young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

55 t

gravel continues; but towards Vicenza , much fine red and brown, deep, friable,fandy loam, with few or no (tones.

Ecclesiastical State. — Ferrarese. —In the Ferrarefe, between Paflo Sieneand Bologna, the foil is two feet deep ; of a brown fandy loam, with a yellowish hueunder which is one foot of land, and then blue clay, apparently ferruginous. In cut-ting, not long ago, through a field, for raifing a bank, they met with a heap of an-cient bricks, five feet deep. From Ferrara to Bologna, the foil is, to all appearance,the richeft I ever beheld ; deep, friable, and with that degree of tenacity which marksgreat fertility ; it feerns to be entirely a depofition of waters, that have brought thofefine particles which are held fufpended, and which render that fluid turbid : thofe al-inofl: impalpable particles which are long in fubfiding.

Tuscany . —All 1 faw of this territory is a rockey (lone bralh, or gravel. Theloams are compounds of it, with more or lefs vegetable mould; I faw lcarcely anytracts, large enough to be worth mentioning, that are exceptions. It is, upon thewhole, though improveable, not a fertile foil ; and, if olives were not well adapted toit, would be productive of little befide fheep-walk ; to which, animal, all I law ofthis country, is admirably adapted, and would, I doubt not, produce as fine wool asSpain itfelf.

Modena and Parma. —A rich fandy or gravelly loam is predominant throughthefe dutchies; in many traCts it is deep, moift, and friable, as I faw in the land .which were receiving, their autumnal preparation for beans in the fpring. In i'omediftriCts it is of a firm texture, but not clay. Much the fame foil, but not equallydeep, is found in the ceded provinces of Vogara, Tortona , and Alexandria ; butparts of the la/l more tenacious, and to be ranked among the fliSeft I met with inLombardy .

Sect. II.— Climate.

ON the climate of Lombardy , Mr. Profeffor Syinonds is fo full and fiuisfaCtory,that the reader can be no where fo well inftructed.

Piedmont. —The great complaint in Piedmont, is the exceflive heat in fummer ;equal, I was allured, to almoft any that is felt on the globe, and of a fufiocating qua-lity ; while the frofts in winter are as fevere, in the contrary extreme. The peltife-rous climate of Sardinia is known to every body ; though between 39 and 41 degreeslatitude; in the fouthern part of the ifland, they are not forwarder than in the Mi-Ianefe: they cut their corn in the north part in July : in the Milanefe before the endof June *.

Milanese. —The molt remarkable circumflauce in the climate of the Milanefe, isthe mildneft and warmth of northern and mountainous tracts, and the feverity felt inthe plain. This faCt is found particularly around the lake of Como ; upon all theweflern coafl: of that lake, which is about forty miles long, the agnnni, as the Italians calloranges, lemons, &c. are found, expofed to the open air, in good perfection ; yet thewhole of the lake is bounded by the high Alps , which, immediately to the north, arecovered with eternal fnows. On the rich plain of Pvlilan, and thence to the Appenines,no fuch plant can be left expofed ; olives are not feen, and oranges, lemons, and ber-gamots, mud be covered in winter. Thefe agrumi are found chiefly on the weft coaflof the lake, but fome are fcattered on the eaitern. It is the (helter afforded by the

* Rlfioriminto delta Sardegna , tom. i. p. 155.

mountains?-