Prof. Hausmann's Sketches of' South European Nature, 32^ 



How great the influence is which the mountains of a country 

 really possess over all its other peculiarities, cannot easily be 

 made more striking than by a comparison between Spain and 

 Italy. Both countries extend themselves toward the south, 

 bounded by the same seas, and under not very different degrees 

 of latitude. The separation of both from the neighbouring parts 

 of the European continent, is by lofty mountain chains; and 

 mountains of great height elevate themselves throughout their 

 whole extent. But how different are the mountains of Spain 

 from those of Italy ? The following representation will suffice 

 to shew, that it is exactly the different constitution of the moun- 

 tains that causes the great dissimilarity exhibited in so many 

 respects by Spain and Italy*. 



ITALY 



The long and narrow chain of the Apennines, which, in its 

 general extent, is simple and uniform, and does not reach the 

 limit of perpetual snow, is, in the case of Italy, necessarily con- 

 nected with the long narrow shape of the country. And, like- 

 wise, the principal direction of the chain from north-west to- 

 wards the south-east, occasions the extension of the peninsula to 

 be similar. Where the mountain-chain is not divided, the sea- 

 coasts are in general parallel. Where, on the contrary, as at 

 the southern extremity, the mountains advance in two principal 

 ranges, the external limit of the country follows likewise this di- 

 vision. The upper part of the Apennines, together with the 

 Alps, encloses a hollow space, which may be regarded as a wide 

 valley, formed by the above mountain chains. The direction of 

 those ranges, and the manner of their union, prescribe the prin- 

 cipal direction of the largest Italian rivers, which is from west 

 to east. 



The plains, which stretch from the banks of these rivers to- 

 wards the mountains, and which plains are not much above the 

 level of the sea, and are watered by many small streams con- 

 nected with the rivers, are the only plains of any extent in 

 Italy, since the inclination of the Apennines towards the sea 

 permits no great space for flat land elsewhere. Numerous ri- 



• The sketch of Spain was communicated to us on a former occasion, and 

 is published in the 1st VoL of this Journal for 1830 — Edit. 



