the west and south of the
island they either terminate abruptly on the shore or run out to a great
distance into the sea, forming picturesque bays and gulfs, some of which
afford excellent harbours. The highest peaks are the Monts Cinto (8881
ft.), Rotondo (8612), Paglia Orba (8284), Padro (7851) and d'Oro (7845).
On the eastern side of the island, between Bastia and Porto Vecchio,
there intervenes between the mountains and the sea a considerable tract
of low and unhealthy, but fertile country, and the coast is fringed in
places by lagoons.

_Geology._--Corsica may be divided into two parts, which are
geologically distinct, by a line drawn from Belgodere through Corte to
the east coast near Favone. West of this line the island is composed
chiefly of granite, with a large mass of granophyres, quartz
porphyries and similar rocks forming the high mountains around Mt.
Cinto; but between the Gulfs of Porto and Galeria, schists, limestones
and anthracite, containing fossils of Upper Carboniferous age, occur.
The famous orbicular diorite of Corsica is found near Sta.
Lucia-di-Tallano in the arrondissement of Sartene. In the eastern part
of the island the predominant rocks are schists of unknown age, with
intrusive masses of serpentine and euphotide. Folded amongst the
schists are Strips of Upper Carboniferous beds similar to those of the
west coast. Overlying these more ancient rocks are limestones with
Rhaetic and Liassic fossils, occurring in small patches at Oletta,
Morosaglia, &c. Nummulitic limestone of Eocene age is found near St
Florent, and occupies several large basins near the boundary between
the granite and the schist. Miocene molasse with _Clypeaster_, &c.,
forms the plain of Aleria on the east coast, and occurs also at St
Florent in the north and Bonifacio in the south. A small patch of
Pliocene has been found near Aleria. The caves of Corsica, especially
in the neighbourhood of Bastia, contain numerous mammalian remains,
the commonest of which belong to _Lagomys corsicanus_, Cuv.

See Hollande, "Geologie de la Corse," _Ann. sci. geol._, vol. ix.
(1877); Nentien, "Etudes sur les gites mineraux de la Corse," _Ann.
Mines Paris_, ser. 9, vol. xii. pp. 231-296, pi. v. (1897).

Corsica is well watered by rivers and torrents, which, though short in
their course, bring down large volumes of water from the mountains. The
longest is the Golo, which rises in the pastoral