Norwich bulletin., 1917-01-13
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

ItaIy's Destiny Shaped by Geosra- phy-In a communication to the Ma tional Geographic Society Arthur Stanley Riggs ascribes to Italy's pe-
 culiar geographic position one or the chief sources of the country's remark
 able individuality. In war geography l bulletin issued by the Society MT.
 Riggs says:
 'PFrom the beginning Nature set | Italy apart. Every boundary is per
 fectIy clear. The historic sea enfolds it to the south, east, and west. On 1 the north the terrific Alps sweep ! around it in a great semicircle from 1 Mediterranean to Adriatic, closing the circuit
 1To be sure, from the time of Au- | gustus the boundary of each side Of
 northern Italy has been juggled, now ] to the east, now to the west, by poll tics; but the physical boundary is still definitely there. So thoroughly ] did the ancient chroniclers recognize
 these natural limits that long before ! the name Italy had any political signi- 1 ficance or entity the writers applied 1t | to the cou7tay thus inclosed. The pen- 1 insuIa, with it's tremendous Apennine l backbone, makes huge boot which | thrusts out practically into the cen 1 ter of the great Midland Sea.
 Necessarily, then, Italy was exposed l to attack and invasion from three | sides. Indeed, it was the invading, or
 rather colonizing, Greek who combined | with the aborigine4 to form the popu- l lation that stocked the peninsula. | Taken in a smaller way, geographical site or position exercised no less dis 1 tinct an effect upon some of the fore most Italian cities; and in shaping l their affairs and men it also influenced | the entire world.
 Italy is generally regarded as 1y ing in three parts-northern, central i and southern. Nature has set no boundary between central and south ern Italy; but from the southernmost point of the Alps, at the French from tier, the Apennines swing across to | the eastward, leaving in the arc they cut huge U-shaped basin, drained by ! the river Pc and it's tributaries, open to the Adriatic.
 After forming this basin-northern Italy-the Apennines sweep southward in a rugged backbone which deter mines the whole internal geography of the country as definitely as the Alps do it's outiine northward. The Apen- hines are not. however, merely a back bone. but a broad mass with several minor ranges and groups of peaks. generally separated by high upland valleys, one of whose plateaux. /the Piano di Cinque Miglia, at 9 height of 4,29S feet above the sea, is the win triest and bleakest spot in all Italy.
 This upland region is bordered ev- anywhere by lowlands of luxuriantIy fertile character, prolific in fruit and verdure and of a geniaEy warm and sunny climate. In central Italy, west of the mountains, the valleys of the Arno and the Tiber-the only~streams of importance-give the keynote to any geogra phic study of the region. Over On the eastern coast no rvers of inn portance can exist, because the noun tainS there approach too close to the sea, though the tortuous, mostly dry beds of the 'torrentf scar every height.
 Tn this connection it is interesting to note that nowhere is the peninsular more than 1fl miles wide, and gen. erally not more than 100, while down in Calabria the width dwindles in two places to 35 and 20 miles respectively. One of the most inspiring views in the whole length of the country also displays this narrowness strikingly when, on a clear day, from the Gran SassO, the highest point in the bleak Abruzzi Range, central Italy, at near ly 10000 feet, one may look not only eastward over the Adriatic to far Dal- mauia's rocky shores, but also west ward over the mountain and moor city and sandy coast, to the dim and misty blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In vol canic southern Italy, likewise barren of any great waterways, the Apennines break up into groups of hills and peaks. not usually so lofty as farther northward.
 Italy is fairly provided with deep water seaports-Naples. Genoa, Spe- zia, the naval bae, and Leghorn on
 
 coma. and Brindisi, on the east The rivers-except the Po-as may have been inferred already, are of little or no importance for navigation-a fact that Romans cleVerly disposed of by building those beautiful and enduring military roads which to this day vein the whole length and breadth of the country-though the rapidity of their currents and the flashing, dashing cas- cades and 'torrenti' that come swirling into them make them highly pictures que and delightful as feature Of the landscape.
 What human being with a single spark of soul could fail to expend un- der the magic of that wonderful chain of lakes along her northern border Garda, Idro, Iseo. Como, Lugano. Mag giore, Orea? These remarkable and exquisite sheets of water, formed by the tributaries of one single stream. the Po-sprawl about in tremendu- ously deep valleys among towering hills of solid rock, while scattered among them are shallow little lakes entirely different in both character and aspect.
 Besides defining the limits of the country so clearly, Nature also bull warked the long and tortuous Italian rocky defenses in the sapphire waters of the storied Tyrrhenian Sea-Gor- gona, of the suggestive name; rocky l Capraia; Elba. of Napoleonic fame: IIo SlOIy HSeI UT tHe lLIie PunZaS,eI bold and rugged Ischia, with it's castle | on a big boulder; Procida likewise, Capri, where that hairy old goat as Suetonius called the Elm peror Toberius, held his revels; the l Aeolian or Lapari Isles, black monsters l that spout fire and sing weird music | to terrify the superstitious argonaut: l Sardinia, with it's little sister Corsica clinging to it's coat-tafIs a step behind. Both belong to Italy | by every right of Nature-as a bright | lad in a Sicilian school told me: 'Sar- |