The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-05-12
Modern Lessons In
GEOGRAPHY
SARDINIA

time Your steamboat ticket from
Clvitavecchia, the port of Rome, en-
titles you to an eight-hour voyag,
to Sardinia, but affords a premium O
several thousand years backward Il
Europe's earliest traceable history
With this introduction the Nation
al Geographic Society issues the fol
lowing bulletin on SARDINIA, which
has a double interest just now be
cause of the reported native demand
for home rule, and because Ameri.
cans have found tracts containing
wolfram, highly priced as a source OF
tungsten.
THE contact of America adds an
other stratum to the civilizations that
have left a deposit in SARDINIA. Fo1
the Romans and the Carthaginians
operated mines there; and there are
traces that point to the presence of
Egyptians and Phoenicians. In adj
dition Vandals, S~aracens, Pisans,
Genoese, Spaniards and Austrians
held sway there before it fell to the
House of Vavoy and was attached to
modern Italy. \
Second only to Sicily among Med
iterranean Islands, SARDINIA has been
referred to as the lost isle of that
sea. Geographically it has been said
to turn its back on Italy, for it's east
coast is mountainous. This isolation
has a compensation in preserving the
homogeneity of a people who have a
special interest for students of racial
history. Sardinians are small of sta
ture. Even their soldiers have an
average height of a fraction under
five feet, four inches. One theory is
that they are the purest remaining
descendants of the so-called Mediter-
ranean race; another that they de-
scended from certain African pygmy
people, a speculation of peculiar in
terest in view of the present discus
sion over the reported finding of a,
race of pygmies in the Belgian Kon-
go by DR.. Leonard j. Vanderbergh,
an American missionary. Lady Stan
ley has asserted that her husband,
Henry M. Stanley, refers to the same
little people in his book In Darkest
Africa
"Other factors than its geography
contributed to Sardinia's isolation.
Once it was the Siberia of the Roman
Empire, and graves were kept wait
ing for some convicts. Later it was
afflicted by the medieval type of the
Kentucky feud, the vendetta, and
modern science found a new danger,
greatly exaggerated for a time, in
malaria.
"Travelers who find their way to
Sardinia, in increasing numbers, pro-
nounce the island quaint and charm
ing. Upon approach, the fragrance
of wild shrubs and herbs compile
ments the appeal to the eye of a
geological disorder hat is arresting,
but not, like the unromantic Alps,
terrific
mot only are the people under
size, but this diminutiveness
extends to animals, according to
anthropologists; a condition
exatcly the reverse of that in New
Zealand, which tends to develop both
animals and plants larger than nor
nal.
"But the most CONSPICUOUS curl
of Sardinia are its nuraghi,
great round towers, relics of the
bronze age, which served as fortified
dwellings, for some prehistoric peo-
Die. There are 5000 or more of
.hese towers, some so feet high, US
rally about 80 feet in diameter at
he base, made of stone blocks and :
imeared with clay on the inside.
,tairways lead to upper chambers
md platforms.
Interesting as are these relics of
Unknown inhabitants, even more fas-
mating are the traces Of ancient
to be found in the daily
ife of Sardinians of today. One
nay find oxen blowing as they did
n the days of the Roman Empire,
which were introduced
Y the successive occupants, n
town (Alghero) where there
/; no jarring note in the illusion of
Id Spain, and dances of the classic
period at the mountain feste.
"Only in Sardinia and Corsica is
ne mufloni, predecessor of our sheep
be found. Wild deer and wild boar
re plentiful in the mountain dis
funny fishing is a major in
'fIn area Sardinia is comparable to I
'ermont, but has more than twice 7
lie population of that State. The Is
nd lies directly south of Corsica, {
nd is separated therefrom by the /