802 S W I T Z E 
Switzerland ; while-the Rhine, holding at first a north-east 
course, encircles a part of the cantons, flows through the 
lake of Constance and Zell, and receives successively the 
Thur, the Limmat, the Reuss, and the Aar, which, joined 
to its own waters, render it, ere quitting the Swiss territory, 
the second river in Europe. 
The lakes of Switzerland are numerous: the principal 
are those of Geneva, Constance, Neufchatel, Bienne, Zurich, 
Wallenstadt, Waldstadter or Lucerne, Thun, and Brientz. 
Most of them are navigable, an accommodation of great 
importance in a country where, from the unevenness of the 
surface, land carriage is both difficult and expensive. On 
this account a number of the towns of Switzerland are 
situated on the side of lakes; and the mountains, rising 
from the shore, frequently in an amphitheatrical form, 
render the scenery beautiful and romantic. 
Climate. —No country exhibits a greater variety of tem¬ 
perature than Switzerland. While the valleys, or the bases 
of the mountains, enjoy the warmth of an Italian sun, the 
ascent discovers a scanty vegetation, and the summit is 
doomed to all the rigours of an Icelandic winter. In the 
Alpine cantons it is not unusual to observe, in the higher 
part of a mountain, the corn little advanced towards maturity 
while in the low grounds the peasantry are engaged in the 
labours of harvest. Such a contrast is not, however, ex¬ 
hibited in the northern and level part of the country, where 
the climate differs little from that of the south of Germany. 
In winter, however, the degree of cold is greater even in the 
valleys of Switzerland, than in most parts of France or Ger¬ 
many, in consequence, doubtless, of the accumulation of 
snow and ice on the adjacent mountains. Sudden storms, 
particularly of hail, occur frequently, and render the culture 
of the vine precarious. 
Agriculture. —The most striking feature of Swiss hus¬ 
bandry to a foreigner is the care with which a number of 
lofty and uninviting trackshave been cultivated. In travelling 
through the country, one is surprised at seeing vines and 
rich pasturages in spots which at one time can have been 
little else than naked and sterile rocks. He observes the 
traces of the plough on spots where, to judge from appear¬ 
ances, even wild animals could hardly pass without hazard. 
The products of Switzerland are wheat, barley, oats, maize, 
flax, hemp, and tobacco. The fruits of most frequent 
occurrence are vines, chesnuts, prunes, peaches, walnuts, 
cherries; in the colder situations, apples and pears; and in 
the southern valleys the almond and fig; the latter, however, 
in small quantities. Wood, both for building and fuel, is 
found in most parts of the country. But the stock of com 
raised is considerably below the consumption of the in¬ 
habitants. An annual import is necessary, • and in some 
rugged and secluded districts it is so scarce, that the inhabit¬ 
ants are almost strangers to the use of bread, and- subsist on 
the produce of their dairies. The breeding of cattle, a 
branch of industry pointed out by the abundance of pasture, 
and the difficulties attending tillage, forms the grand source 
of national subsistence in Switzerland. The herds are 
driven to the mountains in spring, and graze there until the 
approach of winter forces them to descend gradually into 
the more sheltered districts. Cheese, butter, tallow, hides, 
form the chief articles of export from the pastoral 
districts. After large cattle, the animals chiefly raised 
are goats, sheep, and hogs. The summits of the Alps 
are occupied by the chamois, the wild goat, the white 
and red fox, and a kind of hare which, in summer, resembles 
the hare of Britain, but in winter becomes as white as snow. 
Trade and Manufactures. —Without possessing a pro¬ 
ductive soil, or the benefit of a maritime situation, Switzer¬ 
land is less deprived of trade than might be expected in so 
mountainous a country. The conveyance of goods along 
the Aar, the Reuss, and the Rhine, facilitates its inter¬ 
course with Germany and the Netherlands. The Rhone, 
though more difficult of navigation, serves in some 
measure the same purpose in regard to France. The ex¬ 
ports are linen, cotton cloth, woollens, and, in a small de- 
R L A N J). 
gree, silks ; also cattle, sheep, hides, tallow, butter, and 
cheese. The chief imports are corn from Germany; salt 
from Tyrol and Franche Comte; spices, dyewoods,groceries, 
and other colonial produce from Holland;, raw silk from 
Italy, and some manufactured articles, such as hardware and 
cotton yarn, from England. 
