406; Messina, 71,921; Catania, 84,397; Marsala,
+34,202; Modica, 33,169; Trapani, 28,052; Acireale, 26,692; Caltagirone,
+25,978; Ragusa Superiore, 21,494; Caltanissetta, 21,464; Canicatti,
+20,908; Alcamo, 20,890; Castelvetrano, 20,420; Partinico, 20,098;
+Syracuse (Siracusa), 20,035; Termini Imerese, 19,646; Girgenti, 19,603;
+Sciacca, 18,896; Piazza Armerina, 18,252; Vittoria, 17,528; Giarre,
+17,414; Comiso, 16,694; Corleone, 16,150; Licata, 15,966; Favara,
+15,233; Vizzini, 14,942; Terranova di Sicilia, 14,911; Paterno,
+14,790; Noto, 14,767; Aderno, 14,673; Bronte, 14,589; Nicosia, 14,544;
+Castrogiovanni, 14,511; Barcellona or Pozzo di Gotto, 14,471; Salemi,
+14,096; Palma di Montechiaro, 13,497; Monreale, 13,496; Gangi, 13,057;
+San Cataldo, 12,899; Biancavilla, 12,631; Partana, 12,467; Mazzara del
+Valle, 12,155; Leonforte, 12,010; Mazzarino, 11,951; Avola, 11,912;
+Agira, 11,876; Bagheria, 11,651; Riesi, 11,548; Agosta, 11,382;
+Castellamare del Golfo, 11,280; Mistretta, 11,218; Racalmuto, 11,012;
+Niscemi, 10,750; Sciecli, 10,724; Lentini, 10,578; Cefalù, 10,194;
+Froina, 10,193; Grammicheli, 10,192; Pietraperzia, 10,149; Palazzolo
+Acreide, 10,132.
+
+[113] Area and population of the Liparic Islands:—Lipari, 12·4 square
+miles, 14,000 inhabitants; Vulcano, 9·7 square miles, 100 inhabitants;
+Panaria and neighbouring islets, 7·7 square miles, 200 inhabitants;
+Stromboli, 7·7 square miles, 500 inhabitants; Salina, 10·8 square
+miles, 4,500 inhabitants; Felicudi, 5·9 square miles, 800 inhabitants;
+Alicudi, 3 square miles, 300 inhabitants. Total, 57·2 square miles,
+18,400 inhabitants.
+
+[114] Pantellaria, 39·7 square miles, 6,000 inhabitants; Linosa,
+4·6 square miles, 900 inhabitants; Lampedusa, 3 square miles, 600
+inhabitants.
+
+[115] The tonnage of vessels which enter and clear annually from
+foreign ports amounts to 4,300,000 tons; the value of dutiable articles
+imported is nearly £9,000,000 sterling, and the value of the exports
+about the same.
+
+[116] Area of Malta, Gozzo, and Comino, 146 square miles; population
+149,084, inclusive of 7,309 military and their families.
+
+[117] Area, 9,440 square miles; population (1871), 636,500.
+
+[118] In 1873 11,256 vessels, of 1,080,000 tons, entered and cleared
+the five ports of the island. In 1875 2,516 vessels, of 504,756 tons,
+entered and cleared at Cagliari alone, the increase since 1861 having
+been nearly 100 per cent.
+
+[119] Population of the principal towns of Sardinia (1871):—Cagliari,
+31,9 5; Sassari, 30,542; Alghero, 8,769; Ozieri, 7,965; Iglesias,
+7,191; Oristano, 6,963; Terranova, 1,976.
+
+[120] Agricultural statistics of Italy, 1869 (according to
+Maestri):—_Distribution of Area_:—Fields, vineyards, and orchards,
+27,267,360 acres; olive plantations, 1,371,400 acres; chestnut
+plantations, 1,445,000 acres; forests, 10,240,400 acres; meadows,
+2,900,000 acres; pastures, 13,337,000 acres. _Annual Produce_:—Cereals,
+206,300,000 bushels (value £84,000,000); potatoes, 27,500,000 bushels
+(£2,000,000); wines, 880,000,000 gallons (£44,000,000); raw silk,
+6,889,437 lbs. in 1873, 6,305,214 lbs. in 1874; tobacco, 7,235,000
+lbs.; oil, 3,747,850 lbs. (£8,800,000); chestnuts, 14,860,000 bushels.
+_Domesticated Animals_ (1868):—1,196,128 horses, 3,489,125 heads of
+cattle, 8,674,527 sheep and goats, 1,553,582 pigs.
+
+[121] Annual mineral produce of Italy (in tons):—Iron, 85,000; copper,
+13,000; lead, 32,250; zinc, 30,000; coal, 110,750; sulphur, 285,611;
+salt, 388,000; besides small quantities of silver, nickel, mercury, &c.
+
+[122] _Occupations_:—Amongst every 1,000 inhabitants there are 342
+agriculturists; 163 miners and artisans; 29 commercial men; 23
+artists and scientific men; 7 priests; 6 officials; 1 soldier; 31
+“proprietors;” 21 domestic servants; 13 paupers; and 382 without
+occupation.
+
+[123] In 1874 there were 10,929 vessels (including 138 steamers), of a
+burden of 1,031,889 tons; 37,560 vessels, of 7,580,317 tons, entered
+from or cleared for foreign ports; 197,896 vessels, of 16,500,000 tons,
+entered and cleared in the home trade. Of every 1,000 tons engaged
+in the foreign commerce, 368 sailed under the Italian, 266 under the
+English, and 173 under the French flag. The commerce with France
+engaged 1,779,672 tons; that with England 1,388,300 tons; and that with
+Austria 998,740 tons.
+
+[124] In 1876 4,791 miles of railway had been opened for traffic, and
+460 miles were building. There were also 1,858 miles of canals and
+navigable rivers, and 77,140 miles of public roads.
+
+[125] _Public Schools_ (1872):—58,322 elementary and evening
+schools, 2,274,999 pupils; 1,082 superior schools, 64,044 pupils; 21
+universities, 10,000 students; 651 professional, technical, and art
+schools, 33,311 students. Total, 60,076 schools, &c., with 2,382,354
+pupils and students.
+
+[126]
+
+ 1861. 1873. 1875.
