Mare Island
an island in San Pablo Bay, Cal., 28 miles N. of San MARGARET Francisco. Here are located a United States naval arsenal and dockyard. These include wet and dry docks, marine barracks, ordnance yards, a hospital, and extensive repair shops. It is the station for the Pacific Fleet, and during the World War was the scene of many important naval activities. MAREMMA (mä-rem'mä), a marshy region of Italy, extending along the sea coast of Tuscany from the Cecina river to Orbitello; area of about 1,000 square miles. In Roman times and earlier the Maremma was a fruitful and populous plain; but the decay of agriculture fostered malaria, which now reigns supreme in a great part of this district. Leopold II. of Tuscany directed especial attention (1824-1844) to the drainage and amelioration of the Maremma, and his efforts and subsequent measures have been attended with considerable success.
Crops are now grown in the summer on the fertile soil of the infected area by the inhabitants of the adjoining hill country, who go down only to sow and to reap their crops. During winter the Maremma is healthier and yields good pasture.
MARENGO (mä-ren'gō), a village of northern Italy, in a marshy district, near the Bormida, 3 miles S. E. of Alessandria. Here on June 14, 1800, Napoleon, with 33,000 French, defeated 30,500 Austrians under Melas. MAREOTIS (mā-re-ō'tis), or MA- REIA (ma-rē'yä), LAKE (the modern El Mariut), a salt lake or marsh in the N. of Egypt, extending S. from Alexandria, and separated from the Mediterranean, on its N. W. side, by a narrow isthmus of sand. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was a navigable lake; in 1798 it was found by the French to be a dry, sandy plain; but in 1801 the English army cut the dikes of the canal that separated the Lake of Aboukir from Mareotis, to cut off the water supply of the French, and Mareotis became once more a marsh. The like happened again in 1803, in 1807, and in 1882; on the last occasion the sea was introduced directly through a cutting 15 feet wide and half a mile long.