718 



SWITZERLAND. 



22. Army and JSTavy. The Turkish army in war has been estimateu ai upwards ol 300,000 

 men. The present Sultan has succeeded in the attempt in which all his predecessors failed, 

 to introduce European discipline. The navy has lately been stated at 20 ships of the hne, 

 with 15 frigates, and a few smaller vessels. The sailors are inexpert and undisciplined. 



23. History. The origin of the Turks, although comparatively recent, is obscure. Their 

 name begins to appear in history about the middle of the 6th century, when they attracted no- 

 tice as a Scythian tribe, settled at the foot of the Altaian mountains, between Siberia and 

 China. The Saracen caliphs of Bagdad chose tlieir body-guards from this tribe ; and the 

 Turkish chiefs, gradually assuming authority, at length engrossed the whole power of the state 

 and elevated themselves to the throne. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Turkish dynasties 

 reigned in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, but the proper founder of the Ottoman Empire was 

 Osman, or Othman, a predatory chief, who conquered Asia Minor, and assumed the thle of 

 sultan, in 1300. Mahomet the Second conquered Constantinople in 1453, and this was the 

 overthrow of the Greek Empire. 



The rapid progress of the Turkish arms, threatened the downfall of Christendom, but the 

 vigorous resistance of the Christian powers checked their incursions into the west of Europe, 

 and in the 17th century the Ottoman power began to decline ; it encountered, the following 

 century, a new enemy in the Russians, who first displayed to the world the secret of its intrin- 

 sic weakness. The same nation may be considered as having accomplished the overthrow of 

 the Turkish influence in our own days, when in 1828 a Russian army crossed the Balkan, ad- 

 vanced nearly to the gates of Constantinople, and dictated a peace to the Sultan. Turkey is 

 no longer considered a fu'st-rate European power, and, since that period, has been obliged to 

 submit to the loss of Greece. Still more recently she has been subjected to the deeper humil- 

 iation, of seeing her empire nearly subverted by the Pacha of Egypt, who has torn from her 

 some of her finest provinces. 



CHAPTER XCI. SWITZERLAND. 



chamois. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



1. Boundaries and Extent. Switzerland is bounded north by the grand duchy of Baden 

 and the kingdom of Wurtemberg ; east by the Austrian province of Tyrol ; south by the 

 Sardinian and the Lombardo-Venetian States, and west by France. It extends from 45° 50' 

 to 47° 50' IN latitude, and from 5° 50' to 10° 30' E. longitude. Its length from east to west 

 is 200 miles, its breadth from north to south 130 ; and its superficial extent has been estimated 

 at 17,000 square miles. 



2. Mountains and Valleys. Two distinct ranges of mountains traverse Switzerland. The 

 chain of the Jura stretches from southwest to northeast. The Jllps form a more extensive 

 chain, and run nearly parallel to the Jura with numerous branches known among geographers 

 by the names of the Pennine, Lepontine, and RhcBtian Alps. These mountains cover a great 

 part of the country and exhibit inaccessible peaks covered with snow ; eternal and boundless 

 wastes of ice ; valleys surrounded by immense precipices ; in contrast with wooded and undu- 



