SWITZERLAND. 



773 



square miles 20 are pasture-land, 17 forest, 11 

 arable, 20 meadow, 1 vineyard, and 30 uncul- 

 tivated, including lakes, mountains, and rivers. 



Emigration was formerly considerable. It 

 declined for several years, but has recently as- 

 sumed larger proportions than ever, owing to 

 the stringency of the military service, and the 

 agricultural attractions of the United States. 

 Between 1868 and 1875 the average annual 

 emigration was 5,170. In 1876 the number 

 of emigrants was 1,741 ; in 1877, 1,691 ; 2,608, 

 in 1878; 4,257, in 1879; 7,255, in 1880; and 

 in. 1881, 10,935. Of the latter number 9,996 

 emigrated to North America. 



COMMERCE. The value of the exports and 

 imports is not published by the custom-house 

 authorities. All merchandise is classified un- 

 der the heads of goods taxed by weight, ad 

 valorem goods, or live-stock. The imports 

 consist chiefly of articles of food ; the ex- 

 ports of cotton and silk manufactures, watch- 

 es, straw hats, and machinery. The importa- 

 tion of live-stock, in 1881, was 254,997 head, 

 the exportation, 106,296. Nearly all other 

 articles are measured in quintals. The com- 

 merce with the adjacent countries in the classes 

 of goods taxed by the quintal was, in 1881, 

 as follows, in metric quintals, of 220 pounds 

 avoirdupois : 



The principal exports in 1879 consisted of 

 84,000 quintals of silk fabrics, 347,280 of cot- 

 ton manufactures, 1,532 of watches, and 106,- 

 193 of machinery, besides the exports of cheese 

 and other articles of food. 



The railroads open to traffic in the beginning 

 of 1881 had a length of 1,600 miles, or over 

 one mile to every ten square miles of surface. 



There were thirteen companies. The total 



capital invested was 962,165,525 francs; the 

 cost of construction, 747,350,802 francs ; the 

 number of passengers conveyed in 1880, 21,- 

 608,581 ; merchandise transported, 5,817,008 

 tons ; receipts, 60,020,371 francs, of which 23,- 

 880,719 was from passengers and 31,706,747 

 from freight; operating expenses, 31,497,203 

 francs. 



The length of the state telegraph lines at 

 the beginning of 1882 was 4,140 miles; of 

 wires, 10,100 miles. The number of domestic 

 messages was 1, 837,385 ; of international, 879,- 

 727 ; dispatched and received, in transit, 329,- 

 798; official, 83,079; total, 3,129,989. The 

 receipts were 2,453,972 francs; the expenses, 

 1,963,666 francs. 



The number of post-offices in 1881 was 803; 

 the number of letters carried, 80,751,538, of 

 which 24,530,310 were foreign ; the number 

 of newspapers sent from Switzerland and Ger- 

 many, 51,472,806; arrived from Germany and 

 Austria, 1,171,913; number of passengers on 

 postal coaches, 829,269; receipts, 15,998,837 

 francs; expenditures, 13,964,554 francs. 



The most remarkable feature of the Swiss 

 post-office is the large amounts of money it 

 transfers in money orders, and the numbers 

 of packages and boxes it forwards. The 

 money orders in 1881 amounted to over 240,- 

 000,000 francs. There were about 12,500,000 

 small parcels received and delivered within the 

 limits of the Confederation, and 11,000,000 re- 

 ceived from or forwarded to foreign countries. 

 There were, moreover, 6,806,901 boxes and 

 large packages distributed. 



According to the returns of the Universal 

 Postal Union at Bern, the countries constitut- 

 ing the Union received and dispatched 3,866,- 

 000,000 letters, 649,000,000 ordinary postal- 

 cards, 1,000,000 postal-cards with answers pre- 

 paid, 1,983,000,000 newspapers, 1,098,000,000 

 printed inclosures, 64,000,000 samples, and 

 98,000,000 small parcels. The amount of 

 money paid in post-office orders aggregated 



