Centuries elapsed before the changes which we now perceive were accomplished. Still they proceeded at a sufficiently rapid rate. Even now the alluvium carried down by the Ticino and the Maggia continually encroaches upon the Lago Maggiore. Seven hundred years ago the village of Gordola stood on the shore of the lake: it is now nearly a mile away from it. The landing-places of Magadino, at the mouth of the Ticino, have to be continually shifted, for the lake retires steadily. Only sixty years ago barges were able to receive their cargoes at a wharf nearly half a mile higher up than the present one. The Gulf of Locarno is gradually being separated from the main sheet of water by alluvial deposits brought down by the Maggia.
Fig. 60.—SECTION OF THE NORTHERN PORTION OF LAKE COMO.
Scale 1 : 25,000.
Fig. 61.—SECTION OF THE LAKE OF LECCO, NEAR THE BIFURCATION.
Scale 1 : 25,000.
Fig. 62.—LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF LAKE COMO.
Horizontal scale 1 : 50,000. Vertical scale 1 : 500,000.
