From the Mediterranean northward, the last section of the Franco-Italian linguistic boundary traverses French soil and coincides roughly with the crest of the eastern watershed of the Var. This region is known administratively as the Département des Alpes-Maritimes. Linguistic unity within its boundaries has been determined mainly by the relief of the land.[49] Practically every one of the high Alpine valleys debouches into the Var. Connection between the sea and the mountain districts is obtained through the channels of this basin. Intercourse among the inhabitants of the département has thus been reflected towards France rather than Italy. The langue d’oc prevails in the entire Var system, but Genoese dialects of Italy, or the “si” languages, appear immediately to the west. The linguistic divide can, therefore, be located between the valley of the Var on the one side and those of the Roya and Bévéra on the other. It should be made to pass, according to Funel,[50] at the very point in La Turbie where Augustus, a Roman emperor, erected a monument to mark the boundary between his domain and Gaul. The inhabitants of the eastern section of this line appear, however, to be content with French nationality in spite of their Ligurian dialects. At the time Of the rectification of this frontier in 1860, their French leanings were proclaimed in a referendum which set forth their desire to acquire citizenship under the French tricolor. [Illustration: FIG. 22--The dotted line indicates the divide between the areas of French and Italian language. Black dots near the Swiss border show Italian villages where German is the vernacular of the natives.] The city of Alghero and its environs in the island of Sardinia contain a colony of Catalonians whose language is identical with the vernacular in use on the Balearic islands. This group consists of 9,800 individuals out of a total of 10,741 inhabitants of the commune of Alghero. In 1862 this small community comprised 7,036 individuals. This rooting of a Spanish dialect on an Italian island is traced to the year 1354 when the Aragonians conquered Sardinia. The long period of Spanish rule over the island accounts for the survival of the language to this day. The southern boundary of German speech abuts against Italian from Switzerland[51] to the Carinthian hills.[52] The intrusion of the Romanic tongue within the Austrian political line lacks homogeneity, however, for it is Italian proper in western Tyrol and Ladin in its western extension. But of the 400 odd miles of boundary between Austria and Italy a bare 60 will coincide with the linguistic divide between German and Italian. Moreover a number of enclaves of German speech exist within the area of Italian language spreading over Austrian territory. Some of these German settlements are found near Pergine and Fersina. Close to the Italian frontier, the town of Casotto in the Lavarone region is likewise peopled by German-speaking inhabitants.[53]