+ Expenditure £24,206,920 £61,704,000 £56,618,600
+ Revenue £18,332,880 £52,384,000 £55,499,800
+ ─────────── ─────────── ───────────
+ Deficit £5,874,040 £9,340,000 £1,118,800
+ National Debt £100,000,000 £402,400,000 £460,000,000
+
+[127] _Authorities_:—Marmocchi, “Géographie de la Corse;” Gregorovius,
+“Corsica;” Pr. Mérimée, “Voyage en Corse.”
+
+[128] Area of Corsica, 3,378 square miles; length from north to south,
+114 miles; width, 52 miles; development of coast-line, 300 miles.
+
+[129] From north to south:—Monte Padro, 7,846 feet; Monte Cinto, 8,878
+feet; Paglia Orba, 8,283 feet; Rotondo, 8,607 feet; Monte d’Oro, 7,890
+feet; Incudine, 6,746 feet.
+
+[130] Mean annual temperature at Bastia, 66·7° F.; rainfall, 23 inches.
+
+[131] Area, 3,378 square miles; population in 1740, 120,380; in 1872,
+259,861.
+
+[132] _Average annual produce_:—Cereals, 2,613,000 bushels; oil,
+3,300,000 gallons; wine, 6,600,000 gallons.
+
+[133] Towns of Corsica (1872):—Bastia, 17,950; Ajaccio, 16,550; Corte,
+5,450; Sartène, 4,150; Bonifacio, 3,600; Bastelica, 2,950; Calenzana,
+2,600; Calvi, 2,175 inhabitants.
+
+[134] Authorities:—Coello, F. de Luxan y A. Pascual, “Reseñas
+Geográfica, Geológica y Agrícola de España;” Baron Davillier et
+Gust. Doré, “Voyage en Espagne;” De Laborde, “Itinéraire Descriptif
+de l’Espagne;” Bory de Saint-Vincent, “Résumé Géographique de la
+Péninsule Ibérique;” De Verneuil et Collomb, “Mémoires Géologiques sur
+l’Espagne;” Ford, “Handbook for Travellers in Spain;” Fern. Garrido,
+“L’Espagne Contemporaine;” Cherbuliez, “L’Espagne Politique;” Ed.
+Quinet, “Mes Vacances en Espagne;” Th. Gautier, “Tras los Montes,”
+“Voyage en Espagne;” M. Willkomm, “Die Pyrenäische Halbinsel,”
+“Strand- und Steppengebiete der iberischen Halbinsel;” George Sand,
+“Un Hiver à Majorque;” Ludw. Salvator, “Balearen in Wort und Bild;”
+Bladé, “Études Géographiques sur la Vallée d’Andorre;” W. von Humboldt,
+“Urbewohner Spaniens;” Eug. Cordier, “Organisation de la Famille chez
+les Basques;” Paul Broca, “Mémoires d’Anthropologie.”
+
+[135] Area of the Iberian peninsula, exclusive of the Balearic Islands,
+225,605 square miles; area of Spain, 191,104 square miles; of Portugal
+(without the Azores), 34,501 square miles. Average height, according to
+Leipoldt, 2,300 feet.
+
+[136] Contour of peninsula, 2,015 miles, of which 1,301 are on the
+Atlantic, and 714 on the Mediterranean. Width of the isthmus of the
+Pyrenees, 260 miles.
+
+[137]
+
+ Area. Population (1870). Density.
+ Basin of the Duero (Leon and Old
+ Castile, exclusive of Logroño
+ and Santander) 36,593 sq. m. 2,550,000 69
+
+ Basins of the Tajo and the
+ Guadiana 44,719 sq. m. 2,276,000 51
+
+[138] Average rainfall at Madrid, 10·7 inches; evaporation, 72·6 inches.
+
+[139] Mean annual temperature, 57·9°; extremes, 104° and 14° F.
+
+[140] Population of the principal towns of the Castiles (1870):—_Old
+Castile_: Valladolid, 60,000; Burgos, 14,000; Salamanca, 13,500;
+Palencia, 13,000; Zamora, 9,000; Segovia, 7,000; Leon, 7,000; Ávila,
+6,000. _New Castile_: Madrid, 332,000; Toledo, 17,500; Almagro, 14,000;
+Daimiel, 13,000; Ciudad Real, 12,000; Val de Peñas, 11,000; Almaden,
+9,000; Manzanares, 9,000; Cuenca, 7,000; Talavera de la Reyna, 7,500;
+Guadalajara, 6,000. _Estremadura_: Badajoz, 22,000; Don Benito, 15,000;
+Cáceres, 12,000; Villanueva de la Serena, 8,000; Plasencia, 6,000;
+Mérida, 6,000.
+
+[141] Area of the basin of the Guadalquivir, 21,000 square miles;
+area of Andalusia, 28,370 square miles; population (1870), 2,749,629;
+density, 91.
+
+[142]
+
+ Mean Annual Rainfall. Rainfall. Rainfall.
+ Temp., °F. Year, in. Oct.–March, in. April–Sept., in.
+ Granada 66 48·5 40·3 8·2
+ Seville 68 26·1 23·1 3·0
+ Gibraltar 70 28·9 20·3 8·6
+
+[143] Export of wine from Cádiz and Santa María:—1858, 3,597,000
+gallons; 1862, 5,115,000 gallons; 1873, 10,446,480 gallons, valued at
+£2,937,000.
+
+[144] In 1873 600,000 tons of pyrites were exported from the district
+of Huelva, of which 340,000 tons came from the mine of Tharsis.
+
+[145] In 1874 3,639 vessels, of 616,060 tons burden, entered; the
+imports had a value of £633,700, the exports (consisting for the most
+part of wine) of £3,116,000.
+
+[146] Approximate population of the principal towns of Andalusia:―
+
+Cádiz, 62,000; Jerez, 35,000; Chiclana, 22,000; Puerto de Santa María,
+18,000; San Fernando, 18,000; Sanlúcar de Barrameda, 17,000; Puerto
+Real, 14,000; Arcos de la Frontera, 12,000; Algeciras, 18,000; Medina
+Sidonia, 10,500.
+
+Huelva, 10,000.
+
+Seville (Sevilla), 80,000; Ecija, 24,000; Carmona, 18,000; Osuna,
+16,000; Utrera, 14,000; Lebrija, 12,000; Marchena, 12,000.
+
+Córdova, 45,000; Lucena, 16,000; Montilla, 15,500; Montoro, 12,000;
+Aguilar, 12,000; Baena, 14,500; Cabra, 11,500.
+
+Jaen, 18,000; Linares, 40,000; Ubeda, 15,000; Baeza, 15,000; Alcalá la
+Real, 11,500; Andújar, 9,500.
