“The situation of the skeleton in the block was so superficial, that its presence in the rock on the coast had probably been indicated by the projection of some of the more elevated parts of the left fore-arm.
“The operation of laying the bones open to view, and of reducing the superfluous length of the block at its extremities, being performed with all the care which its excessive hardness, and the relative softness of the bones, required, the skeleton exhibited itself in the manner represented in the annexed drawing (Pl. I.) with which my friend Mr Alexander has been so good as to illustrate this description.
“The skull is wanting; a circumstance which is the more to be regretted, as this characteristic part might possibly have thrown some light on the subject under consideration, or would, at least, have settled the question, whether the skeleton is that of a Carib, who used to give the frontal bone of the head a particular shape by compression, which had the effect of depressing the upper and protruding the lower edge of the orbits, so as to make the direction of their opening nearly upwards, or horizontal, instead of vertical[385].
“The vertebræ of the neck were lost with the head. The bones of the thorax bear all the marks of considerable concussion, and are completely dislocated. The seven true ribs of the left side, though their heads are not in connexion with the vertebræ, are complete; but only three of the false ribs are observable. On the right side only fragments of these bones are seen; but the upper part of the seven true ribs of this side are found on the left, and might at first sight be taken for the termination of the left ribs; as may be seen in the drawing. The right ribs must therefore have been violently broken and carried over to the left side, where, if this mode of viewing the subject be correct, the sternum must likewise lie concealed below the termination of the ribs. The small bone dependent above the upper ribs of the left side, appears to be the right clavicle. The right os humeri is lost; of the left nothing remains except the condyles in connexion with the fore-arm, which is in the state of pronation; the radius of this side exists nearly in its full length, while of the ulna the lower part only remains, which is considerably pushed upwards. Of the two bones of the right fore-arm, the inferior terminations are seen. Both the rows of the bones of the wrists are lost, but the whole metacarpus of the left hand is displayed, together with part of the bones of the fingers: the first joint of the fore-finger rests on the upper ridge of the os pubis; the two others, detached from their metacarpal bones, are propelled downwards, and situated at the inner side of the femur, and below the foramen magnum ischii of this side. Vestiges of three of the fingers of the right hand are likewise visible, considerably below the lower portion of the fore-arm, and close to the upper extremity of the femur. The vertebræ may be traced along the whole length of the column, but are in no part of it well defined. Of the os sacrum, the superior portion only is distinct: it is disunited from the last vertebra and the ilium, and driven upwards. The left os ilium is nearly complete, but shattered, and one of the fragments depressed below the level of the rest; the ossa pubis, though well defined, are gradually lost in the mass of the stone. On the right side, the os innominatum is completely shattered, and the fragments are sunk: but towards the acetabulum, part of its internal cellular structure is discernible.
“The thigh-bones, and the bones of the leg of the right side, are in good preservation, but being considerably turned outwards, the fibula lies buried in the stone, and is not seen. The lower part of the femur of this side is indicated only by a bony outline, and appears to have been distended by the compact limestone that fills the cavities both of the bones of the leg and thigh, and to the expansion of which, these bones probably owe their present shattered condition. The lower end of the left thigh-bone appears to have been broken and lost in the operation of detaching the block; the two bones of the leg, however, on this side, are nearly complete; the tibia was split almost the whole of its length a little below the external edge, and the fissure being filled up with limestone, now presents itself as a dark-coloured straight line. The portion of the stone which contained part of the bones of the tarsus and metatarsus, was unfortunately broken; but the separate fragments are preserved.
“The whole of the bones, when first laid bare, had a mouldering appearance, and the hard surrounding stone could not be detached without frequently injuring their surface; but after an exposure for some days to the air, they acquired a considerable degree of hardness. Sir H. Davy, who subjected a small portion of them to chemical analysis, found that they contained part of their animal matter, and all their phosphate of lime.”
Note M, p. 128.
