[CORSICA]

Corsica
[— larger view — ]

Is situated 54 miles W. from Leghorn, 98 m. S. from Genoa, and 106 m. S.E. from Nice. It is [116 m. long, 52 m. broad], and contains an area of 3376 square miles; divided into 5 arrondissements, subdivided into 62 cantons, and these again into 363 communes, with a population of 275,000. The surface, of which little more than a tenth is under cultivation, is composed of lofty and rugged granite mountain chains, diverging in all directions from the culminating peaks of Mounts [Cinto], 8892 ft.; [Rotondo], 8613 ft.; [Pagliorba], 8278 ft.; [Padro], 7846 ft.; and [Oro], 8829 ft. On the western and southern sides of the island these ranges terminate abruptly on the shore, or run out into the sea; while, on the eastern side, a great undulating plain intervenes between their termination and the coast, in summer troubled with malaria, but in a less degree than formerly.

Corsica is the central region of the great plant system of the Mediterranean. Among the many fine forests which cover the mountains, the most important are those of Valdoniello, Filosorma, Vizzavona Verde, Zonza, Bavella, Ometa and Calenzana. They contain noble specimens of pines, oaks, beech, chestnut, walnut and olive trees. The cork oak forms woods, chiefly in the south of the island. The [chestnut trees] are as large and fruitful as the best on the Apennines, and the nuts form the staple article of food for man and beast during the winter months. Indeed, these glorious chestnut and beech forests, when in full foliage, are the grand features of Corsican scenery, which therefore cannot be seen to advantage till towards the end of May, and if to this we add the splendid bloom of the oleanders, not till July. “I at any rate know of no such combination of sea and mountains, of the sylvan beauty of the north with the rich colours of the south; no region where within so small a space nature takes so many sublime and exquisite aspects as she does in Corsica. Palms, orange groves, olives, vines, maize and chestnuts; the most picturesque beech forests, the noblest pine woods in Europe; granite peaks, snows and frozen lakes—all these are brought into the compass of a day’s journey. Everything is as novel to the Alpine climber as if, in place of being on a fragment of the Alps, severed only by 100 miles from their nearest snows, he was in a different continent.”—D. W. Freshfield, Alpine Club.

Vegetation.

The prickly pear, the American aloe, the castor-oil plant and the fig-tree, grow wild along the coast; while a little farther upwards, on the slopes and plateaus, the arbutus, cistus, oleander, myrtle and various kinds of heaths, form a dense coppice, called in the island maqui, supplying an excellent covert for various kinds of game and numerous blackbirds. When the arbutus and myrtle berries are ripe the blackbirds are eagerly hunted, as at that time they are plump and make very savoury and delicate eating.

There are few cows on the island, the greater part of the milk supply being procured from goats. It is excellent, and has no rank flavour.

The only remarkable creature is the [mouflon], a species of sheep, resembling that almost extinct animal the bouquetin or ibex of the Alps. It inhabits the highest mountains, and though very wild is easily tamed.

The best red [wines] are grown about Ajaccio, Tallano, Cervione and Sartene, and the best white wines in Sari and in the valleys of Cape Corso. They improve up to twenty years, and even up to fifty.