Apulia is surrounded by a semicircle of not very high hills, beginning with mount Garganus on the Adriatic, continued by the chain of the Apennines, and then separating Apulia from Samnium and Lucania. Afterwards this range terminates in low hills towards Terra di Lecce. The inner part of the semicircle, containing the thymele, orchestra, and stage, is formed by the plain of Apulia, a chalk country, like Champagne or the kingdom of Leon in Spain. It is, however, not a perfect plain, but has small elevations (_verrucae_); it has very few rivers, the springs not being able to break through the ground. As the chalk lies in strata, the waters are drawn down towards a few rivers, which traverse the plains without being fed by tributaries, just like the Minho and Douro in the kingdom of Leon, and the Aisne, Marne, and Seine in Champagne. The AUFIDUS is a very powerful river, its bed is cut very deep; in summer its water is low, but during the winter every shower of rain swells it immensely. The plain through which it flows is a barren chalk-field; water is found there by boring very deep wells, so that the country requires much rain. After a good rain in the autumn, the land covers itself with excellent and extremely rich grass. In some parts where irrigation is possible, where the soil is a little mixed, and where it is carefully tilled by man, the country is excellent for growing corn, which ripens at an extremely early season. An intimate friend of mine at Naples was intendant of Apulia, and from him I learned that the harvest of wheat in Apulia takes place about the end of May, that is, three weeks earlier than at Athens, where the 20th of June is the harvest season, a fact which it is of importance to know in reading Thucydides, who often describes the season of the year by mentioning the harvest-time. About the foot of the hills, Apulia is altogether barren, at least at present, but I cannot say whether the same was the case in antiquity. The country is now for many miles covered with nothing but ferula and ferns. Western Apulia, which Pliny calls by the name of _Teani Apuli_, the country of the real and genuine Apulians, is of very little importance in history. The towns of Apulia mentioned in history, belong to the Daunians. Apulia was not a politically united country, it presents even less of national unity than Samnium, for it contained several systems of towns which were quite independent of, and even hostile to, one another. Arpi and Canusium were the most important towns, and the others seem to have been grouped around them.