GEOGRAPHY. 57 



vvalden Alps extending towards the north. The Jura Mountain, in the 

 north-west, is of greatest elevation in Mont Tendre and Dole. The plateau 

 of the Aar is ah/iost everywhere at least 1200 feet high. 



Rivers. 1. The Rhone pours out of the glacier of the Rhone at the foot 

 of the Furca, flows through the Lake of Geneva, forms for a time the 

 boundary between Savoy and France, and finally enters the latter country. 

 2. The Rhine rises in the Grisons, by the union of the Lower and Middle 

 Rhine, to which subsequently joins the Upper Rhine ; it then flows 

 through Lake Constance, and ultimately leaves Switzerland at Basel. 

 Tributaries : on the right, the Inn ; on the left, Thur, Aar (with Emme, 

 Reuss, Limmat, Saane, Zihl), and Birs. 3. The Inn, a tributary of the 

 Danube, comes from a lake on the Maloja Mountain, and leaves Switzer- 

 land at Finstermiinz. 4. The Tessin, a tributary of the Po, comes from the 

 St. Gotthard. Among the numerous lakes, the largest are : Geneva or 

 Leman, area 176 square geographical miles, Constance 144 do., Lakes 

 Neufchatel, Zurich, Vierwaldstatt or Luzerne, Brienne, Wallenstadt, and Zug. 



The climate of Switzerland is milder on the plains than in most parts of 

 Germany, although becoming more and more severe with increasing 

 elevation of the land ; an eternal winter reigns on the summits of the Alps. 

 The dairy yields better than the ploughed field, and grain is not produced in 

 sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the inhabitants. The most 

 important products of Switzerland are flax, hemp, tobacco, medicinal 

 plants, zinc, cobalt, iron, marble, clay, lime, gypsum, slate, stone coal, and 

 peat. Silver, copper, and lead, are only obtained in small quantities. 



The population of Switzerland is mostly of the German stock : they 

 speak dialects of the German language, excepting the Italians in the south 

 (about 120,000), and the French in six cantons of the west(about 450,000). 

 The Romanic language is spoken in part of the Grisons. The census of 1 837 

 gave 2,190,258 inhabitants (among them 54,767 foreigners). There are 

 about 1,200,000 Protestants and 800,000 Roman Catholics, together with 

 800 Jews (in two villages) and 900 Anabaptists (in Bern). The Roman 

 Catholic cantons are Luzerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, part of Appenzell, 

 Tessin, and Valais ; the rest are mixed Catholic and Protestant. 



Politically, Switzerland, or the Swiss alliance, is a confederacy formed by 

 twenty-three minor free states or sovereign cantons, which became united 

 into one, September 12th, 1848. According to the new arrangement, the 

 supreme power is vested in a diet consisting of two sections : one, the 

 Nationalrath (one member to every 20,000 souls of the entire population, 

 now a hundred and eleven in all) and the Standerath (forty-six deputies of 

 the cantons, two from each). The supreme executive power is a court of 

 seven members, elected by the diet for three years. 



The armi/ amounted, in 1841, to 64,019 soldiers. Each canton is obliged 

 to furnish three men to every 100 souls of the Swiss population. 



Divisions. The Swiss cantons are as follows: 1. Zurich, 953 square 

 (English statute) miles, population 237,480, capital of the same name on 

 the Limmat and Lake Zurich, with 14,300 inhabitants. 2. Bern, 3665 

 square miles, pop. 411,4'J'O, cap. of same name on the Aar, pop. 22,500. 3. 



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