and at the same time so scattered. Most liberal arrangements for cross-communication are made in every part of the country; and it is surprising to the visitor to see the profusion with which works of all kinds have been constructed.

In the course of this sketch I have not hesitated to express frankly my opinion on the works of the canalengineers of Piedmont, even when these were unfavourable; but I must say that no one familiar with works of irrigation could visit the region over which we have now travelled, without finding much to interest, and not a little to instruct him.

If inferior, as unquestionably they are, both in magnitude and design, to those great works in the plains of Lombardy, to the examination of which we have now to proceed, there can be no hesitation in stating that the irrigation canals of Piedmont are creditable to their constructors, and, as we have abundantly shown, of the very highest value to the agriculture of the regions through which they flow.

CHAPTER II.

CANALS OF IRRIGATION IN LOMBARDY.

SECTION I.

HYDROGRAPHY-SOIL-CLIMATE-POPULATION OF THE IRRIGATED DISTRICTS OF LOMBARDY.

IN the introductory remarks to Part II., I took occasion to advert to that happy combination of physical features which has so specially adapted the plain of Lombardy to benefit by the abundant provision nature has made for the development within it of a very perfect, perhaps the most perfect possible, system of artificial irrigation. I drew attention to the great extent of snowcovered mountains which formed its northern boundary, and within which its large rivers had their sources-to that chain of lakes into which these rivers were received before they entered the plain with so much advantage to their ultimate employment as the feeders of irrigating channels, and to the advantageous distribution of the levels of the tracts of country included between the different streams for economising to the utmost the supplies of water they afford. I have now to describe in greater detail this interesting hydrographic arrangement. To this end materials are most abundant, and the great

difficulty is to make a perfectly satisfactory selection among them. Feelings of national pride in the great works which mark the progress of irrigation in this region have co-operated with, and quickened the sense of, their social value, and have led many authors to dwell with what some might consider a wearisome minuteness on all the points connected with their history and development. Of this, however, the stranger visiting the country, and seeking for information, will have but little disposition to complain; and if it entails some additional labour, it throws light upon many points which authors less personally interested in their subject would pass by as unworthy of notice. I give below a summary of the authorities* whence the subsequent information has chiefly been derived; and I may add, that I took every opportunity, during my travels through the country, of verifying, whenever practicable, or, if possible, of adding to, the details I found recorded in the various works referred to.

It is to the lakes of Lombardy, as the most peculiar feature of its hydrography in connection with irrigation, that we have first to advert; and in doing so, the same order of succession will be observed as in the previous chapter.

Commencing, therefore, at the western extremity of the district, the first of the series is the Lago Maggiore, or Verbano, of which the Ticino is the escape-line.

* Bruschetti--"Storia dei Progetti e delle opere per l'Irrigazione del Milanese,” published at Lugano in 1834. The same author-"Istoria dei Progetti e delle opere per la Navigazione Interna del Milanese," Milan, 1821.

Cattaneo, Lombardini, Krentzlin, in the "Notizie Civili e Naturali su la Lombardia," Milan, 1844. Cattaneo "D'alcune Instituzioni Agrarie dell'

Alta Italie," &c., Milan, 1847.

"Milano e il Suo Territorio," Milan, 1844.

Lecchi-"Relazione dello Stato Presente del Canale Muzza," Milan, 1760.

"Statuti di Milano," 1775.

VOL. I.

L

The Lago Maggiore is about 40 miles in length, with a maximum breadth of 51, and a mean breadth of nearly 2 miles. Its superficial area is estimated by Signor Elia Lombardini at 77 square miles, or 47,280 acres. Its elevation above the level of the sea is 638.3 feet; its maximum depth is estimated at no less than 2624.64 feet. It is to this vast depth that the constancy of its surface-level is due, notwithstanding the masses of earthy or stony materials which have been poured into it since its first formation, by the various streams entering it from the surrounding mountains. Not only is the Lago Maggiore the grand receiving basin of the drainage of the adjoining Alpine chain, but several other smaller lakes to the eastward pour their surplus waters into it. Among these, the principal is the lake of Lugano, which, fed by the streams flowing through the valleys of Italian Switzerland, discharges itself by means of the river Tresa into the Lago Maggiore. The lake of Lugano, or Ceresio, is situated at a height of 893 feet above the level of the sea. Its maximum length is nearly 28 miles; its breadth varies from ths to 2 miles; and its superficial area is about 12,800 acres. Its greatest depth is 520 feet. A little to the southward of Lugano, the lakes of the Varese are linked with the main basin by means of the small streams Bardello and Aquanegra. The most important of this minor series are the lakes of Varese and Canabio. The former is 772.4 feet above the level of the sea; its length is 5 miles; its mean breadth about 1 mile; its area 3840 acres; and its maximum depth about 85 feet. The latter is 736.78 feet above the level of the sea; its length is 24 miles, and its mean breadth 3ths of a mile; its area about 960 acres, and its maximum depth 35 feet.

The rivers which flow directly into the Lago Maggiore are, 1st, the Toccia, an important stream, which drains

the Val d'Ossola and its numerous subordinate valleys, receiving also the surplus waters of the Lago d'Orta in Piedmont. 2d, The Maggia, a river of considerable volume, collecting the drainage of the Val Maggia. 3d, The main river of the series, the Ticino, which, on issuing again from the lake, retains its name, and becomes the discharging channel for the whole of the mountain drainage between Monte Rosa and the Splugen. An immense number of smaller channels-one, in fact, for every lateral branch of the great river-valley-carry their waters into the main stream. The drainage of the minor valleys Agno, Colla, Cavargna, &c., is received into the lake of Lugano, and, as before noted, passes by the river Tresa into the Lago Maggiore.

Viewing, accordingly, this great system of mountain drainage as a whole, we find it extending over an area of about 90 miles in length, with a mean breadth of from 25 to 30, or nearly 2500 square miles. Within this area are included some of the loftiest peaks in the Alpine chain, and among them the familiar names of Monte Rosa, Cervino, St Gothard, the Great St Bernard, and the Splugen. Its main arteries, so to speak, are the rivers Toccia, Maggia, and Ticino; and its grand basin is the Lago Maggiore.

As the receptacle of the waters of so extensive a region, the lake is necessarily subject to occasional floods; and at intervals, happily distant from each other, these are truly terrible in their effects. The greatest fall of the surfacelevel of the water below its ordinary height, in times of extreme dryness, has been noted as 5.76 feet. The floods to which, in spring and autumn, the lake is subject, rise generally about 7 feet above the ordinary level of the surface, while the extraordinary floods exceed 20 feet in height above the same line. There is, indeed, record pre