The manufactures of Switzerland are very diversified ; 
linen, lace, thread, and woollens, are of old standing; 
cottons have been introduced, or at least extended, since 
the latter part of the 18th century; clocks and watches have 
long been staple articles at Geneva and Neufchatel; while 
leather gloves, silks, porcelain, pottery, toys, tobacco, and 
snuff, are made in various places. 
'Education. — Of the seminaries of Switzerland, the 
principal are the celebrated university of Geneva, and 
the university of Bale, which, though less comprehen¬ 
sive in its objects, and less known out of the limits 
of Switzerland, has given education to several men of 
eminence. There are academies or colleges at Zurich, 
Berne, and Lausanne, and schools of good repute in various 
towns, in particular Neufchatel, Shcaff'hausen, and St. Gall; 
also at Coire, the small sequestered capital of the Grisons. 
Among literary associations are to be mentioned the Helvetic 
society of Bale, the physical of Zurich, and the economical 
of Berne. The superiority of the Protestants over the Catho¬ 
lics in education, is as conspicuous here as in Germany. In 
regard to improvements in the plan of educating, it suffices 
to mention the names of Pestallozzi and Fellenberg, both 
inhabitants of Switzerland. Nor is there here any reluctance 
to borrow improvements from other countries, the method 
of Bell and Lancaster having been introduced in several of 
the principal towns. 
Among the eminent men produced by Switzerland, since 
the revival of letters in Europe, one of the earliest was 
Zuinglius, the theologian and cotemporary of Luther, follow¬ 
ed by Calvin, who, though born in France, was educated 
at Geneva. At the same time lived Paracelsus, the well 
known physician and alchymist; and at a much later date, 
Haller the naturalist; Gesner, who has been called the Theo¬ 
critus of Germany; the two Bernouillis, eminent mathe¬ 
maticians; Saussure the naturalist; along with Necker, Rous¬ 
seau, and Lavater, all three of the last age, and all distin¬ 
guished, though in a very different manner. 
Few countries in the west of Europe have so great a diver¬ 
sity of language as Switzerland. French is spoken all along 
the western line, viz., at Geneva, in the Pays de Vaud, in 
the Valais, at Neufchatel, and in a part of the cantons of 
Berne, Friburg, and Soleure. In the southern canton of 
the Ticino, in the Valteline, and in a few valleys of the Gri¬ 
sons, Italian is in use ; while in the remainder of the Grisons, 
the language spoken is the Romanesk, or Romana rustica. 
Throughout all the rest of Switzerland, the language used, 
both currently and for the publication of the acts of go¬ 
vernment, is German. 
National Character .—The Swiss have in general the 
characteristics of an agricultural people, accustomed to in¬ 
dependence; strangers in a great measure to the habits 
acquired in large towns, and still more to those that are 
engendered by connection with a court. Education is, in 
several of the Protestant cantons, as generally diffused as in 
Scotland; offences are not frequent, crimes extremely rare, 
and the infliction of capital punishment not often necessary. 
Hospitality, frankness, attachment to home when at a dis¬ 
tance from it, are the well known characteristics of a people 
in a primitive state of society; they are those of the Swiss, 
at least of the majority of them; for in Bale and other 
trading towns, a foreigner would be at some loss to recognise 
the boasted disinterestedness of these republicans. From 
the necessity of maintaining their independence against 
powerful neighbours, the Swiss have long been formed into 
corps of national militia, and regularly called out to exer¬ 
cise ; habits which, joined to the very limited field for 
industry at home, have led, during nearly three centuries, to 
the practice of letting troops for hire to foreign powers, in 
particular 
