Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries by J. Stephen Jeans
1000. The total fall is 21·73. Besides the works just described, 480 of
785 words | Chapter 94
less importance, consisting of bridges for roads, aqueducts, syphons
for the passage of existing water-courses and canals of irrigation,
watchhouses, &c., were constructed.
_The River Po._—The Po, which takes its rise at Mont Viso, crosses
the whole plain of Upper Piedmont, a plain formed of a deep alluvial
soil, very fertile, and well cultivated. Passing through territory of
Turin, it receives the drainage of the rich meadows, as also the sewage
of that town, and before reaching Chivasso it receives the rivers
Dora Riparia, Stura, Orco, and Malone. The waters of the Po in floods
are dense with rich alluvial matter, of the fertilising properties of
which evident proofs may be observed throughout the course of this
river. After great floods, as if by magic, bare shoals of gravel become
covered with a deep strata of alluvial soil, on which the seeds of
trees and shrubs carried down by the waters soon take root, and in
a very short time they are covered with a luxuriant vegetation. The
waters of the Po on this account are highly valued for irrigation,
as also from the fact of its temperature being higher than that of
its tributaries. The fertilising properties of this water are now
fully appreciated in Lomellina, where large tracts of land which were
formerly bare and arid wastes, are now converted into rich meadows and
rice fields, through the agency of the waters which have been brought
to bear upon them by the Canal Cavour, already alluded to.
Even in the Vercellese, where the want of water is not so much felt,
the waters of the Po, introduced into the existing canals, and mingling
with those of the Dora, tend to modify the extreme coldness of the
latter river, due to its origin in the glaciers of the Val d’Aosta and
the siliceous-magnesian sands that its waters contain in suspension.
It is, therefore, with just pride that Italians have named the Po the
“Nile of Italy.”
Although the Po is the only extensive river basin in Italy, there are
many other rivers in that country that are more or less navigable, some
of them inclined to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and some to the Ionian Sea, but
most of them, including the Po, to the Adriatic.
_Projected Canals._—Among the proposals recently put forward for
extending, by artificial means, the commerce and navigation of Italy,
one of the most important is designed to provide for the construction
of a ship canal to connect the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Adriatic, near
Fano and Castro. The distance to be traversed by this canal would
be 175 miles, and the cost has been estimated at about 20 millions
sterling. It is claimed that the proposed canal would be of great
advantage to the navigation between the east and the west coasts of the
Peninsula.
In 1889 a company was formed in London for the purpose of establishing
a system of canal, lake, and river navigation in the north of Italy.
This company expects to carry a very large share of the traffic at
lower rates than those quoted by the railways.
FOOTNOTES:
[94] Ann., lib. xii. cap. 56.
[95] Æn., t.v. 563.
[96] “Before the introduction of locks, contrivances called conches
were in use to moderate the too great declivity of the rivers, and
which were opened to allow vessels to pass through. These openings
were 16 or 18 feet in width; a balance lever, loaded at the end, was
made to turn on a pivot, and with it three hanging posts, united by
an iron bar, which crossed them immediately above the sill; besides
these three perpendicular hanging posts were two others, let some
inches into the side walls. These five posts were all on the same
face, and the spaces between them were all equal. When the balance
beam turned upon its pivot, the three middle posts alone opened,
and allowed the boats to pass, after which the balance beam was
turned back to its former position. At a little distance was placed
another balance beam, having attached to it a wide plank, to allow
the lock keeper to pass over, as well as to place in the grooves
of the hanging posts the small planks which served to exclude the
water, by closing up the intervals; these were on the side opposed
to the current, and in number sufficient to keep the water at the
required level. Such gates, or contrivances for damming up the waters
of a river, were in use at a very early time in Italy, and two such
were constructed at Governolo, in the twelfth century, to pen up the
waters of the Mincio on the side of Mantua.”—Cresy’s ‘Cyclopædia of
Engineering.’
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