Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-06-06
Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.
ROME.

J THE DEsnLATE CAMPAGNA, AND ITS
: DEADLY MALARIA-A PLAIN REsEM
BLING THE ROLLING PRAIRIE OF Iowa
AND KANsAs-ITs GEOLOGICAL FoRM-
ATION-EYIDENcEs OF STRUGGLE Be-
TWEEN THE FORCES OF FIRE AND VA
: TER-THE LAND MAINLY DEVOTED To
, PAsTURAGE-SoME WHEAT GROWN AT
THE PERIL OF HUMAN LIFE-No SAT
IsFACToRY EXPLANATION As YET CIV
EN- OF THE CAUSES OF TIE INsALUBRlIf
-HOPEs ENTERTAINED OF DIsIAFEC-
TING THE CAMPAGNA BY PLANTING
FORESTS OF THE EUCALYPTUS TREE.
Rome can only be approached by
passing through the great plain
known over the world as
THE CAMPAGNA,
and whose reputation is chiefly de-
rived from the deadly malaria which
in summer overspreads it and
renders it uninhabitable by the hu-
man race. had formed an opinion,
before seeing it, that it was a low,
fiat prairie marshy and wet in greater
part, and that its fatal insalubrity
arose from the decaying of rank We
getation and the prutridity of stag
nant water under the action of fer |
vid Italian sun. I had probably con-
founded 1t in some way with the |
poisonous Pontine Marshes. But,
since | have traversed the Marshes
and crossed the Campagana in sew
eral directions, the erroneous i'm
preston has been corrected. The
Pontine Marshes lie a considerable
distance beyond the Campagna to
the southeast, and are on the right
hand of the traveller going to Ma
pies, some distance from the rail
road-track, and situated towards the
seashore, as the Calumet Marshes are
towards Lake Michigan. The Cam
pagna is no more like a marsh, or
low wet, plain, than are Cook, Lake,
Du Page, and Kane Counties (stri-
king off the Calumet swamp from
Cook and it covers about the same
area as those counties,-its length
being 50 miles, and its breadth As
miles. Rome is situated
/
of the great fever-breeding plain,
being Is to 20 miles from the sea to
the southwest, and 20 to 80 miles
from the mountains which girdle
the plain and bound the horizon to
the northward and eastward. This
plain embraced the greater portion
of the ancient Latium and considera-
bic part of Etrusia, and was long
the battlefield of a tribe whose sub
sequent victories brought all nations
under its rule.
The Campagna of Rome greatly
resembles the undulating OF rolling
prairies of Iowa or Kansas. Along
the margin of the mountains there
are foothills and ridges which
project a short distance into the
plain; in some places they rise into
low cones, of the shape of an invert-
ed bowl-in others, more like an
inverted saucer; and the tops of
these elevations are often crowned
by village. But nine tenths of the
plain may be described as
AN UNDULATING PRAIRIE,
whose surface assumes 10000 unex- /
peeted forms and shapes. Seen I
from the elevation of one of the I
mountains-at Tivoli, for instance |
the Campagna looks like a green /
sea, sloping by unperceptible de- S
scent towards the Mediterranean, {
which can be distinguished in the {
far distance by its glittering refec- a
tions in the sunlight. But the t
Campagna viewed from a height t
does not present those abrupt transi t
tions and animated contrasts which
one observes in passing over it in
any direction, and which make the
most attractive landscapes. Some :
times the road abruptly descends in !,
to a hollow, or ravine, where the :
view is excluded on nearly all sides: '
and then it ascends to a breezy up q
land, from which wide prospect is =
commanded. Sometimes it winds L
along a hillside or lateral valley: 7
again it is crowded on either hand l
by not high but precipitous cliffs, .
which seem to have been torn by
earthquake violence; and these will l
be followed by long gentle swells; :
then hill and dell, valley or glen; :
and next one will come to an indis- '
cribable tract, which the geologists :
declare to be the +!
CRATER OF AN EXTINCT VOLCANO.
in the centre of which is frequently e
a little lake or pond, with a stream i,
issuing therefrom, and the water o
thereof is discolored and impregna- S
ted with sulphur. Some of these are a
used as mineral springs. Forty of e
those extinct volcanoes have been t
traced out and mapped on the sur v
face of the broad Campagna. The
whole region is intersected and t
veined with streams rivulets, and v
threads of water, whose fountains f
are springs issuing from hiIl-sides t
or glens, and all finding their out p
let in the Tiber, which, rolling down n
from the Appenine Mountains, trav- p
erses the plain to the sea. c
Ihe numerous ravlneS, rents, and e
sharp hillsides, as well as the deep n
cuts through the ridges for the rail- h
ways, expose to view the geological "
formation of this plain. It is clear b
ly marked with indications of e
stuggle between the forces of fire {
and water. 1t is obvious that the
PLAIN was once part of the bed of e
the Mediterranean Sea. In tbou- r,
sand places strata of sand and gray a
el can be seen-the former often har-
dened into sandstone, and full of -
shells. But the Campaigns exhibits j."
more of volcanic than of marine :,
action. While it yet lay under =
water, it was the scene of a 4
LONG SERIES OF VOLCANIC. coNvUL- O
sIoHs,
which were continued after it emerg- d
ed from the sea, and is shown by r
the scores of dead craters scattered
all over it. After the land had e
risen from the waste of waters and S
the volcanoes burnt out, the Cam {
L