LA CAVERNA DI GABROVIZZA PRESSO TRIESTE 



DEL 



Dr. Carlo Marchesetti. 



sono che pochi anni che 1' illustre Riccardo 

 | Burton, pubblicando un lavoro sulla preistoria 

 istriana, esprimevasi nel modo seguente : „I had 

 always doubted, despite the robust belief of my 

 friend Luciani, that a race of cave-dwellers would be found 

 in this region. As a rule the troglodyte affects climates which 

 are either very hot and rainless, as near the Red Sea, or colei, 

 as in the north of France. Moreaver, cave-dwellers do not, 

 even in our day, readily give up their cheap and confortable 

 abodes ; this may be seen throughout La Beance, and even at 

 Saint Cime, within an hour' s railway-travel from Paris. Again, 

 the perpetuai infiltration of rain, which doubtless was more 

 abundant in the days before Istria-land was disforested, must 

 have made them damp and malarious, in fact very uncom- 

 fortable compared with those of the chalk. The essenti ally 

 temperate cimiate of the fair peninsula, also, would suggest 

 subaerial habitations and it offered peculiar facilities for buil- 

 ding; limestones whose naturai fracture saves the trouble of 

 blasting and cutting, and abundance of wood for the rude 

 wigwam. Finally, the large number of the pre-historic or 

 proto-historic „Castellieri", which may amount to a score in the 



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