401 



APENNINES. 



APPENZELL. 



402 





which contains a deposit of rolled pebbles, heaped together without 

 any order, with fossil bones in the lower part of the mass, and covering 

 a blue micaceous clay, which is interspersed with bones and beds of 

 lignite. In the valley of the Middle Arno the same clay is covered by 

 rolled pebbles, fine and coarse sand, and bones have been found in all the 

 beds. A little lower down, near 1'Incisa, there are the same deposits 

 of clay and sand, but the pebbles are wanting ; these last are larger in 

 size and more numerous in proportion as they are nearer the secondary 

 rocks of Vallombrosa, in the upper part of the valley, from which 

 they have been derived. These deposits rise considerably above the 

 present bed of the Arno ; they contain no fossil marine productions 

 whatsoever, their shells belonging exclusively to fresh water. The 

 most extraordinary circumstance connected with this lacustrine 

 deposit in the very centre of the Apennines, is the enormous quantity 

 of the bones of great quadrupeds belonging to warm climates, some 

 of them the inhabitants of swamps, and all of extinct species, such as 

 the mastodon, elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. Besides these 

 greater animals, bones have been found of bears, hyaenas, an animal 

 like the panther, wolves, boars, tapirs, horses, buffaloes, oxen, and 

 stags. " In winter," says Mr. Lyell, " the superficial degradation of 

 the soil is so rapid, that bones, which the year before were buried, are 

 seen to project from the surface of the soil, and are described by the 

 peasants as growing. In this manner the tips of the horns of stags, 

 or of the tusks of hippopotamuses often appear on the surface, and 

 thus lead to the discovery of an entire head or skeleton." 



Besides the great lacustrine deposit just noticed, there are others of 

 a like nature, such as at Cadibona near Savona, where strata of gravel, 

 sand, and clay, are associated with several seams of lignite or brown 

 coal, from 2 to 6 feet in thickness, the whole deposit exceeding 800 

 feet in depth. In the midst of the coal-beds have been found entire 

 jaws and other bones of an extinct quadruped of the pachydermatous 

 tribe, called by Cuvier Anthracotherium, the bone itself being 

 changed into a kind of coal. 



The volcanic district connected with the Apennines is bounded on 

 the south by Cape Campanella, and on the north by the river 

 Ombrone, which enters the sea a little to the south of the island of 

 Elba; the distance between those limits is about 230 miles. Its 

 greatest breadth, which is about 40 miles, is at Radicofani on the high 

 road between Siena and Rome, a volcanic mountain 3060 feet high. 

 Volcanic action has long ceased in every part of this district, except 

 at its southern extremity ; and there are no historical records of that 

 action, except with respect to Vesuvius and the country immediately 

 contiguous. The volcanic matter which covers the country is mostly 

 in the state of ashes and cinders, either loose or agglutinated together, 

 forming what the Italians call tufa ; but there have been also 

 eruptions of solid lava in many places, which are now seen in the 

 form of beds and cliffs of hard rock, as in the Alban and the Ciminian 

 hills. The Apennine limestone and tertiary formations rise up in many 

 place* from beneath the volcanic products, and in other places they 

 are covered by fresh-water deposits which have been formed since the 

 eruptions ceased. The country round Rome is overspread with 

 volcanic matter, and the seven hills themselves are composed of the 

 same materials lying above marine tertiary formations. The volcanic 

 products are found high up among the sinuosities of the Apennine 

 valleys. They alternate in many situations with the tertiary marine 

 deposits, and elephants' bones have been found at considerable depths 

 imbedded in the tufa. Marine shells are contained in the tufa or 

 volcanic ashes on the summit of Monte Cavo, the ancient Alban Mount, 

 at an elevation of more than 3000 feet above the sea. Mount 

 Vesuvius and the great volcanic district which surrounds it will be 

 noticed under VESUVIUS. Mount Vultur in Apulia, near the Ofanto, 

 is the only volcanic district on the eastern side of the Apennines : the 

 town of Melfi, situated at its northern base, and Venosa, to the 

 south-east of it, were almost totally destroyed by an earthquake in 

 August of 1851. 



We have alluded to deposits still newer than the volcanic ejections ; 

 these are of fresh-water formation, and are an important feature in 

 the physical structure of the country. They are composed of sands, 

 clays, and marls, and of the solid stone called travertine, a corruption 

 of the ancient name for it, namely Tibwrtinum, because it was found 

 in great abundance near the town of Tibur. All these deposits 

 contain lacustrine shells, particularly such as frequent stagnant 

 waters. The travertino is a deposit from water holding carbonate of 

 lime in solution by means of the carbonic acid which is common in 

 spring waters ; by exposure to air the carbonic acid escapes, and the 

 carbonate of lime is deposited : such springs abound in many parts 

 of central Italy within the volcanic region. In some parts of Tuscany 

 the slanting sides of hills, are covered with travertino. At Vignone, 

 near Radicofani, a spring has deposited a series of strata to the depth 

 of 200 feet, and the stone is so compact as to form an excellent 

 material for architectural purposes. At San Filippo the water is so 

 highly charged with calcareous matter, that a hard stratum of stone, 

 a foot in thickness, is obtained in four months, and there is a deposit 

 of it a mile and a quarter in length, a third of a mile in breadth, and 

 in some places 250 feet thick. There are vast formations of travertino 

 at Tivoli, and quarries of it at Ponte Leucano in th^ neighbourhood, 

 which have supplied the materials for some of the most splendid 

 edifices of ancient and modern Rome. Travertino, containing fresh- 



OEOO. DIV. VOL. I. 



water and land shells, some of which are identical with the snails 

 now common in the gardens of Rome, forms thick solid beds on the 

 Aventine Hill above half a mile in length ; and fresh-water deposits 

 are found at the height of 150 feet above the Tiber on the Esquiline 

 Hill. In many places they contain the bones of elephants and other 

 land animals. 