+
+Granada, 65,000; Loja, 15,000; Motril, 13,500; Baza, 13,500.
+
+Málaga, 92,000; Antequera, 30,000; Velez Málaga, 15,000; Ronda, 14,000.
+
+Almería, 27,000; Velez Rúbio, 13,000.
+
+[147] Gibraltar in 1871 had 16,454 inhabitants, exclusive of the
+military: its annual revenue exceeds £40,000, and the burden of the
+vessels which enter and clear annually amounts to 3,500,000 tons.
+
+[148]
+
+ Murcia 10,450 square miles. 660,040 inhabitants, or 63 to a sq. m.
+
+ Valencia 8,896 square miles. 1,401,833 inhabitants, or 158 to a sq. m.
+
+[149] 82,000 tons of esparto grass are estimated to have been collected
+in 1873, of which 67,000 tons were exported to England.
+
+[150] Value of exports and imports in 1867, £2,707,000.
+
+[151] Population of the principal towns of the Mediterranean slope
+between Cabo de Gata and the Ebro:—Valencia, 108,000; Murcia, 55,000;
+Lorca, 40,000; Alicante, 31,000; Cartagena, 25,000; Orihuela, 21,000;
+Castellon de la Plana, 20,000; Alcoy, 16,000; Albacete, 15,000; Játiva,
+13,000; Alcira, 13,000; Almansa, 9,000.
+
+[152] Towns of Majorca:—Palma, 40,000; Manacor, 15,000; Felanitx,
+10,500; Lluchmayor, 8,800; Pollenza, 8,000; Inca, 8,000; Soller, 8,000;
+Santañia, 8,000.
+
+[153] Catalonia, 12,483 square miles, 1,778,408 inhabitants; Aragon,
+17,676 square miles, 928,718 inhabitants.
+
+[154] Area of the basin of the Ebro, 25,100 square miles; discharge
+during floods, 175,000 cubic feet, average, 7,100 cubic feet; during
+summer, 1,750 cubic feet; annual rainfall, 18 inches; surface drainage,
+1·4 inches; proportion between the two, 13 : 1.
+
+[155] _Zaragoza_:—Mean temperature, 61°; extremes, 106° and 21°;
+difference, 85°; rainfall, 13·6 inches. _Barcelona_:—Mean temperature,
+63°; extremes, 88° and 32°; difference, 56°; rainfall, 15·7 inches.
+
+[156] In 1873 there were 700 cotton-mills, with 104,000 hands and
+1,400,000 spindles, consuming 67,200,000 lbs. of cotton.
+
+[157] Value of exports and imports in 1867, £10,691,000.
+
+[158] Population of the principal towns:—_Aragon_: Zaragoza, 56,000;
+Calatayud, 12,000; Huesca, 10,000; Teruel, 7,000. _Catalonia_
+(Cataluña): Barcelona, 180,000; Reus, 25,000; Tortosa, 22,000; Mataró,
+17,000; Sabadell, 15,000; Manresa, 14,000; Tarragona, 13,000; Lérida,
+12,000; Vich, 12,000; Badalona, 11,000; Igualada, 10,500; Olot, 10,000;
+Tarrasa, 9,000; Gerona, 8,000; Figueras, 8,000.
+
+[159] Navarra and Basque provinces, 6,828 square miles, 790,676
+inhabitants; Logroño, 1,945 square miles, 182,941 inhabitants.
+
+[160] In 1875 Basque was spoken by 556,000 individuals, viz. by 116,000
+in France, by 340,000 in the three Basque provinces of Spain, and by
+100,000 in Navarra.
+
+[161] Population of principal towns (approximately):—Biscay (Vizcaya):
+Bilbao, 30,000. _Guipúzcoa_ St. Sebastian, 15,000; Tolosa, 8,000.
+_Alava_: Vitoria, 12,500. _Navarra_: Pamplona, 22,000; Estella, 6,000.
+_Logroño_: Logroño, 12,000; Calahorra, 7,000.
+
+[162]
+
+ Santander 2,113 sq. m. 241,581 inhabitants 114 to a sq. m.
+ Asturias 4,091 sq. m. 610,883 inhabitants 152 to a sq. m.
+ Galicia 11,344 sq. m. 1,989,281 inhabitants 176 to a sq. m.
+
+[163] Climate in 1858:—_Oviedo_: 750 feet above the sea-level, mean
+temperature, 49·46° F.; extremes, 23·9° and 82°; rainfall, 81·3 inches.
+_Santiago_: 720 feet above sea-level, mean temperature, 59·07°;
+extremes, 28° and 95°; rainfall, 42·7 inches.
+
+[164] Area of Length of Average Average Surface Drainage Catchment Main
+Rainfall. Discharge. in Proportion to Basin. Branch. Rainfall. Sq. m.
+Miles. Inches. Cub. ft. Per cent. per sec.
+
+ Miño (and Sil) 9,650 190 47 17,700 50
+ Duero 38,610 507 20 22,950 40
+ Tajo (Tagus) 28,960 556 16 11,600 33
+ Guadiana (and Záncara) 23,170 553 14 5,680 25
+ Guadalquivir 21,240 348 19 9,220 30
+ Segura 8,500 217 12 710 10
+ Júcar 5,800 318 13 880 15
+ Ebro 25,100 466 18 7,100 20
+ ――――――― ―― ―――――― ――
+ Total 161,030 16 75,810 33
+
+[165] Imports (1873), £2,348,720; exports, £2,341,360.
+
+[166] Imports (1873), £310,227; exports, £210,532.
+
+[167] Imports (1873), £873,286; exports, £381,636.
+
+[168] Population of towns:—Santander, 21,000; Oviedo, 9,000; Gijon,
+6,000; Santiago de Compostela, 29,000; La Coruña, 20,000; Ferrol,
+17,000; Lugo, 8,000; Vigo, 6,000; Orense, 5,000; Pontevedra, 4,200.
+
+[169] Of the total area 26·1 per cent. consists of arable land, 2·8 of
+vineyards, 1·7 of olive plantation, 13·7 of meadows and pasture, 16·3
+per cent. of woods: 39·4 per cent. are uncultivated. The total value of
+agricultural produce is estimated at £80,000,000.
+
+The produce of the mines in 1871 represented a value of £6,271,000.
