The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-11-25
Extinction OF Venice.
Philadelphia Press. ]

= "A single American scarcely eyer crosse
the Alps without an intention OF visitin,
Rome, which Byron called "the Mob,
of Nations, and Venice, the city, of tn,
Adriatic Isles, which bore the title ant
wore the mural crown of the Ocear
Queen for more than thousand stirring
years, The, glory of Venice hath de
parted, but rare beauty, deeply imbued
with Orientalism, still remains. If re-
cent engineering examinations and re.
ports are to be relied upon, unless some.
thing be done soon and completely the
time is at hand when the sands of the sea
and the deposits of the rivers, shall choke
up the lagOons, obstruct the canals that
constitute the port, and either kill by
wholesale or, compel to flight the fever
stricken population. N ...-..rV
According to the elaborate observation
and report Of Professor Minich, scien-
tific man Of distinction, and q member OF
the italian Parliament, the river Brenta,
during the thirty-four years since its
waters were made to flow into the lagoon,
has made such heavy deposits ofits delta
in the direction of the port of Chioggia
as greatly to raise the bed of its canal and
reduce its width, whereby its trade il
threatened with extinction, and such
malaria created as actually to decimate
the population. Yet a little while and
the deposits of the Brenta must reach the
rear of Chioggia itself, whereby the town
will cease to be an island and seaport,
just as, from a similar cause, Ravenna
and Adria ceased to he seaports, owing to
the alluvial deposits of the Adige and
the Pc. To this fate it Is feared that
Venice herself is rapidly approximat-
ing.
The lagoons of Venice are sheet Of
sea.water, about thirty-one miles in
length and six miles in breadth, closed on
the seaside by long line of sandbanks or
dunes, intersected by canals, through
which the water ebbs and flows with
every rise and fall of the tide. From
time immemorial five of these canals
were the only channels of Venetian navi-
cation. At present only one, that of the
Lido, can be kept clear and open--and
this with great difficulty-for the admis-
sion of steamers belonging to the Peninsu.
lar and Oriental Company-an English or.
ganization to which, by its having dead.
headed Thackery from England to
Turkey in the autumn Of 12A4, literature
is indebted for the amusing" Notes of a
Journey from COrnhill to Grand Cairo
Unless the Brenta and other Alpine
streams, which formerly emptied them.
selves outside of the lagoon, can be re.
stored to their old channels, it is almost
certain that the said lagoons must be.
come an unhealthy swamp, and Venice
herself as much, or even more, an inland
city as Ravenna long has been.
1t has been proposed to dredge and
clear the lagoons, and scheme after
scheme for doing this has been proposed
Professor Minich calculates that to rec
tify the course of the Brenta. so as to re-
lease the lagoons of Venice without
damaging the adjoining terra firma
would occupy four years, and would cost
!, 100000 lire, equal to $1,000, 900 in
gold. 1t seems as If nothing can be de-
. termined upon. Meanwhile Venice il
likely ere long to be blotted out as a sea
port, and if the lagoons, choked up by
the debris from the rivers, settle down
into salt marsh or swamp, Venice must
become one of the most unwholesome
places in Europe.