Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Library of Universal History and Popular Science, Vol. 4 of 25: Containing a Record of the Human Race From the Earliest Historical Period to the Present Time; Embracing a General Survey of the Progress of Mankind in National and Social Life, Civil Government, Religion, Literature, Science and Art
Italy is the middle one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe, whose shores are washed by the Mediterranean sea. It is seven hundred and twenty miles long from the Alps on the north-west to Cape Sparti vento on the south-east. Its greatest breadth is in the north, between the Little St. Bernard and the hills north of Trieste, which is three hundred and thirty miles. But its ordinary width is only one hundred miles. The entire area, even including the littoral islands, is not much over one hundred and ten thousand square miles. Italy is bounded on the north and north-west by the Alps, on the east by the Adriatic, on the south and west by the Mediterranean.
In proportion to its area, the littoral extent of Italy is very consid crable, mainly because of the length and narrowness of the peninsula; as the principal coasts are only slightly indented. A moderate number of shallow gulfs or bays make the western coast-line somewhat irreg ular; but the headland of Gargano and the bay of Manfredonia are the only important breaks in the regularity of the eastern coast-line. On the southern coast are two large indentations, the deep Gulf of Taranto and the shallow one of Squillace. The Italian islands - Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica - have a similar character to the mainland. Therefore the Italian people did not have so distinct and pronounced a nautical tendency as their neighbors, the Greeks.
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