PADUS, ERIDANUS, one of the great rivers of Europe, which traverses the north of Italy from west to east. It has its source in Monte Viso, one of the Cottian Alps, flows north-east to Turin, passes that capital, holds an easterly course throughout the whole length of Lombardy, separating Austrian Italy from Parma, Modena, and the Ecclesiastical States, and discharges itself by a number of mouths into the Adriatic, about thirty miles to the south of Venice. In its course, which, including its windings, is upwards of 500 miles, it receives a great number of rivers, flowing in full current from the Alps on the north, and in less copious but equally rapid streams from the Apennines on the south. Of these tributary waters the principal are, the Dora Riparia, the Dora Baltea, the Stura, the Orco, the Sesia, the Tanaro, the Ticino, the Adda, the Olona, the Oglio, the Mincio, the Crostolo, and the Panaro. The Po, rising in a very mountainous country, soon becomes a large river, and is sufficiently deep to float boats and barges at thirty miles from its source; but its current is often so rapid that the navigation is at all seasons difficult, and not unfrequently hazardous. Hence, though it passes in its progress more than fifty towns, little advantage comparatively is derived from it for the conveyance of merchandise. Its volume of water is subject to sudden increase from the melting of the snows, and from heavy falls of rain, the rivers that flow into it being almost all mountain streams; and in the flat country, in the lower part of its course, this would have been attended with very destructive effects, if great dykes had not been constructed to confine it within its channel. The gravel rolled down from the mountains has progressively raised the bed of the river, and the protecting mounds have also been correspondingly elevated; so that the Po, in the lower part of its course, presents the singular spectacle of a vast body of water, the level of which is higher than that of the adjoining country. Its borders, interspersed with trees and villages, display great luxuriance of vegetation, and are extremely pleasant, though by no means picturesque. This river, like the Rhine, is crossed by flying bridges. A post is fixed in the middle of the stream, and a rope conveyed from it to the passage raft, by means of a number of small boats which form the connecting links; and these boats being pressed on by the current, guide the raft to the opposite side, with no other assistance than that of an oar. The raft usually consists of two barges horded over, and encompassed with a rail. Lastly, the basin of the Po has been the theatre of some of the most remarkable military operations of modern times; more particularly of the campaigns of Eugene, Napoleon, and Suvorov, who, each in his turn, decided, for the time, the fate of Italy.