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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 885 
Basilica; Pola, with its noble harbour, whence Belisarius sailed forth, now the chief 
naval port of the Austrian empire, with its Roman amphitheatre and graceful 
triumphal arches ; besides many other places of almost equal interest. Still further 
west aré Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands, all easily accessible from the 
coasts of France, Italy, and Spain. Their ports are constantly visited by mail 
steamers and private yachts, yet they are but little explored in the interior. 
Iam tempted to linger a little over one of the places I have just mentioned, 
and to devote more time to a physical and historical description of Corsica than I 
can spare for the Mediterranean generally. Itis replete with all that makes travel 
delightful—unequalled scenery, a brilliant climate, historical associations, and 
the study of a race of men who still retain their national peculiarities. The facilities 
for travelling are as great as can be fairly expected ; roads such as none but the 
French seem able to make, winding along steep coasts and over high mountains, 
plunging into the depths of shady valleys and amongst dark forests in search of 
what is so dear to a French engineer’s heart, a uniform gradient, and metalled 
with granite so hard that in the driest weather they are free from dust. I may 
add that I never failed to find sufficiently good accommodation and a kindly recep- 
tion in the smallest and most remote villages. 
Corsica has been compared in shape to a closed hand with the index finger 
extended, the latter being the promontory called Cap Corse. The island is 
traversed in its whole length by a chain of high mountains, the general direction of 
which is north and south, dividing it into two parts of nearly equal extent. Placed, 
as it is, in the centre of the Western Mediterranean, between the Alps and the 
Atlas, and with so great inequalities of surface, it presents an epitome of the whole 
region from the warm sea-level to the Alpine character of the interior, where the 
mountains rise to a height of nearly 9,000 feet, and are clothed in snow during the 
greater part of the year. 
All the western coast, and more than two-thirds of the whole island, are of 
granitic formation. The central range throws out spurs towards the sea, forming 
on the western side numerous bays of considerable size and depth. Nothing can 
exceed the grandeur of the scenery on the coast which culminates in the celebrated 
Calanches de Piana, a succession of stupendous granite rocks worn and hollowed 
out in the most fantastic manner, fearful in their forms but soft and lovely in their 
colouring. There are many similar rocks throughout the island, such as the 
Calanches d’Evisa, the Fourches d’Asinao, and the Gorge of Inzeca, where a river 
flows between great cliffs and amongst boulders of green serpentine, a sight never 
to be forgotten. 
The eastern side of the island consists of primary rocks, more or less easily dis- 
integrated, the detritus being washed down by rains, so as to form the low plains 
bordering that coast. As the rivers force their way through them with difficulty, 
marshes and lagoons are created. These are hotbeds of malarious fever in summer, 
dangerous even for the natives, who migrate to the hills at that season. 
The forests, the great glory of the island, consist chiefly of oak, beech, birch, and 
the Pinus laricio, indigenous to Corsica, and the monarch of European conifers, 
which rises as straight as an arrow, sometimes to a height of 120 or 150 feet. 
The Castagniccia, or country of the chestnut, is an extensive and very beautiful 
district, especially when the trees are in full leaf. The fruit is more useful to the 
people who inhabit the district than even the date to the Arab. He has to culti- 
vate his palm trees laboriously, irrigate them in summer, and pick the fruit with 
the greatest care. The chestnut demands no such attention; it grows spon- 
_ taneously, requires no cultivation, and the fruit falls of itself when sufficiently ripe. 
It is the staple food of the people, who eat it inevery form, even giving it to their 
cattle instead of grain, while the sale of the surplus furnishes them with the other 
necessaries of life. 
After the forests the most pleasing feature in the island, and covering more 
than half its surface, is the macchie, or brushwood, before mentioned, spreading its 
delicious perfume through the air and lighting up the landscape with a blaze of 
colour. There is also a constant succession of wild flowers, liliaceous plants, 
orchids, cyclamen, and many others. In one pine wood I saw the ground carpeted 
