It would have been satisfactory to
know the number of the Lombard navigators from time to time employed in
excavating the lagoons, as well as of the native laborers, who carry on
operations after their departure; but we may with certainty infer the
successive appearance of fresh soffioni on the sides of the mountains
from the perpetually-recurring necessity of excavating new lagoons.
Again, from the immense increase of borax produced in former times we
may safely infer its increase in future. The quantity obtained was
quadrupled in four years by superior methods of extraction, by economy
of water and vapor, and other improvements suggested by experience.
There can, therefore, be no doubt in our minds that similar improvements
will produce similar results. In 1832, about 650,000 Tuscan pounds were
obtained; in 1836, 2,500,000.

We quote the following suggestion from the observation of a traveler:
"It appears to me that the power and riches of these extraordinary
districts remain yet to be fully developed. They exhibit an immense
number of mighty steam-engines, furnished by nature at no cost, and
applicable to the production of an infinite variety of objects. In the
progress of time this vast machinery of heat and force will probably
become the moving central point of extensive manufacturing
establishments. The steam which has been so ingeniously applied to the
concentration and evaporation of the boracic acid, will probably
hereafter, instead of wasting itself in the air, be employed to move
huge engines, which will be directed to the infinite variety of
production which engages the attention of the industrious artisans; and
thus in course of time there can be little doubt that these lagoons,
which were fled from as objects of danger and terror by uninstructed
man, will gather round them a large, intelligent population, and become
sources of prosperity to innumerable individuals through countless
generations."

Whoever has traveled through Tuscany, will every where have observed
that the peasants live in better houses than they do any where else in
Europe. Some one has said that nearly all their dwellings have been
built within the last eighty years, an observation which in itself shows
the substantial nature of their tenements, for where else will a
peasant's house last so long? In the secluded mountain valleys, where
agriculture supplies the only employment of the industrious classes, you
sometimes meet with very an