the Capitol; and at the close of that period we are hurried with startling rapidity into the heart of every country, from the Atlantic to the mountains of Asia Minor, from the ridges of the Alps to the plains that lie beneath Mount Atlas. But since the origin and composition of the people whom we call Romans depends upon the early state and population of Italy at large, and since in course of time all Italians became Romans, it will be well to follow the usual custom, and begin with a geographical sketch of the Italian Peninsula.

§ 2. This Peninsula, the central one of the three which stretch boldly forward from the southern coasts of Europe, lies nearly between the parallels of north latitude 38° and 46°. Its length therefore, measured along a meridian arc, ought to be about 550 miles. But since, unlike the other two Mediterranean Peninsulas, it runs in a direction nearly diagonal to the lines of latitude and longitude, its real LENGTH, measured from Mont Blanc to Cape Spartivento, is somewhat more than 700 miles.

§ 3. To estimate the BREADTH of this long and singularlyshaped Peninsula, it may conveniently be divided into two parts by a line drawn across from the mouths of the Po to the northern point of Etruria. Below this line the average breadth of the leg of Italy does not much exceed 100 miles. Above this line, both coasts trend rapidly outwards, so that the upper portion forms an irregularly-shaped figure, which lies across the top of the leg, being bounded on the north and west by the Alpine range from Illyria to the mouth of the Var, on the south by the imaginary line before drawn and the coast of the Gulf of Genoa, and on the east by the head of the Adriatic Sea. The length of this figure from east to west is not less than 350 miles; while from north to south it measures, on the average, about 120 miles.

§ 4. The SURFACE of the whole Peninsula, including both the leg of Italy and the irregular figure at the top, is estimated at about 90,000 square miles, or an area nearly equal to the surface of Great Britain and Ireland.

But a very large proportion of this surface is unproductive, and a great part even incapable of tillage.

§ 5. The reason of this difference between the actual extent

of the Peninsula and its productive surface is to be found in its PHYSICAL STRUCTURE, which is so remarkable as to invite an attempt to describe it in the shortest and simplest manner compatible with clearness. The Physical Geography of a country is indeed the key to a great portion of its History, and explains the very fact of its existence. Mountains which lift their heads above the waves and storms form the indestructible core of some countries destined by Providence to play a large part in the history of the world, while others are spread out in broad and swelling plains equally indestructible. The hard limestone of the Apennine range has alone enabled the long and slender Italian Peninsula to be the cradle of those political, social, and ecclesiastical institutions which are inseparably attached to the name of Rome. If the masses thrown into that singular shape had been composed of soft or loose materials, they had been swept away by the joint action of wind and water, and the names of Italy and of Rome had been unknown.

§ 6. For the purpose of description we must again divide Italy into two portions, as before for the purpose of measurement. The former portion consists of the enormous valley enclosed between the Alps on the north and the upper range of the Apennines on the south; a valley which may be represented as an irregular triangle, having its base upon the Adriatic, and gradually thinning off towards the Maritime Alps. The latter portion is formed by that lower part of the Apennine range which runs down the whole leg of Italy.

§ 7. In the former portion a gigantic ridge of Granite rocks has burst through the superincumbent formations, and sweeps in an irregular curve from the Tyrol to the Gulf of Genoa. On the southern flank of this Granite ridge reclines an enormous mass of the most Ancient Limestone, of that kind which has been called the Jura Formation. Appearing first near the Lago Maggiore, it attains its greatest breadth between Verona and Belluno, and then again thins off towards the Tyrol. This Ancient Limestone dips towards the south, and disappears beneath a thin and broken edge of the more Recent Limestone rocks, which are analogous to what is called the

In the Map over the leaf the division is, by the requirement of the printer, made considerably lower down.

Chalk Formation in England and France, though in Italy the Chalk itself is nowhere found. Thus, from the Lago Maggiore eastward, the great valley of the Po is skirted on the north by the two Limestone systems, with the Granite coming from beneath them. But westward, from the Lago Maggiore to the Maritime Alps, the Limestones disappear altogether, and the alluvial plain abuts upon the primæval Granite itself.

§ 8. The southern boundary of this great valley now remains to be examined. It is formed, as we have said, by the upper part of the Apennine range, which strikes nearly across Italy from above Genoa to the sources of the Rubicon and the Tiber. From beneath the southern edge of the alluvial plain first appears a band of the Tertiary rocks, which hardly show themselves on its northern edge. From below them again emerges in immense proportions the more Recent Limestone, which here

d Creta is not chalk, but a tenacious white earth, much the same as argilla.

covers the Jura formation, and forms the entire surface of that part of the Apennines. The Granite, unable to burst its way through, has contented itself with upheaving the superincumbent mass of Limestone, while the Tertiary strata have been broken up and almost swept away.

§ 9. In the vast sweeping hollow or basin embraced by the northern and southern elevation of the Limestone mountains, that is, in the space between the Alps and Apennines, lies the great alluvial plain formed by the atoms washed down through all time by the thousand streams which descend from the Alps upon the north and west, and from the Apennines on the south, all at length combining their waters in the mighty stream of the Eridanus. These waters, charged with particles of every kind of rock through which they flow, from the Granite to the Tertiary, form a soil hardly equalled in the world for natural richness. Near the mountains, indeed, where the streams

§ 10. We now turn to the leg of Italy, which consists of the lower range of Apennines, with its manifold branches and offshoots. Near the sources of the Rubicon and Tiber the more Recent Limestone has suffered a violent disruption, and falls off right and left, so as to display a huge mass of the Ancient Limestone. The two formations, the Ancient flanked on both sides by the more Recent, edged by narrow bands of Tertiary remains, continue their course flowing down the leg of Italy, gradually inclining towards the instep, till, at the point where the gulf of Tarentum threatens to penetrate to the Sicilian sea, the wild country of the Bruttii rises in primæval Granite.

§ 11. A line drawn from Ancona to Cape Argentaro gives the greatest breadth of these Limestone formations; and a little lower down, a fragment of the more Recent kind, left like an island upon the uplifted shoulders of the Ancient, presents the loftiest mountain of the Apennine range, Monte Corno or the Gran Sasso d'Italia, which attains an elevation of nearly 10,000 English feet. On the southern coast, from above the lake of Bolsena in Tuscany to the beautiful bay of Salerno, the regular geological series is broken up by a large tract of comparatively recent Volcanic country, which is interrupted between Latium and Campania by Ancient Limestone hills.

§ 12. On the northern flank of the Limestone range appears a belt of Tertiary formation, which spreads out wider, as the Limestone inclines towards the south, till it attains its greatest breadth along the western and northern sides of the gulf of Tarentum. But the Limestone formations, after sinking towards the Adriatic, again appear in the isolated eminence of Mount Garganus, the spur of Italy, and along the heel from Canusium to the Iapygian headland.

§ 13. This description of the physical structure of the Italian Peninsula will enable us to comprehend by a very brief glance its chief GEOGRAPHICAL features. Deep gulfs and inlets are not to be expected; for these are only found when mountainchains jut out into the sea, and maintain themselves as headlands, while the lower land between is eaten and washed away

• There is, however, one complete gap or severance in the chain, which is nearly marked by a line drawn from Capua to Venusia.