+
+In 1865 there were enumerated 680,373 horses, 1,020,512 mules,
+1,298,334 asses, 2,967,303 heads of horned cattle, 22,468,969 sheep,
+4,531,736 goats, 4,531,228 pigs, and 3,104 camels.
+
+The products of manufactures are estimated by Garrido at £63,480,000.
+Imports (1871), £22,780,000, (1874) £15,280,000; exports (1871),
+£17,688,000, (1874) £16,120,000.
+
+Commercial marine (1874), 2,836 sea-going vessels (inclusive of 212
+steamers), of 625,184 tons, besides 6,498 lighters (26,000 tons) and
+12,000 fishing-boats.
+
+Railways, 3,602 miles in 1876.
+
+[170] Educational statistics (1870):―
+
+ Men. Women. Total.
+
+ Able to read and write 2,414,000 716,000 3,130,000
+ Able to read only 317,000 389,000 706,000
+ Illiterate 5,035,000 6,803,000 11,838,000
+
+[171] Revenue (1876–7), £26,300,069; estimated expenditure,
+£26,251,518, of which more than half is for army and navy; national
+debt, £420,322,000.
+
+[172] Link und Hoffmannsegg, “Voyage en Portugal;” Minutoli, “Portugal
+und seine Kolonien;” Vogel, “Le Portugal et ses Colonies;” Lady
+Jackson, “Fair Lusitania;” Latouche, “Travels in Portugal.”
+
+[173] Temperature of Coimbra (according to Coello):—Year, 61·1°;
+winter, 52·2; spring, 63; summer, 68·9, autumn, 62·3; coldest
+month (January), 50·2; hottest month (July), 69·4; difference,
+19·2 F. Temperature of Oporto (according to De Luiz, mean of eight
+years):—Year, 60·2; winter, 51·1; spring, 58·6; summer, 69·8; autumn,
+61·2; coldest month (January), 50·2; hottest month (August), 70·3;
+difference, 20·1 F.
+
+[174] Production of wine in Portugal before the appearance of oidium,
+in 1853, 105,600,000 gallons. Average annual produce of the vineyards
+of Alto-Douro (Oporto) in 1848, 11,726,000; in 1870, 11,374,000
+gallons. Exports to England, 3,718,000 gallons; Brazil, 994,000
+gallons. In 1874 Oporto alone exported 6,623,000 gallons, or more than
+ever before.
+
+[175] Imports and exports about £4,000,000.
+
+[176] Towns of over 5,000 inhabitants in Northern Portugal
+(1864):—_Entre Douro e Minho_: Oporto, 86,257; Braga, 19,512; Pavoa de
+Varzim, 10,110; Guimarães, 7,865; Villanova de Gaia, 7,517; Vianna do
+Castello, 6,049; Mattozinhos, 5,089. _Traz os Montes_: Chaves, 6,382;
+Bragança, 5,111; Villa Real, 5,097. _Beira_: Coimbra, 18,147; Ovar,
+10,374; Covilhã, 9,022; Lamego, 8,638; Ilhavo, 8,215; Murtoza, 7,666;
+Vizeu, 6,815; Castello Branco, 6,583; Avéiro, 6,557; Mira, 6,014;
+Soure, 5,855; Lavos, 5,837; Miranda do Corvo, 5,261; Paião, 5,097.
+
+[177] In 1874 Lisbon exported 5,900 tons of potatoes, 447,450 gallons
+of olive oil, 4,400,000 gallons of wine, 157,200 bushels of salt,
+200,000 tons of copper ore, figs, almonds, oranges, &c.: 4,092 vessels
+entered the harbour.
+
+[178] Mean temperature of July, 90·6° F.; extremes of temperature,
+27·5° and 102° F.; cloudless days, 150.
+
+[179] In 1870 Portugal produced 320,000 tons of salt, of which 184,000
+tons were from Setúbal.
+
+[180] Towns of Estremadura having over 5,000 inhabitants
+(1864):—Lisbon, 224,063; Setúbal, 13,134; Santarem, 7,820; Torres
+Novas, 6,878; Caparica, 6,311; Palmella, 6,260; Cezimbra, 5,797;
+Abrantes, 5,590; Cartaxo, 5,218; Louriçal, 5,182.
+
+[181] Towns of Southern Portugal having over 5,000 inhabitants
+(1864):—_Alemtejo_: Evora, 11,965; Elvas, 11,086; Estremoz, 7,274;
+Beja, 7,060; Portalegre, 6,731; Serpa, 5,595; Móura, 5,489; Castello
+de Vido, 5,285; Campo Maior, 5,277. _Algarve_: Loulé, 12,156; Tavira,
+10,903; Faro, 8,361; Lagos, 7,771; Olhão, 7,025; Alportel, 6,043;
+Villanova de Portimão, 5,531; São Bartholomeu de Messires, 5,318;
+Monchique, 5,251; Silves, 5,103.
+
+[182] For a list of Portuguese colonies see p. 500.
+
+[183] In 1874 there were 2,649 elementary and middle-class schools,
+attended by 122,004 pupils, besides a university and nine special
+schools, with 4,300 students.
+
+[184] In 1875, 2,237 miles of royal high-roads, 600 miles of railroads.
