528 THE TUSCAN MAREMMS. 
Improvements in the Tuscan Maremma. 
In the improvements of the Tuscan Maremma, formidable 
difficulties have been encountered. The territory to be re- 
claimed was extensive; the salubrious places of retreat for 
laborers and inspectors were remote; the courses of the rivers 
to be controlled were long and their natural inclination not 
rapid ; some of them, rising in wooded regions, transported 
comparatively little earthy matter,* and above all, the coast, 
more injurious than either alone, is not altogether clear. It has been sug- 
gested that the admission of sait-water to the lagoons and rivers kills many 
fresh-water plauts and animals, while the fresh water is equally fatal to many 
marine organisms, and that the decomposition of the remains originates 
poisonous miasmata. Other theories, however, have been proposed. The 
whole subject is fully and ably discussed by Dr. Salvagnoli Marchetti in the 
appendix to his valuable Rapporto sul Bonificamento delle Maremme Toscane. 
See also the Wemorie Hconomico-Statistiche sulle Maremme Toscane, of the same 
author. A different view of this subject is taken by RAFFANINI and OR- 
LANDINI in Analisi, Storico- Fisico-Economica sul? insalubrita nelle Maremme 
Toscané, Firenze, 1869. See also the important memoir of D. PANTALEONT, 
Del Miasma vegetale e delle Malattie Miasmatiche, in which the views of Sal- 
vagnoli on this point are combated. 
* This difficulty has been remedied—though with doubtful general advan- 
tage—as to one important river of the Maremma, the Pecora, by clearings 
recently executed along its upper course. ‘‘ The condition of this marsh and 
of its afiluents are now, November, 1859, much changed, and it is advisable 
to prosecute its improvement by deposits. In consequence of the extensive 
felling of the woods upon the plains, hills, and mountains of the territory of 
Massa and Scarlino, within the last ten years, the Pecora and other afllu- 
ents of the marsh receive, during the rains, water abundantly charged with 
slime, so that the deposits within the first division of the marsh are already 
considerable, and we may now hope to see the whole marsh and pond filled 
up in a much shorter time than we had a right to expect before 1850. This 
circumstance totally changes the terms of the question, because the filling of 
the marsh and pond, which then seemed almost impossible on account of the 
small amount of sediment deposited by the Pecora, has now become practica- 
ble.”—SALVAGNOLI, Rapporto sul Bonificamento delle Maremme Toscane, pp. 
li., lii. 
Between 1830 and 1859 more than 35,000,000 cubic yards of sediment were 
deposited in the marsh and shoal-water lake of Castiglione alone.—SALVAG- 
NOLI, Ltaccolta di Documenti, pp. 74, 79. 
