156 « EEPORT — 1873. 



been coutended for so often by more poor invaders ? Then, descending into Italy 

 proper, we find tbe complexity of its geography quite in accordance with its 

 manifold political divisions. It is not one central ridge of mountains, leaving a 

 broad belt of level country on either side between it and the sea ; nor yet is it a 

 clear rising immediately from the sea on one side, like the Andes in South America, 

 leaving room therefore on the other side for wide plains of tableland, and for 

 rivers with a sufficient length of course to become at last great and navigable. It 

 is a backbone thickly set with spines of unequal length, interlacing with each other 

 in a maze almost inextricable. Speaking generally, then, Italy is made up of an 

 infinite midtitude of valleys pent in between high and steep hills, each forming a 

 country to itself, and cut off by natural barriers from the others. Its several parts 

 are isolated by nature, and no art of man can thoroughly unite them. Even the 

 various provinces of the same kiugdom are strangers to each other. The Abruzzi 

 are like an unknown world to the inhabitant of Naples." This is what Dr. Arnold 

 meant by a " real and lively knowledge of geography," which brings the whole 

 character of a country before our eyes, and enables us to understand its influence 

 upon the social and political condition of its inhabitants. 



But such is the rapid progress of science and man's triumphs over nature, that 

 the tunnel through Mont Cenis, or Fell's railroad over it, and the railroad which 

 now pierces the Apennines and imites the eastern and western coasts of Italy, 

 aided by telegraphic wires, already falsify Arnold's conclusion that no art of man 

 can thoroughly unite regions so separated. And the infjuence these achievements 

 must have over the unification of Italj', and the progress of civilization throughout 

 the peninsula, can hardly be exaggerated. 



Persia at the present day offers another striking illustration of the influence of 

 physical causes on the progress of civilization and the destiny of nations. Apart 

 irom the consequences of ages of misrule, its physical geography has exercised a 

 very adverse influence upon the country. Persia suffers from a great deficiency 

 of rainfall ; and although an immense supply of water comes from the mountains 

 by the rains and the melting of the snow, it is lost in the plains and wasted, if not 

 before, at least as soon as it reaches the great salt desert about twenty miles frona 

 Teheran. With the prevailing insufficiency of the rainfall on the plains them- 

 selves the whole country is becoming sterile ; but if the abundant supply from the 

 mountains could be intercepted before it reached the lower ground and collected 

 into reservoirs, it might then be distributed by irrigation over the whole face of 

 the land and play the same part as the Zarafshan or " Gold-scatterer" (so called for 

 its fertilizing powers) in the rich cidtivation of Bokhara. Perhaps this may not 

 prove beyond the power of Baron Renter to accomplish, aided by aU the science 

 and some of the capital of Europe. What further changes he may be enabled to 

 efl'ect by the introduction of railroads and telegraphic lines for facilitating trade 

 and rapid communication, we may soon be in a position to speak from actual 

 experience ; for it is stated in the public prints that the proposed railway between 

 Teheran and Resht is to be commenced at once, and that the plant has already 

 left England. More extended operations are, it is understood, contemplated to 

 the south of Teheran to Ispahan, and from thence to the Persian Gulf — perhaps 

 also to the Turkish frontier. The former will open a direct line to India, and the 

 latter to the Mediterranean, should the Turkish Government be willing to work in 

 concert. Who can calculate the revolution in the whole aspect of the countiy 

 and its life-sustaining powers, if a whole series of such measures should be carried 

 through at once ? 



The part which Russia plays in the history of Europe and Asia, and the future 

 which may yet be reserved for that Empire, is more a matter of physical geo- 

 graphy than of politics or of policy, if we look to determining causes. What 

 cpuld Russia do, frozen in between two seas and with closed ports for more than 

 six months in each year, but, guided by an infallible instinct (often exemplified in 

 nations as in individuals), stretch out feelers towards the open waters and more 

 genial climates ? We have heard much of Russia's destiny driving her southwards 

 to the B:isphorus, and eastward in the same parallel over the rich valleys of Central 

 and Tropic Asia ; but is it not a geographical necessity, far more than a political 

 ambition, which has thus far driven her across the whole breadth of Asia until she 