The geological structure o the Apennines indicates a series of great 

 changes in the physical constitution of Italy. It is an established 

 principle in geology that all stratified rocks containing marine remains 

 must have been originally deposited at the bottom of the sea in a 

 horizontal or nearly horizontal position, and the inclined strata of the 

 Apennines must therefore have been upheaved from the bed of the 

 ocean ; it is probable that they were at the same time raised some 

 thousand feet above the surface of the water, forming a long tongue 

 of land, or a chain of islands. The rocks of which they are composed 

 must have been afterwards in part broken and abraded, to supply the 

 materials of the conglomerates and other tertiary formations now 

 found at their base, for in all these the parent rock is recognisable in 

 the rounded pebbles. These materials must have been washed down 

 into the adjoining seas, together with remains of plants and of the 

 animals which inhabited the land, where they formed stratified 

 deposits, inclosing, during the process of consolidation, shells and 

 other marine bodies. By a renewal of the internal elevating force 

 these deposits were in their turn upheaved to form the Subapeunine 

 hills, and at the same time the central mountain-chain must have 

 been raised to a greater height, greater extension must have been 

 given to the land, the islands disappearing as the lower parts of the 

 mountains, of which they formed the summits, rose more and more 

 above the surface of the water. But during the time that those 

 tertiary formations were in progress, there must have been submarine 

 volcanoes at work, which from time to time spread their ejections over 

 the bed of the sea, and thus they became interstratified with the 

 materials pouring down from the land. There must then have ensued 

 a renewal of the upheaving force, and the effect of that, whether by 

 sudden or by continued gradual elevation during a long period, 

 amounted to a raising of the land at least 3000 feet, for marine shells 

 are imbedded in the volcanic tufa of the Alban Mount at that height 

 above the present level of the Mediterranean. This elevating process 

 must have taken place subsequently to the ejection from the sub- 

 marine volcanoes of the ashes and tufa which cover the country more 

 or less on the western side of the Apennines, from Tuscany to the 

 borders of Calabria; for they are for the most part arranged in 

 regular stratified beds and contain marine shells. The new land thus 

 laid bare must in process of time have become covered with vegetation, 

 flourishing in a climate suited to the rhinoceros, elephant, and hippo- 

 potamus, which, with numerous other animals belonging to species 

 now extinct, and of kinds now unknown in Italy, must have roamed 

 there in vast numbers. In this state of things parts of the country 

 must have been covered by vast lakes of fresh water, for lacustrine 

 deposits are met with at intervals nearly over the whole peninsula. 

 Subsequently to this epoch other great revolutions must have taken 

 place when the barriers of these lakes were broken down, and when 

 the erosions of torrents and denudations of floods fashioned the 

 surface of the country into those forms which it now presents. 



APENRADE, a sea-port in the Danish province of Schleswig, 

 situated at the head of an inlet of the Little Belt, 37 miles N. from 

 Schleswig, in 55 2' 57" N. lat., 9 26' 45" E. long. : population, 4000. 

 It is beautifully situated in a deep valley, screened by wooded hills. 

 The town, which is defended by a castle, has sea-baths, and cotton- 

 print works, distilleries, breweries, and tan-yards; the export of 

 agricultural produce, ship-building, the transit trade, and the fisheries, 

 employ a good many hands. About 76 vessels belong to the pr".-t, 

 nearly one-half of which are engaged in the Brazilian trade. The 

 harbour is shallow, and the shipping therefore are moored about a 

 hundred yards below the bridge. Its open roadstead is unsafe in 

 winter time. 



APIPE, an island in the river Parana, above its confluence with 

 the Paraguay, situated near 27 30' S. lat., 46 40' W. long. It is of 

 considerable extent, and remarkable for being the {Jrst place in 

 South America, from Cape Horn, which is overgrown with high 

 timber-trees. It accordingly supplies with this article the countries 

 lying south of it, especially the Province of La Plata. The Parana 

 is navigable for vessels of 200 tons burden up to this island, and a 

 considerable number ascend for timber. 



APOLDA. [SAXE-WEIMAR EISENACH.] 



APOLLONIATIS LAKE. [ANATOLIA.] 



APPALACHE BAY. [FLORIDA.] 



APPALACHICOLA. [GEORGIA, STATE OP.] 



APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. [ALLEQHAJJY MOUNTAINS.] 



APPENZELL, a canton in the north-east of Switzerland, inclosed 

 on all sides by the canton of St. Gall, lies between 47 15' and 47 28' 

 N. lat., 9 10' and 9 35' E. long. Its greatest length from south-west 

 to north-east is 20 miles. The western portion of the canton for about 

 10 miles of the length has a breadth of 15 miles, but the eastern 

 portion consists of a projection only 4J miles in average width. The 

 total area is 152 square miles, and the population according to the 

 census of March, 1850, was 54,869, which gives an average of 359'66 

 to the square mile. 



2 D 