+
+[185] Value of exports and imports in 1840, £4,016,320; in 1856,
+£8,127,400; 1875, £12,916,020. The commercial marine consisted in 1875
+of 433 vessels (inclusive of 23 steamers), measuring 111,260 tons.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Abrántes, 490
+
+ Abruzzos, 258
+
+ Achelous, 48
+
+ Adrianople, 106
+
+ Ægadian Islands, 334
+
+ Ægean Sea, 69, 95
+
+ Ægina, 56
+
+ Ægium, 67
+
+ Æolian Islands, 331
+
+ Ætolia, 53
+
+ Ætoliko, 49, 53
+
+ Aitone, 366
+
+ Ajaccio, 365, 369
+
+ Albacete, 420
+
+ Albania, 115
+
+ Albanians, 44, 119, 120; in Italy, 295
+
+ Albano, 260
+
+ Alcalá, 393
+
+ Alcántara, 391
+
+ Alcóy, 420
+
+ Alecsandria, 170
+
+ Alemtejo, 490
+
+ Algarve, 490
+
+ Alhama, 422
+
+ Alhambra, 407, 408
+
+ Alicante, 417, 422
+
+ Almaden, 392
+
+ Almagro, 391
+
+ Almeida, 481
+
+ Almería, 412
+
+ Alpheus, 61, 63
+
+ Alps, 10
+
+ Alpujarras, 397
+
+ Amarante, 479
+
+ Anadoli-kavak, 104
+
+ Ancona, 282
+
+ Andalusia, 394
+
+ Andorra, 438
+
+ Andros, 72
+
+ Anio, 273
+
+ Antequera, 412
+
+ Antimilos, 71
+
+ Antiparos, 71
+
+ Apennines, 257
+
+ Aquila, 284
+
+ Aragon, 427
+
+ Aragon Steppes, 436
+
+ Arán, 438
+
+ Aranjuez, 393, 394
+
+ Arcadia, 58, 65
+
+ Arezzo, 252
+
+ Argentaro, Monte, 243
+
+ Argolis, 59, 65
+
+ Argos, 68
+
+ Argostoli, 79
+
+ Ariano, 305
+
+ Armenians, 102
+
+ Arno, 240
+
+ Arosa, 459
+
+ Arta, Gulf of, 48, 53
+
+ Aspromonte, 288
+
+ Astorga, 387
+
+ Asturias, 448
+
+ Astypalæa, 94
+
+ Athens, 54
+
+ Athos, Mount, 108
+
+ Attica, 53
+
+ Avéiro, 476, 481
+
+ Ávila, 389
+
+ Azcoitia, 447
+
+ Azof, Sea of, 25
+
+ Badajoz, 391
+
+ Baéza, 407
+
+ Balagna, 365
+
+ Balearic Islands, 423–427
+
+ Balkans, 133
+
+ Baragan, 159
+
+ Barcellos, 479
+
+ Barcelona, 436
+
+ Bari, 306
+
+ Barletta, 306
+
+ Basque Provinces, 439
+
+ Basques, 372, 442
+
+ Bastelica, 366
+
+ Bastia, 368
+
+ Batalha, 489
+
+ Batuecas, 387
+
+ Bayona, 459
+
+ Beja, 495
+
+ Belem, 487
+
+ Belgrad, 174
+
+ Bellas, 488
+
+ Benevento, 305
+
+ Berda, 179
+
+ Berici, 193
+
+ Berlingas, 483
+
+ Bessarabia, 164
+
+ Bidassoa, 437
+
+ Bientina, 245
+
+ Biguglia, 368
+
+ Bilbao, 446
+
+ Biscay, Bay of, 441
+
+ Black Sea, 25
+
+ Bœotia, 53
+
+ Bologna, 228
+
+ Bolsena, 259
+
+ Bomfica, 488
+
+ Bonifacio, 369
+
+ Bosnia, 127
+
+ Bosphorus, 98
+
+ Botosani, 169
+
+ Braga, 479
+
+ Bragança, 481
+
+ Braila, 170
+
+ Brenner, 222
+
+ Brindisi, 306
+
+ Bucharest, 168
+
+ Bulgaria, 131
+
+ Bulgarians, 138
+
+ Búrgos, 388
+
+ Bussaco, 481
+
+ Butrinto, 76
+
+ Buyukdere, 103
+
+ Cabo da Roca, 488
+
+ Cáceres, 391
+
+ Cádiz, 401, 410
+
+ Calabria, 287, 295, 296, 308
+
+ Calahorra, 448
+
+ Calamata, 67
+
+ Calatayud, 434
+
+ Calvi, 369
+
+ Caminha, 479
+
+ Campania, 289
+
+ Campo dell’ Oro, 365
+
+ Campo de Ourique, 492
+
+ Candia, 90
+
+ Canea, 92
+
+ Cantabrian Pyrenees, 451
+
+ Capri, 302
+
+ Capua, 304
+
+ Carcavellos, 487
+
+ Cardona, 431
+
+ Carghese, 366
+
+ Casabianda, 365
+
+ Cascães, 487
+
+ Caserta, 304
+
+ Casino, 304
+
+ Castelfollit, 431
+
+ Castel-Gandolfo, 361
+
+ Castiles, 377
+
+ Castro Marim, 495
+
+ Catalonia, 427
+
+ Catania, 325
+
+ Catanzari, 309
+
+ Celtiberians, 372
+
+ Celts, 372
+
+ Cephalonia, 78
+
+ Cephissus, 51
+
+ Cerigo, 69
+
+ Cezimbra, 490
+
+ Chalcidice, 107
+
+ Chalcis, 70, 71
+
+ Chaves, 481
+
+ Chiana, 244
+
+ Cintra, 483
+
+ Circassians, 142
+
+ Cithæron, 47
+
+ Ciudad Real, 391
+
+ Civita Vecchia, 281
+
+ Coimbra, 481
+
+ Columbretes, 424
+
+ Comacchio, 220
+
+ Como, 198
+
+ Constantinople, 88, 98, 150
+
+ Copais, 51, 52
+
+ Corcubion, 459
+
+ Córdova, 406, 408
+
+ Corfu, 75
+
+ Corinth, 57, 66
+
+ Corsica, 363
+
+ Corte, 366, 369
+
+ Corunna, 459
+
+ Cosenza, 309
+
+ Cotrone, 309
+
+ Cranz, 65
+
+ Crato, 495
+
+ Crete, 90
+
+ Cuenca, 392
+
+ Cyclades, 70
+
+ Cyllene, 57
+
+ Cythera, 69
+
+ Cythnos, 71
+
+ Daimiel, 391
+
+ Danube, 136, 159
+
+ Dardanelles, 105
+
+ Dede Aghach, 107
+
+ Delos, 71, 74
+
+ Delphi, 47
+
+ Despeñaperros, 395, 396
+
+ Dobruja, 134, 142
+
+ Dodona, 118
+
+ Dolomites, 192
+
+ Dora Baltea, 197
+
+ Dóuro, 473
+
+ Drin, 115
+
+ Drina, 174
+
+ Duero, 383
+
+ Durango, 447
+
+ Durazzo, 125
+
+ Ebro, 427
+
+ Ebro Delta, 432
