The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
England has no great rivers to boast of, though she has a few of
singular claims to notice, on account of the great flow of the tides
and the vast amount of commerce that they bear on the bosom. The
Thames, so renowned in history, is as uninteresting as possible, until
it passes above the bridges of London, where it becomes an ordinary
pretty sylvan stream.
The Seine, another river, familiar in name, at least, to every reader,
has much higher claims than its neighbor of the British Islands, in
the way of natural beauty. This stream, from Rouen to the Channel,
is not without some very fine scenery, as well as possessing a very
variant and interesting character, with both natural and artificial
accessories, to say nothing of the historical, that draw largely on the
attention.
Italy has many rivers that are celebrated in song or story, but not
one, we think, that should rank high, on the ground of landscape
beauty. Most of her streams are so dependent on the melting of the
snows in the Apennines and Alps, as to be either howling torrents,
or meagre, straggling pools. The Arno, the Po, the Adige, the Tiber,
and all the other rivers of that peninsula, are obnoxious to these
objections. Even the Tiber, which is navigable as high as Rome, for
vessels of a light draft, is either a tranquil thread, or one of those
noisy, turbid streams that overflow their banks and often appear at a
loss to know in which direction to pour their waters.
The day is not distant, when America must possess a vast extent of
territory of a character directly the reverse of that we have described
in our mountain scenery, but which, nevertheless, will not be without
a certain magnificence from its extent, productions and fertility. We
allude to the great plains of the West; those which lie between the
bases of the Alleghanies and the semi-sterile steppes that are known
in this part of the world as the great prairies. Lombardy, teeming as
she is, with population, vines, and all the productions of a fertile
soil, in the possession of millions, sinks into insignificance before
the vast plains that are destined to be her rivals in this quarter of
the world. Perhaps New-York alone could furnish nearly as much of this
character of country as is to be found in Upper Italy; for, stretching
from the shores of Ontario towards the southern ranges of uplands,
and as far east as Utica, is spread to the eye a vast extent of the
most fertile plain, slightly relieved in places with a rolling surface
of very respectable claims to natural beauty. We question if greater
fertility is to be found in any part of the world, than is met with in
the region last mentioned, though drainage and the other works of an
advanced state of husbandry, are still much wanting to bring forth both
its fertility and its beauties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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