ON TttE ALLUVIUM OF THE PC. 



During four centuries, from the end of the twelfth to 

 that of the sixteenth, the alluvial formations of the Po 

 gained considerably upon the sea. The northern mouth, 

 which had usurped the situation of the Mazzorno canal, 

 becoming the Rama di Trimontana, had advanced in 

 1600 to the distance of 20,000 metres * from the meri- 

 dian of Adria ; and the southern mouth, which had ta- 

 ken possession of the canal of Toi, was then 17,000 me- 

 tres ( advanced beyond the same point. Thus the shore 

 had become extended nine or ten thousand metres J to 

 the north, and six or seven thousand to the south . Be- 

 tween these two mouths there was formerly a bay, or a 

 part of the coast less advanced than the rest, called Sac- 

 ca di Goro. During the same period of four hundred 

 years previous to the commencement of the seventeenth 

 century, the great and extensive embankments of the Po 

 were constructed ; and also, during the same period, the 

 southern slopes of the Alps began to be cleared and cul- 

 tivated. 



The great canal, denominated Taglio di Porto Viro^ 

 or Podelle Fornaci, ascertains the advance of the alluvial 

 depositions in the vast promontory now formed by the 

 mouths or delta of the Po. In proportion as their en- 

 trances into the sea extend from the original land* the 

 yearly quantity of alluvial depositions increases in an 

 alarming degree, owing to the diminished slope of the 



Or 21,872 yards TransL 



|Or 18,591 yards. Transl. 



$ Equal to 9,842 or 10,936 yards Transl 



Equal to 6,564 or 7,655 yards Transl. 



