following tonnage of minerals was extracted in 1926: The most important minerals are lead and zinc, obtained in lodes in the forms of galena and calamine respectively. In most cases, owing to the mountainous character of the country, hori zontal galleries are possible. The Monteponi company smelts its own zinc, but the lead is almost all smelted at the furnaces of Pertusola near Spezia. Lignite is mined at Bacu Abis, near Gonnesa, and anthracite near Seui.
The salt-pans at Cagliari and of Carloforte are of considerable importance; they are let by the Government to contractors, who have the sole right of manufacture, but are bound to sell the salt necessary for Sardinian consumption at a low rate ; the Govern ment does not exercise the salt monopoly in Sardinia any more than in Sicily, but in the latter island the right of manufacture is unrestricted. The salt-pans of Cagliari produce 300,00o tons of salt annually, potash (for manure), magnesium sulphate and other kindred salts.
The railway system of Sardinia is in the hands partly of the State and partly of two private companies. The State lines of the ordinary gauge run from Cagliari, past Macomer, to Chilivani (with a branch at Decimomannu for Igle sias). From Chilivani the line to Sassari and Porto Torres diverges to the north-west and that to Golfo degli Aranci to the north-east. The Terranova and narrow-gauge lines run from Cagliari to Mandas (whence lines diverge north to Sorgono and east to Tortoli, the former having a branch south-south-west to Villamar, and thence to Ales or Sanluri, on the main line from Cagliari to Macomer and the latter a short branch from Gairo to Ierzu), from Macomer east to Nuoro and west to Bosa, from Sassari south-west to Alghero, from Chilivani south to Tirso (on the line between Macomer and Nuoro), and from Monti (on the line from Chilivani to Golfo degli Aranci) north-west to Tempio. From Iglesias there is a line to Palmas-Suergiu with branches to Siliqua and Calasetta. There is a steam tramway from Cagliari to Quartu S. Elena. The trains are few and the speed on all these lines is moderate, but the gradients are often very heavy. The main road system, which dates from 1828, previous to which there were only tracks, is good, and the roads well engineered; many of them are traversed by road motor services. There is a daily steam communication with Civitavecchia from Terranova (the mail route), and weekly steamers run from Cagliari to Naples, Genoa (via the east coast of the island), Palermo and Tunis, and from Porto Torres to Genoa (calling at Bastia in Cor sica and Leghorn) and Leghorn direct. A fortnightly line also
runs along the west coast of the island from Cagliari to Porto Torres. There is also a weekly French service between Porto Torres and Ajaccio in Corsica. There is an air service twice a week between Rome and Cagliari via Terranova and twice direct.
The archiepiscopal sees of the island are : Cagliari (under which are the suffragan sees of Galtelli-Nuoro, Iglesias and Ogliastra), Oristano (with the suffragan see of Ales and Terralba) and Sas sari (under which are the suffragan sees of Alghero, Ampurias and Tempio, Bisarchio and Bosa).
In 1925-26, 56% of the males and 46% of the females (or 51% of the total population over 6 years) were able to read. The percentage of the total population for the whole of Italy is 72. The university of Cagliari had 411 students in 1925 26 and that of Sassari 203. The mining school of Iglesias had 2 2 students.
No trace of palaeolithic man is recorded in Sardinia, and the earliest evidence of human occupation dates from the time when metal was first coming into use in the West ern Mediterranean. There are, it is true, a few coastal stations in the south of the island that have yielded purely lithic industries, but in the greater number of the simple cave-dwellings wherein the earliest civilization is to be recognized, there are abundant copper implements together with the usual stone and obsidian tools. Indeed, it was probably the natural richness of the island in copper and lead that was responsible for the first settlements therein. This first civilization is, in a sense, the only prehistoric civilization of the island, for it continued without any remarkable alteration not only until the advent of the Greeks and the Carthaginians, but even until the coming of the Romans. In character it betrays a somewhat different aspect from the contem porary culture of its nearest neighbour, for whereas the affinities in Corsica pointed to a Ligurian source, here the ties are closer with central Italy and Sicily, and also, it has been argued, with North Africa.