FROM the dry and arid country of the East we pass to a land totally different in every respect; a land of mountains and lakes, a land of valleys teeming with vegetation, a land of glaciers, torrents, and waterfalls. Switzerland is a small republic, situated in the very heart of the European Continent; its greatest length is only two hundred miles, and breadth one hundred and fifty-six, containing about fifteen thousand square miles, or about one third as large as the State of New York: its population is less than the State of Pennsylvania. It is divided into twenty-two distinct provinces, or cantons, which are united in the form of a federal republic. The Alps divide it from Germany on the east, and from Italy on the south and southeast. Two thirds of its surface consists of lofty mountain chains and Alpine valleys; the renainder is a high plain, thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, situated between Lakes Constance and Geneva.

The principal lakes of Switzerland are Constance, Geneva, Zurich, Lucerne, Thun, Brienz, Neuchatel, and Brienne. The rivers are the Rhine and Rhone: the former flows northeastward into the Lake of Constance, and thence along the northern frontiers; the latter has an opposite direction, passing through the Lake of Geneva, which it leaves at the borders of France. The Aar and Reuss are also considerable rivers. The glaciers of Switzerland are streams of ice, which are continually descending through the clefts in the high mountain chains, fed by the snow which has fallen above the line of congelation. What they lose at the lower end by the action of the sun is supplied by new-fallen snow at the top. One of the most sublime descriptions of a glacier which we have ever read is that of Professor Forbes, which we take the liberty of quoting: "Poets and philosophers have delighted to compare the course of human life to that of a river; perhaps a still apter simile might be found in the glacier. Heaven-descended in its origin, it yet takes its mould and conformation from the hidden womb of the mountains which brought it forth. At first soft and ductile, it acquires a character and firmness of its

HISTORY.

own as an inevitable destiny urges it on its onward career. Jostled and constrained by the crosses and inequalities of its prescribed path, hedged in by impassable barriers, which limits its movements, it yields groaning to its fate, and still travels forward, seamed with the scars of many a conflict with opposing obstacles. All this while, though wasting, it is renewed by an unseen power; it evaporates, but is not consumed. On its surface it bears the spoils which, during the progress of existence, it has made its own; often weighty burdens devoid of beauty or value, at times precious masses sparkling with gems or with ore: having at length attained its greatest width and extension, commanding admiration by its beauty and power, waste predominates over supply; the vital springs begin to fail; it stoops into an attitude of decrepitude; it drops the burdens one by one which it had borne so proudly aloft; its dissolution is inevitable. as it resolved into its elements, it takes all at once a new, and livelier, and disembarrassed form; from the wreck of its members it arises another, yet the same-a nobler, full-bodied, arrowy stream, which leaps rejoicing over the obstacles which before had stayed its progress, and hastens through fertile valleys toward a freer existence, and a final union in the ocean with the boundless and the infinite."

But,

Avalanches are immense quantities of snow which have accumulated on the summit of the mountains, and are continually falling down their steep and precipitous sides, sweeping trees, rocks, and even villages before them in their wild career. Well may Byron call them "thunderbolts of snow."

Switzerland was originally peopled by the Rhetians, who were afterward vanquished by the Helvetians, who in their turn were conquered by the Romans under Julius Cæsar. The Romans founded several fine cities, which were afterward destroyed by the barbarians; they also constructed military roads across the Alps, those of the Great St. Bernard and Splugen, both leading to Basle. After the decline of the Roman empire the country was

successively invaded by the Huns, Ostrogoths, Bourguignons, and the Allemanni, all of whom were conquered by the Franks, who governed it by dukes and counts appointed by the kings of France.

After the dissolution of the empire of Charlemagne the house of Hapsburgh controlled the eastern portion of Switzerland, and the kingdom of Burgundy the western. Under Albert, son of Rudolph of Hapsburgh, the country groaned under the most insupportable tyranny, practiced on the natives by baillis appointed by that sovereign, which, in the end, culminated in a conspiracy, headed by three men from the three forest cantons, viz., Werner Stauffacher, of Schwyz; Walther Fürst, of Uri; and Arnold an der Halden, of Unterwald. The first occasion of the outbreak was the cruelties practiced by one of the baillis, named Gesler, on William Tell, of Bürglen, when the people arose en masse and drove their rulers from the country, razing the fortresses to the ground. This is the legend reported from generation to generation, although the historians of the time make no mention of Tell. We are afraid the whole story originated in the fertile brain of Schiller. After the death of Albert-who was assassinated by his nephew, John of Swabia - Henry of Luxemburg, his successor, permitted the three cantons to remain in open revolt, but his successor, Frederick of Austria, sent an army against them, at the head of which was Duke Leopold. This grand army was defeated by the Swiss near Mortgarten in 1315. Between this time and 1353 the five cantons of Zurich, Lucerne, Zug, Berne, and Glarus joined the confederacy. Argau, St. Gall, Thurgau, Friburg, Solothurn, Grisons, Basle, Schaffhausen, Appenzel, Tessin, and Vaud were added during the next two centuries. Their independence was acknowledged by the German emperors, but in name they remained annexed to the empire. These two centuries were the most glorious in the history of Switzerland. The Swiss were successful on nearly every field of battle when fighting for their own independence, and they acquired a splendid reputation when fighting the battles of foreign princes. The remaining cantons were added during the time of the first. Napoleon.

