SWITZERLAND 



5659 



SWITZERLAND 



"fidelity of the Swiss." In 1815 a corps of Swiss 

 guards was reorganized by Louis XVIII, but 

 they were defeated and dispersed in the Revo- 

 lution of 1830. 

 The Pope of Rome maintains a bodyguard of 



Swiss known as the Papal Guard, composed 

 of picked men possessing the well-known Swiss 

 qualities of courage, intelligence and fidelity. 



An illustration of the Lion of Lucerne appears 

 on page 3530 in these volumes. 



WIT'ZERLAND, a small republic of 

 Western Europe, one of the most advanced 

 democracies in the world, and one of the oldest 

 republics. This little country, sometimes called 

 "the playground of Europe," is far from being 

 a playground to its sturdy inhabitants, who 

 have established, in a land of many natural dis- 

 advantages, a prosperous and contented nation. 

 Though it encompasses some of the loftiest 

 peaks of Europe, Switzerland has an area of but 

 15,976 square miles, which is less than one- 

 fourth the area of the New England states, or 

 about half that of Maine. It has no seacoasts, 

 being entirely surrounded by other nations. 

 Germany and the Lake of Constance are on 

 the 'north, Austria-Hungary and Liechtenstein 

 on the east, Italy and Lake Geneva on the 

 south and France on the west. 



General Features. The snow-clad Alps and 

 the Jura range cover about three-fourths of the 

 whole land, making Switzerland the most 

 mountainous country on the continent. The 

 Alps extend over the southern and central sec- 

 tions, and the Jura Mountains form a great 

 curve in the northwestern part. Between these 

 two mountain masses is an elevated plain where 

 the majority of the people find habitation. 



In the Swiss Juras there are no very lofty ele- 

 vations, the highest summit, the Dole, being a 

 little over a mile above the sea, but their 

 glacier-robed sister ranges send up many tower- 

 ing peaks, culminating in Monte Rosa (15,217). 

 Mount Saint Gotthard is the center of the 

 great Alpine ranges, whose splendid scenery has 

 attracted visitors from all over the world. 



Waters. Four of the important rivers of 

 Europe make their way through Switzerland, 

 draining into three different seas. The Rhine, 

 made up of the Vorder-Rhine and Hinter- 

 Rhine, flows into the North Sea. The Rhone 

 rises in the great Rhone Glacier, receives various 

 mountain streams, widens into Lake Geneva 



and flows finally into the Mediterranean. The 

 Ticino, through the Po, drains into the Adri- 

 atic, an arm of the Mediterranean. The Inn 

 drains into the Danube and into the Black Sea. 



Besides its rivers, Switzerland has many 

 lakes, and these are famous for the grandeur of 

 their scenery. The two largest, Geneva and 

 Constance, are at the southwest and north- 

 east corners of the country, on the borders of 

 France and Germany, respectively. On the 

 shores of Lake Geneva stands the Castle of 

 Chillon, made famous by the poet Byron in his 

 Prisoner of Chillon (see illustration, page 1339). 

 Around Lake Lucerne, in the west-central part 

 of Switzerland, lived the men who laid the 

 foundations of Swiss freedom. The Lake of 

 Thun, southwest of Lucerne, is another very 

 beautiful Swiss lake. On the south, between 

 Italy and Switzerland, are Lake Maggiore and 

 Lake Lugano. Lake Neuchatel, the largest 

 wholly in the country, is in the extreme west. 

 The Rhine basin contains nineteen large, and 

 thirty-seven small, lakes, and there are numer- 

 ous Alpine tarns. 



The melting of the snow in the mountains 

 causes many mountain torrents which, milky- 

 white in color, rush down to the valleys. Swit- 

 zerland is noted, too, for its waterfalls. The 

 highest of these is Staubbach, in the Lauter- 

 brunnen valley, a lovely veil-like cascade which 

 falls over a thousand feet. The Handeck, near 

 the source of the Aar, falls 225 feet, and the 

 Pissevache, in the Rhone valley, 200 feet. The 

 Reichenbach descends in seven falls and the 

 Grissbach in thirteen. The falls of the Rhine 

 at Schaffhausen are only eighty-two feet in 

 height, but an enormous mass of water de- 

 scends. 



People. In the racial characteristics of its 

 people, Switzerland reveals two sharply con- 

 trasting strains the Celtic and the Teutonic. 

 In this country there are only thirty Celts to 



