SWITZERLAND 



5660 



SWITZERLAND 



every seventy Teutons, and the Celts are fur- 

 ther weakened by being separated into three 

 divisions the Gallic, Italian and Romansh. 

 Of these three divisions the Gallic speak 

 French, the Italian speak Italian, and the Ro- 

 mansh their own language, a sort of rustic 

 Latin, which is slowly dying out. The use of 

 French, Italian and German, on the other 

 hand, grows with the increase of the population. 

 Indeed, German is spoken in every canton, al- 

 though it predominates in the northern cantons 

 and in Zurich, Bern and Lucerne. French is 

 the prevailing tongue in Neuchatel, Geneva, 

 Valais, Vaud and Fribourg. 



A glance at the map will show that the races 

 have followed their, natural divisions in the 

 settling of the country, and that in the north 

 Teutonic names predominate, while the Celtic 

 cantons touch the French and Italian borders of 

 the c o u ntry. 

 There are two 

 exceptions to the 

 general rule re- 

 garding racial 

 predominances in 

 population. One 

 exception is in 

 the Rhone valley, 

 the other near 

 the Rhine. 



These exceptions except ~*S*erbfa""which "is" en- 

 are caused by the tirely landlocke(i - 

 nature of the mountain barriers which divide 

 Switzerland from its neighbors. Five passes 

 give Germany access to the Upper Rhone, while 

 the French have but one. On the other hand, 

 Germany has no easy access through the moun- 

 tains to the Rhine, while on the southern bank 

 there are many easy paths into the Italian val- 

 leys. As a consequence the upper waters of 

 the Rhone are possessed by the Teutonic race 

 and the Upper Rhine by the Celtic. But, gen- 

 erally speaking, the Teutonic cantons are found 

 in the northern, and the Italian and French in 

 the southern, half of the country. According 

 to the census of 1910 the whole population was 

 3,741,971. In 1913 it was estimated to be 3,877,- 

 210. The chief cities are Zurich, Basel, Geneva, 

 Bern and Lausanne. 



The religious divisions of Switzerland follow 

 the lines of its racial settlement, and the north- 

 ern cantons are largely Protestant. The Lu- 

 theran and Calvinistic sects predominate in 

 these sections. In the southern cantons the 

 people are for the greater part Roman Catho- 

 lics, and the farther south one travels the more 



LOCATION MAP 

 The only country of Europe 



frequently appear the great wooden crucifixes 

 at turns in the road, or sheltered shrines to the 

 Madonna on lonely mountain pathways. 



Naturally, this old amalgamation of races, as 

 well as the great variations in the nature of 

 the surface of the land itself, does not tend to 

 make a wholly united people with similar na- 

 tional characteristics. As has been said by one 

 of its own people, Switzerland has nominally 

 twenty-two states, but actually five hundred 

 states, or communes, each with its own local 

 life and customs and independent claims. 

 There is, however, a Swiss character which the 

 world recognizes as such. Coupled with an en- 

 thusiasm for liberty is the plain, practical good 

 sense that enabled the Swiss to work out a 

 stable form of government. 



With the movement which gave Switzerland 

 its freedom from Austria, the peasants on the 

 mountain sides, wresting a bare living from 

 their "alps," or mountain pastures, had little to 

 do. They were benumbed spiritually and intel- 

 lectually by the 

 intense hardship 

 of their lives, and 

 were unthinking, 

 subservient vas- 

 sals to the over- 

 lord who ruled 

 them. It was the 

 pastoral life 

 about the shores 

 of Lake Lucerne 

 which produced a race of men able to organize 

 a peasant army and lead it to victory against 

 the army of an empire. Even to-day the peas- 

 ants who inhabit the highland villages have 

 continually a severe struggle to gain a liveli- 

 hood. They have not only the nature of the 

 ground and the long, cold winters to contend 

 with, but are in constant danger from ava- 

 lanches which may wipe out whole communi- 

 ties within a few minutes. Yet these Swiss 

 men and women accept their fate with stoical 

 fortitude, and refuse to move away from the 

 farms which their forefathers have possessed 

 for generations. 



In the valley of the Vorder-Rhine. grain is 

 cultivated at the highest known elevation in 

 Europe. This is near the village of Tschamut, 

 5,400 feet above the level of the sea. The 

 grain is rye, and the growing season is so short 

 that the peasants have erected a rude but in- 

 genious drying apparatus in the fields, so they 

 will not have to depend upon the inconstant 

 sun to dry their harvests. But there are many 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 

 Switzerland is about as large 

 as Massachusetts, Connecti- 

 cut and two Rhode Islands. 



