ABRUZZO, a province of Naples, which derives its name from the city of Geramo, anciently called Abruz zo. It was the SUM/fiUM of the ancients, the country of the Samnites, who were distinguished by their valour, their civilization, and the wars which they waged with the Romans during seventy years. Abruzzo is divided by the river Pescara into two parts, called Ulterior and Citerior Abruzzo, of which Aquila and Chieti (Theatr) are the capitals. This province is naturally fertile and productive, and affords its inhabitants more than a suf ficient supply of corn, rice, fruit, oil, and wine, besides safiaon and hemp; but from the want of convenient harbours and good roads, there is no encouragement to exportation. The country is therefore in general desolate, and the peasantry poor and uncomfortable. The climate is cold, though salubrious; the country being traversed by the Apennines, which are always covered with snow. Among the stupendous mountains which continually arrest the eve of the traveller, Mon te-Corno and Majella are the most interesting. The former presents a rugged and broken front, and is al most inaccessible, while the declivities of Majella are clothed with rich fields, and an immense variety of plants. These mountains are infested with wolves and
bears, which commit great depredations in the winter. The cheer and the tiger-cat, or lynx, are.also found in the woods. In the province of Abruzzo is the cele br:vtcd emissary of the emperor Claudius, for draining the beautiful and romantic lake of Culano, anciently called Fly-intts. This tnissary is a roe ered under ground canal, three miles long. A great part of it is ut out of the solid rock, awl the remaining part is imported by with large opeitings to admit the light and the air. According to Stu t0ntus, 30000 men ed for (ICY( 11 y1;:lrs in this SillpendOUS oil:, which was intended to convey the superfluous Watcrs of the lake Celano into the bed of the rivet' f la t igliano. The emissary being now tilled up with rub bish, the waters of this lake, which is above thirty miles in circumlc:cnce, are making rapid encroach ments on the rich and cultivated plains which sur round it; and unless the canal is a 'Lined and repaired, the lake will soon inundate the numerous villages which smile upon its banks. See Phil. Trans. 1785, p. '368; and So inburne's Travas, v. iv. p. 378. (w)