ufemia to Catanzaro and Catanzaro Marina crosses
the isthmus, and an ancient road may have run from Squillace to
Monteleone. The second group extends to the south end of the Italian
peninsula, culminating in the Aspromonte (6420 ft.) to the east of
Reggio di Calabria. In both groups the rivers are quite unimportant.

_Character_.--The Apennines are to some extent clothed with forests,
though these were probably more extensive in classical times (Pliny
mentions especially pine, oak and beech woods, _Hist. Nat_. xvi. 177);
they have indeed been greatly reduced in comparatively modern times by
indiscriminate timber-felling, and though serious attempts at
reafforestation have been made by the government, much remains to be
done. They also furnish considerable summer pastures, especially in the
Abruzzi: Pliny (_Hist. Nat_. xi. 240) praises the cheese of the
Apennines. In the forests wolves were frequent, and still are found, the
flocks being protected against them by large sheep-dogs; bears, however,
which were known in Roman times, have almost entirely disappeared. Nor
are the wild goats called _rotae_, spoken of by Varro (_R. R._ II. i.
5), which may have been either chamois or steinbock, to be found.
Brigandage appears to have been prevalent in Roman times in the remoter
parts of the Apennines, as it was until recently: an inscription found
near the Furlo pass was set up in A.D. 246 by an _evocatus Augusti_ (a
member of a picked corps) on special police duty with a detachment of
twenty men from the Ravenna fleet (G. Henzen in _Romische Mitteilungen_,
1887, 14). Snow lies on the highest peaks of the Apennines for almost
the whole year. The range produces no minerals, but there are a
considerable number of good mineral springs, some of which are thermal
(such as Bagni di Lucca, Monte Catini, Monsummano, Porretta, Telese,
&c.), while others are cool (such as Nocera, Sangemini, Cinciano, &c.),
the water of which is both drunk on the spot and sold as table water
elsewhere. (T. As.)

_Geology_.--The Apennines are the continuation of the Alpine chain, but
the individual zones of the Alps cannot be traced into the Apennines.
The zone of the Brianconnais (see ALPS) may be followed as far as the
Gulf of Genoa, but scarcely beyond, unless it is represented by the
Trias and older beds of the Apuan Alps. The inner zone of crystalline
and schistose rocks which forms the main chain of the Alps, is absent in
the Apennines except tow