That portion of the shore of the Adriatic which lies between the lake, or rather lagune, of Commachio, and the lagunes of Venice, has undergone considerable alterations since ancient times, as is attested by authors worthy of entire credit, and as is still evinced by the actual state of the soil in the districts near the coast; but it is impossible now to give any exact detail of the successive progress of these changes, and more especially of their precise measures during the ages which preceded the twelfth century of our era.
We are, however, certain, that the city of Hatria, now called Adria, was formerly situated on the edge of the coast; and by this we attain a known fixed point upon the primitive shore, whence the nearest part of the present coast, at the mouth of the Adige, is at the distance of 25,000 metres[386]; and it will be seen in the sequel, that the extreme point of the alluvial promontory formed by the Po, is farther advanced into the sea than the mouth of the Adige by nearly 10,000 metres[387].
The inhabitants of Adria have formed exaggerated pretensions, in many respects, as to the high antiquity of their city, though it is undeniably one of the most ancient in Italy, as it gave name to the sea which once washed its walls. By some researches made in its interior and its environs, a stratum of earth has been found mixed with fragments of Etruscan pottery, and with nothing whatever of Roman manufacture. Etruscan and Roman pottery are found mixed together in a superior bed, on the top of which the vestiges of a theatre have been discovered. Both of these beds are far below the level of the present soil. I have seen at Adria very curious collections, in which these remains of antiquity are separately classed; and having, some years ago, observed to the viceroy, that it would be of great importance, both to history and geology, to make a thorough search into these buried remains at Adria, carefully noticing the levels in comparison with the sea, both of the primitive soil, and of the successive alluvial beds, his Highness entered warmly into my ideas; but I know not whether these propositions have been since carried into effect.
Following the coast, after leaving Hatria, which was situated at the bottom of a small bay or gulf, we find to the south a branch of the Athesis or Adige, and of the Fossa Philistina, of which the remaining trace corresponds to what might have been the Mincio and Tartaro united, if the Po had still run to the south of Ferrara. We next find the Delta Venetum, which seems to have occupied the place where the lake or lagune of Commachio is now situated. This delta was traversed by seven branches of the Eridanus or Po, formerly called also the Vadis Padus or Podincus; which river, at the diramification of these seven branches, and upon its left or northern bank, had a city named Trigoboli, whose site could not be far from where Ferrara now stands. Seven lakes, inclosed within this delta, were called Septem Maria, and Hatria was sometimes denominated Urbs Septem Marium, or the city of the seven seas or lakes.
Following the coast from Hatria to the northwards, we come to the principal mouth of the Athesis or Adige, formerly named Fossa Philistina, and afterwards Estuarium Altini, an interior sea, separated by a range of small islands from the Adriatic Gulf, in the middle of which was a cluster of other small isles, called Rialtum, and upon this archipelago the city of Venice is now seated. The Estuarium Altini is what is now called the Lagune of Venice, and no longer communicates with the sea, except by five passages, the small islands of the Archipelago having been united into a continuous dike.
To the east of the lagunes, and north from the city of Este, we find the Euganian mountains, or hills, forming, in the midst of a vast alluvial plain, a remarkable isolated group of rounded hills, near which spot the fable of the ancients supposes the fall of Phæton to have taken place. Some writers have supposed that this fable may have originated from the fall of some vast masses of inflamed matters near the mouths of the Eridanus, that had been thrown up by a volcanic explosion; and it is certain that abundance of volcanic products are found in the neighbourhood of Padua and Verona.
The most ancient notices that I have been able to procure respecting the situation of the shores of the Adriatic at the mouths of the Po, only begin to be precise in the twelfth century. At that epoch the whole waters of this river flowed to the south of Ferrara, in the Po de Volano and the Po di Primaro, branches which inclosed the space occupied by the lagune of Commachio. The two branches which were next formed by an irruption of the waters of the Po to the north of Ferraro, were named the river of Corbola, Longola, or Mazzorno, and the river Toi. The former, and more northern of these, received the Tartaro, or canal bianco, near the sea, and the latter was joined at Ariano by another branch derived from the Po, called the Goro river. The sea-coast was evidently directed from south to north, at the distance of ten or eleven thousand metres[388] from the meridian of Adria; and Loreo, to the north of Mesola, was only about 2000 metres[389] from the coast.
