3S8 Prof. Hausinann's Sketches of South European Nature. 



vers run on both sides of the mountains towards the sea, and 

 afford in most districts a plentiful supply of water ; but they 

 also occasionally form marshes over considerable tracts of coun- 

 try. In this part of Italy only a few rivers, as the Arno and 

 Tiber, have a course of much length, and thus afford a large 

 and valuable supply of water. 



From the limited breadth of Italy, and the generally uniform 

 external condition of the chain of the Apennines, we might be 

 led to expect a similarity among the various other natural ob- 

 jects of the country. There is, however, no small variety, which 

 is effected chiefly by means of the peculiar relations of the 

 mountain range. The chain of the Apennines differs essen- 

 tially in the following respect, from most other great mountain 

 ranges — the system of the rocky strata does not extend in the 

 direction of the chain, and the changes among their formations 

 do not thoroughly correspond with the transverse section of the 

 strata.* 



The high land of the Apennines which terminates at the Sea 

 Alps, and extends from thence into Tuscany, without material- 

 ly differing from the Alps in geological characters, consists, 

 as regards the principal mass, of various older rocks, which 

 are partly crystalline. The mountains in Southern Calabria 

 likewise shew a similar composition. On the contrary, the mid- 

 dle, and by far the largest part of the chain, is in a high degree 

 uniform, as regards its internal composition ; the principal mass 

 consisting of only one rock formation, and this is a white 

 limestone, which appears to be without any striking variations. 

 From this distribution of the mountain formations, it follows, 

 that the Upper Apennines, like their southern extremity, differ 

 from the principal middle divisions, in the forms of the moun- 

 tains, as well as in those of the valleys. The principal eleva- 

 tions belong to the calcareous formation ; for the limestone sum- 

 mit of Abruzza, according to the measurement of Schouw, 

 reaches to a height of nearly 9000 feet above the level of the 



• The author says, I have taken notice of this unusual relation in a publi- 

 cation of mine, entitled " Commentatio de Apenninorum constitutione geo- 

 gnostica," (to be found, like that mentioned in the last note, in the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society of Gottingen), and wait for a new opportunity of 

 beiog able more exactly to develope the geological appearances referred to. 