+
+ Ecija, 402
+
+ Elba, 255
+
+ Elche, 417–419
+
+ Eleusis, 55
+
+ Elis, 59
+
+ El Torcal, 398
+
+ Élvas, 495
+
+ Etna, 311
+
+ Epakto, 53
+
+ Epidaurus, 68
+
+ Epirus, 115, 117
+
+ Erasinus, 61
+
+ Erymanthus, 57
+
+ Escorial, 393
+
+ Espinho, 479
+
+ Espozende, 479
+
+ Estrella, 483
+
+ Estremadura, 377
+
+ Estremoz, 495
+
+ Etruscans, 248
+
+ Eubœa, 70, 71
+
+ Euganean Hills, 193
+
+ Euripus, 70
+
+ Eurotas, 62, 67
+
+ Euskarians, 442
+
+ Evora, 495
+
+ Falticeni, 169
+
+ Farilhãos, 483
+
+ Faro, 495
+
+ Ferdinandea, 316
+
+ Ferrara, 228
+
+ Ferrol, 459
+
+ Figuéira da Foz, 481
+
+ Fiumicino, 271, 273
+
+ Florence, 251
+
+ Foggia, 306
+
+ Fontibre, 432
+
+ Fucino, 262
+
+ Fuenterrabia, 447
+
+ Gaeta, 304
+
+ Gaia, 479
+
+ Galaxidi, 53
+
+ Galatz, 169
+
+ Galicia, 448
+
+ Gallipoli, 106, 308
+
+ Gastuni, 63, 64
+
+ Gata, Sierra de, 381
+
+ Gaytanos, 399
+
+ Genoa, 234
+
+ Gerania, 48
+
+ Gerona, 437
+
+ Gibraltar, 400, 413
+
+ Gibraltar, Strait of, 26
+
+ Gijon, 459
+
+ Gipsies, 373
+
+ Girgenti, 329
+
+ Giurgevo, 170
+
+ Giurgiu, 170
+
+ Golden Horn, 98
+
+ Golfolino of Arno, 240
+
+ Granada, 407
+
+ Grand Paradis, 191
+
+ Gráo de Valencia, 424
+
+ Grédos, Sierra de, 380
+
+ Greece, 36
+
+ Greeks in Turkey, 102, 114, 141, 153
+
+ Guadalajara, 393
+
+ Guadalaviar, 415, 417
+
+ Guadalquivir, 395, 399
+
+ Guadarrama, 378
+
+ Guadiana, 395, 383
+
+ Gubbio, 282
+
+ Guernica, 447, 453
+
+ Guetaria, 447, 452
+
+ Guimarães, 479, 480
+
+ Guipúzcoa, 446
+
+ Gythion, 65
+
+ Hagio Rumeli, 91
+
+ Helicon, 47
+
+ Hellenes, 41
+
+ Hellespont, 105
+
+ Hercules, Tower of, 459, 463
+
+ Hermopolis, 74
+
+ Herzegovina, 127
+
+ Huelva, 406
+
+ Hydra, 60
+
+ Hylice, 51
+
+ Hymettus, 48
+
+ Iberia, 369
+
+ Iberians, 372
+
+ Ibiza, 425, 427
+
+ Ile Rousse, 369
+
+ Illyria, 127
+
+ Imbro, 96
+
+ Insua, 479
+
+ Ionian Isles, 75
+
+ Iri, 62
+
+ Ischia, 291
+
+ Iseo, 200
+
+ Isker, 132
+
+ Ismail, 169
+
+ Italy, 183
+
+ Ithaca, 78
+
+ Iviza, 425, 427
+
+ Jarama, 394
+
+ Jaizquibel, 439, 445
+
+ Jerez, 405, 410
+
+ Júcar, 415, 417
+
+ Katavothras, 48
+
+ Kilia, 169
+
+ Kraguyevatz, 174
+
+ Kraina, 129
+
+ Krushevatz, 173
+
+ Kutzo-Wallachians, 44
+
+ Laconia, 69
+
+ La Coruña, 459
+
+ Lago Maggiore, 198
+
+ Lagoons of Venice, 202, 207
+
+ La Mancha, 378, 385, 391
+
+ Lamego, 478, 481
+
+ Lamia, 56
+
+ Larouco, 480
+
+ Laurium, 48
+
+ Lebrija, 409
+
+ Leça, 479
+
+ Lecco, 308
+
+ Leghorn, 255
+
+ Leiria, 489
+
+ Lemnos, 97
+
+ Lentini, 316
+
+ Leon, 377, 387
+
+ Lepanto, 53
+
+ Lerida, 435
+
+ Leucadia, 77
+
+ Lezirias, 482
+
+ Liébana, 450
+
+ Liguria, 230
+
+ Lima, 475
+
+ Limans, 161
+
+ Limia, 475
+
+ Lináres, 405, 407
+
+ Lipari, 331
+
+ Lisbon, 484
+
+ Livadia, 56
+
+ Logroño, 439, 448
+
+ Lorca, 417
+
+ Loreto, 283
+
+ Loulé, 495
+
+ Lucca, 253
+
+ Lugo, 459
+
+ Lycæus, 58
+
+ Maccalubas, 317
+
+ Macedonia, 98
+
+ Madrid, 392, 393
+
+ Maffia, 321
+
+ Mafra, 488
+
+ Magra, 254
+
+ Mainotes, 43
+
+ Majorca, 425
+
+ Málaga, 412
+
+ Malaria, 247
+
+ Malea, 57
+
+ Mallorca, 425
+
+ Malta, 335
+
+ Malvoisie, 67
+
+ Mancha Real, 402
+
+ Manfredonia, 306
+
+ Mantinea, 61, 62
+
+ Mantua, 227
+
+ Marathon, 56
+
+ Marathonisi, 65
+
+ Marchena, 409
+
+ Marches, 257
+
+ Maremma, 246
+
+ Mariana, 367, 368
+
+ Maritza, 136
+
+ Marmara, Sea of, 104
+
+ Marsala, 326
+
+ Matapan, 59
+
+ Mataró, 437
+
+ Mattozinhos, 479
+
+ Medina del Campo, 389
+
+ Mediterranean, 23
+
+ Megara, 56
+
+ Mega-Spileon, 57
+
+ Menorca, 426
+
+ Mérida, 391
+
+ Merinos, 385
+
+ Messenia, 65, 68
+
+ Messina, 325
+
+ Messina, Strait of, 309
+
+ Meteora, 113
+
+ Methone, 59
+
+ Milan, 225
+
+ Milos, 72
+
+ Minho, 455, 473
+
+ Miño, 455
+
+ Minorca, 426
+
+ Mirdits, 116, 123
+
+ Missolonghi, 49, 53
+
+ Mistra, 68
+
+ Moldavia, 157
+
+ Moncayo, 429
+
+ Monchique, 495
+
+ Mondego, 473
+
+ Monjuich, 436
+
+ Monserrat, 431
+
+ Monte Cinto, 363
+
+ Monte Gargano, 287
+
+ Montemor, 495
+
+ Montenegro, 179
+
+ Monte Pellegrino, 316
+
+ Montepulciano, 253
+
+ Monte Viso, 189
+
+ Montieri, 242
+
+ Montilla, 409
+
+ Moors in Spain, 372
+
+ Morava, 127, 173
+
+ Morea, 56
+
+ Múrcia, 413, 417–420
+
+ Mycenæ, 68
+
+ Naples, 286, 300
+