Towards the middle of the twelfth century, the flood-waters of the Po were retained on their left or northern side by dikes near the small city of Ficarolo, which is about 19,000 metres[390] to the north-west of Ferrara, spreading themselves southwards over the northern part of the territory of Ferrara and the Polesine of Rovigo, and flowed through the two formerly mentioned canals of Mazzorno and Toi. It seems perfectly ascertained, that this change in the direction of the waters of the Po had been produced by the effects of human labours; and the historians who have recorded this remarkable fact only differ from each other in some of the more minute details. The tendency of the river to flow in the new channels, which had been opened for the more ready discharge of its waters when in flood, continually increased; owing to which the two ancient chief branches, the Volano and Primaro, rapidly decreased, and were reduced in less than a century to their present comparatively insignificant size; while the main direction of the river was established between the mouth of the Adige to the north, and what is now called Porto di Goro, on the south. The two before-mentioned canals of Mazzorno and Toi becoming insufficient for the discharge, others were dug; and the principal mouth, called Bocco Tramontana, or the northern mouth, having approached the mouth of the Adige, the Venetians became alarmed in 1604; when they excavated a new canal of discharge, named Taglio de Porto Viro, or Po delle Fornaci, by which means the Bocco Maestra, was diverted from the Adige towards the south.
During four centuries, from the end of the twelfth to that of the sixteenth, the alluvial formations of the Po gained considerably upon the sea. The northern mouth, which had usurped the situation of the Mazzorno canal, becoming the Rama di Trimontana, had advanced in 1600 to the distance of 20,000 metres[391] from the meridian of Adria; and the southern mouth, which had taken possession of the canal of Toi, was then 17,000 metres[392] advanced beyond the same point. Thus the shore had become extended nine or ten thousand metres[393] to the north, and six or seven thousand to the south[394]. Between these two mouths there was formerly a bay, or a part of the coast less advanced than the rest, called Sacca di Goro. During the same period of four hundred years previous to the commencement of the seventeenth century, the great and extensive embankments of the Po were constructed; and also, during the same period, the southern slopes of the Alps began to be cleared and cultivated.
The great canal, denominated Taglio di Porto Viro, or Po delle Fornaci, ascertains the advance of the alluvial depositions in the vast promontory now formed by the mouths or delta of the Po. In proportion as their entrances into the sea extend from the original land, the yearly quantity of alluvial depositions increases in an alarming degree, owing to the diminished slope of the streams, which was a necessary consequence, of the prolongation of their bed, to the confinement of the waters between dikes, and to the facility with which the increased cultivation of the ground enabled the mountain torrents which flowed into them to carry away the soil. Owing to these causes, the bay called Sacra di Goro was very soon filled up, and the two promontories which had been formed by the two former principal mouths of Mazzorno and Toi, were united into one vast projecting cape, the most advanced point of which is now 32,000 or 33,000 metres[395] beyond the meridian of Adria: so that in the course of two hundred years, the mouths or delta of the Po have gained about 14,000 metres[396] upon the sea.
From all these facts, of which I have given a brief enumeration, the following results are clearly established.
First, That, at some ancient period, the precise date of which cannot be now ascertained, the waves of the Adriatic washed the walls of Adria.
Secondly, That, in the twelfth century, before a passage had been opened for the waters of the Po at Ficarrolo; on its left or northern bank, the shore had been already removed to the distance of nine or ten thousand metres[397] from Adria.
Thirdly, That the extremities of the promontories formed by the two principal branches of the Po, before the excavation of the Taglio di Porto Viro, had extended, by the year 1600, or in four hundred years, to a medium distance of 18,500 metres[398] beyond Adria; giving, from the year 1200, an average yearly increase of the alluvial land of 25 metres[399].
Fourthly, That the extreme point of the present single promontory, formed by the alluvions of the existing branches, is advanced to between thirty-two and thirty-three thousand metres[400] beyond Adria; whence the average yearly progress is about seventy metres[401] during the last two hundred years, being a greatly more rapid proportion than in former times.
Prony.