Italian Irrigation. 
Ill 
nificent scenery, writes Colonel Baird Smitt, " the perception 
of its exquisite beauty or feeling of its imposing grandeur will 
not be deadened by the utilitarian reflection that the whole great 
masses of mountain and lake are linked together as the most im- 
portant elements of that hydraulic machinery on which the busy 
scene of agricultural life and progress in the rich plains below is 
essentially dependent." 
Of the Lago Maggiore, both the area, 47,000 acres, and the 
maximum depth, 2G24 feet, are remarkable. The Lake of Como 
reaches a depth of 1900 feet, and has an area of nearly 35,000 
acres. The influence of floods is much moderated, though not 
obviated, by these large basins. 
IV. — The History of Italian Irrigation. 
Although we have some indications of the existence of works 
for irrigation in Roman times, such as an inscription on an 
aqueduct built in the time of Adrian, and "vestiges of dams 
attributed in a doubtful way to the emperors from Augustus 
down to Theodosius," these efforts appear to have been applied 
rather to springs and rivulets than to works on a grand scale for 
the diversion of large supplies from the chief rivers. 
From the irruption of the barbarian hordes the same evils 
ensued in Northern Italy (though not to the same extent) as those 
which gave birth to the Pontine Marshes and the Maremma of 
Tuscany. " A great part of the province " (of Lombardy), 
writes Bruschetti, " was at this time covered with forests. Tracts 
now richly cultivated were then stagnant marshes or arid wastes." 
It was not until the dawn of a new civilisation in the 11th cen- 
tury that the struggle against the waters which threatened to 
submerge the plain was vigorously renewed. The ancient 
Roman ditches and defences of Milan were about this time 
restored, and an outlet for the waters provided by the construc- 
tion of the canal called the Vettabbia. 
Again, after the destruction of the city by Frederick Bar- 
barossa in 1162, these works were reconstructed on a grander 
scale in 1176. Besides other works which secured to the new- 
built city a thorough drainage and abundant command of water, 
the dam of the Ponte d' Archetto was then constructed, by which 
the entire volume of the Nerone was directed through the city 
and conveyed by its sewers to the Vettabbia. 
The use of water for irrigation was introduced at this same 
time, being due to the superior intelligence and wealth of the 
Cistcrtian monks of the neighbouring monastery of Cliiaravalle. 
The brethren availed themselves of the neglected waters of the 
VOL. XXIV. N 