+ Narenta, 128
+
+ Naupactus, 53
+
+ Navarino, 67
+
+ Navarra, 439
+
+ Navas de Tolosa, 395
+
+ Naxos, 71, 74
+
+ Nea Kaimeni, 72
+
+ Negroponte, 71
+
+ Nemea, 68
+
+ Nicosia, 326
+
+ Nish, 143
+
+ Noya, 459
+
+ Numancia, 379
+
+ Numantia, 387
+
+ Oeiras, 487
+
+ Okhrida, 116
+
+ Olite, 448
+
+ Olivença, 495
+
+ Olot, 437
+
+ Olto, 158
+
+ Olympus, Mount, 110
+
+ Oporto, 478
+
+ Orense, 459
+
+ Orezza, 368
+
+ Orihuela, 417, 419
+
+ Orvieto, 282
+
+ Ostia, 271, 273
+
+ Osuna, 409
+
+ Otranto, 306
+
+ Ovar, 481
+
+ Oviedo, 459
+
+ Pæstum, 303
+
+ Paiz do Vinho, 477
+
+ Palatine Hill, 277
+
+ Palencia, 387
+
+ Palermo, 322
+
+ Palma, 429
+
+ Palmanova, 229
+
+ Pamisus, 63
+
+ Pantellaria, 334
+
+ Parnassus, 47
+
+ Parnes, 47
+
+ Parnon, 57
+
+ Paros, 71
+
+ Patones, 394
+
+ Patras, 66
+
+ Pelasgians, 41
+
+ Peloponnesus, 56
+
+ Pelorus, 315
+
+ Peñagache, 473
+
+ Peñas de Europa, 449
+
+ Peneus, 64, 113
+
+ Penha de Cintra, 489
+
+ Peniche, 483
+
+ Pentelicus, 47
+
+ Pergusa, 317
+
+ Perugia, 263, 282
+
+ Pesaro, 283
+
+ Pezo da Régoa, 477
+
+ Phanar, 102
+
+ Phenea, 63
+
+ Pheneus, 60
+
+ Phigalia, 68
+
+ Phlegrean Fields, 290
+
+ Phonia, 60
+
+ Piave, 191, 205
+
+ Pietra Mala, 194
+
+ Pindus, 45, 116
+
+ Pirnatza, 63
+
+ Pizzighettone, 360
+
+ Plasencia, 391
+
+ Po, River, 210
+
+ Po, Valley of, 189
+
+ Pomarão, 495
+
+ Pompeii, 301
+
+ Ponte de Lima, 479
+
+ Pontevedra, 459
+
+ Pontine Marshes, 267
+
+ Poros, 69
+
+ Portalegre, 495
+
+ Port Mahon, 427
+
+ Porto, 478
+
+ Portugal, 469
+
+ Potenza, 308
+
+ Pozzuoli, 290
+
+ Prato, 253
+
+ Prevesa, 125
+
+ Prisrend, 125
+
+ Procida, 291
+
+ Pruth, 159
+
+ Puigcerda, 435
+
+ Pylos, 66
+
+ Pyrenees, 429
+
+ Pyrgos, 67
+
+ Pytiuses, 424, 425
+
+ Queluz, 488
+
+ Rascia, 129
+
+ Ravenna, 228
+
+ Reggio, 294, 309
+
+ Reinosa Pass, 454
+
+ Reni, 169
+
+ Reno, 208
+
+ Rhium, 53
+
+ Rhodope, 135
+
+ Rias of Galicia, 454
+
+ Rimini, 222
+
+ Rioja, 448
+
+ Rio Tinto, 405
+
+ Riviera, 230
+
+ Rocca d’Anfo, 360
+
+ Rodosto, 108
+
+ Roman Campagna, 265
+
+ Rome, 274
+
+ Ronda, 413
+
+ Rosas, 437
+
+ Rota, 405
+
+ Rumania (Roumania), 155
+
+ Rumanians, 162
+
+ Rumili-kavak, 104
+
+ Ruphia, 63
+
+ Sado, 492
+
+ Sagres, 493
+
+ Saguntum, 423
+
+ Salamanca, 388, 389
+
+ Salamis, 56
+
+ Salerno, 302
+
+ Saloniki, 109
+
+ Salpi, 305
+
+ Salvaterra, 482
+
+ Samothrace, 96
+
+ San Fernando, 410
+
+ Sanlúcar, 400, 410
+
+ San Marino, 284
+
+ Santa Maura, 77
+
+ Santander, 448, 458
+
+ Santarem, 490
+
+ Santiago de Compostela, 460
+
+ Santoña, 458
+
+ Santorin, 72
+
+ São João da Foz, 479
+
+ Saragossa, 434
+
+ Sarayevo, 130
+
+ Sarno, 303
+
+ Sciacca, 330
+
+ Scutari, 115, 125, 180
+
+ Scyros, 70
+
+ Sebino, 200
+
+ Segovia, 389, 390
+
+ Segre, 431
+
+ Segura, 416, 417
+
+ Serbelloni, 201
+
+ Serchio, 242, 253
+
+ Serena, 391
+
+ Sereth, 159
+
+ Serra da Estrella, 474
+
+ Serra de Monchique, 492
+
+ Serra do Gerez, 474
+
+ Servia, 172
+
+ Servians, 119
+
+ Setúbal, 490
+
+ Seville, 409
+
+ Shil, 158
+
+ Sicily, 309
+
+ Sierra Morena, 395
+
+ Sierra Nevada, 396
+
+ Sil, 455
+
+ Silves, 495
+
+ Sobrarbe, 430
+
+ Sofia, 143
+
+ Soria, 387
+
+ Spain, 369
+
+ Spaniards, 373
+
+ Sparta, 68
+
+ Spartans, 65
+
+ Sperchius, 50
+
+ Spezia, 69, 237
+
+ Sphakiotes, 92
+
+ Spoleto, 282
+
+ Sporades, 70
+
+ St. Florent, 369
+
+ Stromboli, 333
+
+ Strymon, 136
+
+ St. Sebastian, 446
+
+ Stymphalus, 61
+
+ St. Yuste, 381
+
+ Styx, 57
+
+ Sulina, 138
+
+ Suliotes, 119
+
+ Sybaris, 308
+
+ Syra, 74
+
+ Syracuse, 327
+
+ Tafalla, 447
+
+ Tagliamento, 191, 205
+
+ Tagus, see Tajo and Tejo
+
+ Tajo, 383, 482
+
+ Talavera de la Reina, 391
+
+ Taranto, 307
+
+ Tarragona, 436
+
+ Tavira, 495
+
+ Tavogliere of Puglia, 286, 299
+
+ Taygetus, 58
+
+ Tejo, 482
+
+ Tempe, 111
+
+ Terni, 270, 282
+
+ Tharsis, 405
+
+ Thasos, 94
+
+ Thebes, 56
+
+ Thera, 72
+
+ Therapia, 103
+
+ Thermia, 71
+
+ Thermopylæ, 50
+
+ Thessaly, 98, 111
+
+ Thomar, 489
+
+ Thracia, 98
+
+ Tiber, 257, 268
+
+ Tierra de Campos, 385
+
+ Tirgovist, 170
+
+ Tirnova, 133
+
+ Tivoli, 271
+
+ Toledo, 390, 393
+
+ Tolosa, 447
+
+ Topino, 269
+
+ Torres Vedras, 483
+
+ Tortosa, 435
+
+ Trajan’s Wall, 161
