DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0280
CHAPTER XLVI.
ORBETELLO.
Cyelopum moenia eonspieio.—Virgil.
Oebetello makes a threatening front to the stranger.
A strong line of fortifications crosses the sandy isthmus by
which he approaches it; principally the -work of the
Spaniards, who possessed the town for a hundred and fifty
years—from 1557 to 1707. On every other side it is
fenced in by a stout sea-wall. But its chief strength lies
in its position in the midst of the wide lagoon, protected
from all attacks by sea by the two necks of sand which
unite Monte Argentaro to the mainland; and to be other-
wise approached only by the narrow tongue, on whose tip
it stands—a position singularly like that of Mexico.1
This Stagno, or lagoon, the " sea-marsh " of Strabo,2 is
a vast expanse of stagnant salt-water, so shallow that it
may be forded in parts, yet never dried up by the hottest
summer; the curse of the country around, for the foul and
pestilent vapours, and the swarms of musquitoes and other
insects it generates at that season, yet blessing the inhabi-
tants with an abundance of fish.3
1 I have here described its original at night, and in the way often practised
position. The causeway which now in Italy and Sicily—by harpooning the
connects it with Monte Argentaro, is of fish which are attracted by a light in
very recent construction, completed only the prow of the boat. It is a curious
a few years since. sight, says Repetti (III. p. 675), to see
3 Strabo, V. p. 225.—KinvoSiXa-na. on calm nights hundreds of these little
3 The fishery is generally carried on skiffs or canoes wandering about with
ORBETELLO.
Cyelopum moenia eonspieio.—Virgil.
Oebetello makes a threatening front to the stranger.
A strong line of fortifications crosses the sandy isthmus by
which he approaches it; principally the -work of the
Spaniards, who possessed the town for a hundred and fifty
years—from 1557 to 1707. On every other side it is
fenced in by a stout sea-wall. But its chief strength lies
in its position in the midst of the wide lagoon, protected
from all attacks by sea by the two necks of sand which
unite Monte Argentaro to the mainland; and to be other-
wise approached only by the narrow tongue, on whose tip
it stands—a position singularly like that of Mexico.1
This Stagno, or lagoon, the " sea-marsh " of Strabo,2 is
a vast expanse of stagnant salt-water, so shallow that it
may be forded in parts, yet never dried up by the hottest
summer; the curse of the country around, for the foul and
pestilent vapours, and the swarms of musquitoes and other
insects it generates at that season, yet blessing the inhabi-
tants with an abundance of fish.3
1 I have here described its original at night, and in the way often practised
position. The causeway which now in Italy and Sicily—by harpooning the
connects it with Monte Argentaro, is of fish which are attracted by a light in
very recent construction, completed only the prow of the boat. It is a curious
a few years since. sight, says Repetti (III. p. 675), to see
3 Strabo, V. p. 225.—KinvoSiXa-na. on calm nights hundreds of these little
3 The fishery is generally carried on skiffs or canoes wandering about with