4 HENRY S. WASHINGTON 



2.5 kilometers, the greatest length diagonally from northwest to 

 southeast being 3.5 kilometers. Its total area is about 6.5 square 

 kilometers. On the map of the island as given in Fig. i, the contour 

 lines are only approximate and give merely a rough idea of the 

 topography. 



Fig. I. — Island of Linosa. 



Linosa is dry in the extreme, not a single spring being found on 

 the island, and the water supply being dependent on the rains, which 

 are collected from the fiat roofs and preserved in cisterns. At the 

 time of my visit the island was favored with the first rain in five 

 months, and the inhabitants were reduced to a daily ration of two 

 liters of water apiece, a supply having had to be brought by a govern- 

 ment vessel from Sicily. The greater part of the surface, where it is 

 not bare lava and tuff, is covered with sterile sand and ashes, and in 

 the few cultivatable areas, which are fenced in with opuntia cactus 