+
+ Trani, 306
+
+ Transylvanian Alps, 157
+
+ Trapani, 326
+
+ Trasimeno, 264
+
+ Trichonis, 48
+
+ Tripolis, 66
+
+ Tripolitza, 66
+
+ Trujillo, 391
+
+ Tudela, 448
+
+ Turin, 224
+
+ Turkey in Europe, 87
+
+ Turkish Empire, 151
+
+ Turks, 147
+
+ Turnu Severinu, 170
+
+ Tuscans, 248
+
+ Tuscany, 239
+
+ Tuy, 459
+
+ Tyrrhenian Sea, 248
+
+ Ubeda, 407
+
+ Urbino, 283
+
+ Utrera, 409
+
+ Valdeon, 450
+
+ Valdoniello, 366
+
+ Valencia, 413, 419, 422
+
+ Valladolid, 388
+
+ Vardar, 135
+
+ Vendetta, 367
+
+ Venice, 202, 207, 229
+
+ Verbano, 197
+
+ Vergara, 447
+
+ Verona, 229
+
+ Vesuvius, 288, 291
+
+ Vianna do Castello, 479
+
+ Vigo, 459
+
+ Vilkof, 169
+
+ Villa do Conde, 479
+
+ Villanova de Portimão, 494
+
+ Villa Real, 480
+
+ Villa Real de Santo Antonio, 495
+
+ Vitosh, 132
+
+ Vizéu, 481
+
+ Vostitza, 67
+
+ Vóuga, 476
+
+ Vulcano, 332
+
+ Wallachians, 120, 162
+
+ Yalomitza, 161
+
+ Yanina, 116, 125
+
+ Yassy, 168
+
+ Yuruks, 107
+
+ Zamora, 388
+
+ Zante, 79
+
+ Zaragoza, 434
+
+ Zezere, 482
+
+ Zinzares, 114, 119
+
+ Zyria, 57
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+Original spelling and grammar have generally been retained, with some
+exceptions noted below. Footnotes have been converted to endnotes,
+inserted ahead of the Index, and renumbered 1–185. Original printed
+page numbers are shown like this: {52}. Original small caps are now
+uppercase. Italics look _like this_. Enlarged curly brackets } or {
+used as graphic devices to combine information on two or more lines
+of text have been eliminated. Ditto marks have been eliminated. The
+transcriber produced the cover image and hereby assigns it to the
+public domain. Illustrations originally printed within paragraphs
+of text have been moved to nearby locations between paragraphs.
+Original page images are available from archive.org — search for
+“earthitsinhabita01recl”.
+
+Page 5. There are two pages numbered 5, which are the last page of
+the Introductory Remarks—the latter is now {5a}—and the first page of
+Chapter I.
+
+Page 86. The number 44,557 at the end of the table was not printed
+clearly, and so could be erroneous in this edition.
+
+Page 93, Fig. 29. “1 : 2 470,000” to “1 : 2,470,000”.
+
+Page 104n. The note beginning “Length of the Bosphorus” had no anchor
+in the text. A new one has been placed on page 103, after “shores of
+Europe and Asia.”
+
+Page 152n. In the table, the row headings in the left columns were
+indented in the printed book in an unhelpful fashion. Of the three
+rows headed “Turkey in Europe”, “Turkey in Asia”, and “Tripoli, &c.”,
+the first represents the sum of the rows above, while the next two are
+independent, but all three were indented the same. In this edition, the
+row heading indents have been modified to more helpfully reflect the
+structure of the table.
+
+Page 166n. Changed the phrase “52,500 foreigners 30,000 Austrians,
+10,000 Greeks, 5,000 Germans, 1,500 French)” to “52,500 foreigners
+(30,000 Austrians, 10,000 Greeks, 5,000 Germans, 1,500 French)”.
+
+Page 223. “Quadilateral” to “Quadrilateral”.
+
+Page 238n. “Chiavari, 8 414” to “Chiavari, 8,414”.
+
+Page 280n. The number printed for the water supply of Washington, per
+inhabitant, is not clear, but might be 660, as rendered herein.
+
+Page 283n. “foriegn” to “foreign”.
+
+Page 284n. “Pesaro, 12, 75;”, where the blank shown here was not quite
+blank in the print, is changed to “Pesaro, 12,375;”, on weak evidence.
+
+Page 352n. “Cagliari, 31,9 5” is retained from the printed book.
+
+Page 470, Fig. 191. In the caption, the name rendered herein as
+“Jelinek” was not printed clearly.
+
+Page 491, Fig. 203. In the caption, “THOMAH” to “THOMAR”.
+
+Page 500. In the second table, the number “47·223” means forty-seven
+thousand two hundred twenty-three. This may be the only instance in
+this book of a middle dot used as a digit grouper, instead of a decimal
+mark.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Earth and its inhabitants, Volume
+1: Europe., by Élisée Reclus
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54760 ***
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