760 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 73. 



The city of Ferrara has seen its best daj^s; 

 its population once numbering 100,000 has 

 now dwindled away to less than 30,000, 

 while great stretches of land within the 

 walls are now quite deserted or used as 

 kitchen gardens. The broad and ample 

 streets and fine squares, as well as the noble 

 cathedral, the numerous palaces and the 

 great castle of the House of Este, however, 

 serve to remind us of the former greatness 

 of the city, with which are so intimately as- 

 sociated a number of the most distinguished 

 names in Italian history, Savonarola, 

 Ariosto and Tasso among the number. 



The city is situated in the middle of the 

 great plain of lower Lombardy, which so 

 far as the eye can judge, is absolutely flat 

 and which here is only six and a-half feet 

 above sea level. The walls of the city, 

 built of brick — for no good building stone is 

 to be had in the alluvial plains in this vici- 

 nity — -rise abruptly from the plain and are 

 of no great height. 



The plain all about Ferrara is very fertile, 

 well cultivated and of extreme beauty, being 

 intersected at regular intervals by long 

 lines of poplars and pollarded elms fes- 

 tooned with vines, which also border the 

 roads and separate the meadows and great 

 fields of grain and hemp. The roads cross- 

 ing the plains are well made and are raised 

 considerably above its general surface, thus 

 keeping them dry and in good condition. 



The river Po, however, does not pass 

 through the city of Ferrara, although it 

 formerly passed near the city and in this 

 vicinity branched, forming the Po Primario, 

 whose mouth was at Eavenna, and the Po 

 Volano, which debouched into the northern 

 portion of lagoon of Comacchio. In the 

 year 1152, however, the river broke through 

 its dykes at Stellata, twelve miles and a 

 half northeast of Ferrara and took a new 

 course in the direction of the Venetian la- 

 goons, which course, with some minor modi- 

 fications, it has retained to the present time. 



By this change the Po Primario and the Po 

 Volano were deprived of a great portion of 

 their water, and the main stream now 

 passes three miles and a half to the north 

 of Ferrara, where it is crossed by the rail- 

 way to Padua, at the little town of Ponte 

 Lago Scuro, a busy little place, which is the 

 chief port On the lower reaches of Po and 

 which is connected by a bridge of boats with 

 S. M. Maddelena, a village on the opposite 

 bank of the river. 



On approaching Ponte Lago Scuro from 

 Ferrara the dykes which confine the river 

 are first seen, crossing the flat country like 

 a wall. The road at Ponte Lago Scuro is 

 carried by a long incline nearly to the top 

 of the dyke, the upper portion of which is 

 cut through to allow the road to pass, and 

 then by a steep descent on the inner side of 

 the dyke the bridge of boats is reached, 

 after crossing, which, by a steep rise and 

 then a gentle descent, the plain bej^ond the 

 river is once more gained. 



The Po at this point is 285 yards wide, 

 with a swift current sweeping rapidly by 

 the boats, and the water at the time of my 

 visit was very turbid from suspended mud, 

 although it did not appear so turbid as the 

 Arno at Florence or Pisa, and certainly not 

 so muddy as the Missouri at Bismarck. 



Watching it from the bridge as it sweeps 

 by already near the sea and far from its 

 source on Monte Viso, carrying great quan- 

 tities of leaves, masses of weeds and branches 

 of trees floating on its surface, a very vivid 

 impression of the work which is being ac- 

 complished bj' the river is obtained. Al- 

 though nothing in the way of actual erosion 

 can be seen, no mountains or rising ground 

 anywhere breaking the monotony of the 

 plains. The long sand bars, seen from the 

 top of the dykes, in the wider stretches of 

 the river just above Ponte Lago Scuro, 

 show that in flood time a large quantity of 

 material too heavy to be carried in suspen- 

 sion is swept along. 