Switzerland, like the rest of Europe,

bent to the blast with which Bonaparte swept the Continent, and on the ruins of the former confederation was founded the Helvetian republic. After the fall of Napoleon the Congress of Vienna (1815) created the confederation of twenty-two cantons, which, after continual wrangling, resulted in the present Constitution (1848), which gives to each canton an internal government of its own, but to the General Assembly, which is called a Diet, the regu lation of all public affairs, such as coining money, declaring war, regulating the postoffice department, etc. The different cantons have different forms of government. Some are representative republics, while in others the chief power is in the hands of the upper classes. The town of Berne is the seat of the general government.

As regards the religion of the Swiss, six tenths belong to the Protestant Reformed Church, the remainder are Catholics; the latter inhabit the most mountainous cantons, where the population is almost pastoral. Education is in a highly advanced state in Switzerland, more especially in the Protestant cantons, where the French language is spoken in its greatest purity. The system of Pestalozzi, originally developed here, has furnished a model for the rest of Europe. The country is celebrated for the many distinguished scholars it has produced, and the culture of science and literature is held in high esteem. The advantage in being educated in an establishment like the Messrs. Diederichs', at Geneva, for instance, where all educational, and disciplinarian, scientific, and methodical arrangements, besides reaching their special aims, most efficaciously concur rapidly to impart to the pupils a thorough knowledge of the modern languages, especially of French and German, is of incalculable value to an American or English boy.

The national character of the Swiss, their love of independence, their intense affection for their native land, are most beautifully described by Mr. Laing in his "Notes of a Traveler:" "The peculiar feature in the condition of the Swiss popu lation-the great charm of Switzerland, next to its natural scenery, is the air of well-being, the neatness, the sense of propriety imprinted on the people, their dwell

ings, their plots of land. They have a kind of Robinson Crusoe industry about their houses and their little properties; they are perpetually building, repairing, altering, or improving something about their tenements. The spirit of the proprietor is not to be mistaken in all that one sees in Switzerland. Some cottages, for instance, are adorned with long texts from Scripture, painted on or burnt into the wood in front, over the door; others. especially in the Simmenthal and Haslethal, with the pedigree of the builder and owner. These show that the property has been held sometimes for 200 years by the same family. The modern taste of the proprietor shows itself in new windows, or in additions to the old original picturesque dwelling, which, with its immense projecting roof, sheltering or shading all these successive little additions, looks like a hen sitting with a brood of chickens under her wings. The little spots of land, each close no bigger than a garden, show the same daily care in the fencing, digging, weeding, and watering. The vineyard husbandry is here altogether a garden cultivation, in which manual labor, unassisted by animal power, scarcely even by the simplest mechanical contrivance, such as wheel-barrows, harrows, or other assisting implements to the basket, hoe, and spade, does every operation, and this gives the character to all their husbandry; hand labor is applied to all crops, such as potatoes, Indian corn, and even common grain crops, more extensively, both in digging and cleaning the land, than with us. It is not uncommon to find agricultural villages without a horse, and all cultivation done by hand, especially where the main article of husbandry is either dairy produce or that of the vineyard, to either of which horse work is unnecessary.

"Two circumstances attending the great diffusion of landed property among the people strike the traveler in Switzerland; one is the great perfection it gives to their social arrangements. Even in the most insignificant hamlets and villages there will usually be found a post-office, a regularly appointed watchman by night, public fountains, a market-place, with the edicts of the canton or the federal government displayed for the public information, and a fire-engine, in the use of which the people are occasionally exercised. The other circum

stance which strikes the traveler is the condition and appearance of the females. None of the women are exempt from fieldwork, not even in the families of very substantial peasant-proprietors, whose house is furnished as well as any country mansion with us. All work as regularly as the poorest male individual. The land, however, being their own, they have a choice of work, and the hard work is generally done by the men. The felling and bringing home wood for fuel, the mowing grass (generally, but not always), the carrying out manure on their tacks, the handling horses and cows, digging, and such heavy labor, is man's work. The binding the vine to the pole with a straw, which is done three times in the course of its growth, the making of hay, the pruning the vine, twitching off its superfluous leaves and tendrils-these lighter, yet necessary jobs to be done about vineyards or orchards, form the woman's work; but females, both in France and Switzerland, have a far more important role in the family, among the lower and middle classes, than with us. The female, although not exempt from outdoor work, and even hard work, undertakes the thinking and managing department in the family affairs, and the husband is but the executive officer-the female is, in fact, very remarkably superior in manners, habits, tact, and intelligence to the husband, in almost every family of the middle or lower classes in Switzerland."

In 1854 the Swiss adopted the monetary system of France, viz., francs and centimes. The coinage is uniform in all the cantons. The silver coins are 5 francs, 2 francs, 1 franc, and half franc. French gold and bank-bills pass current in all the cantons. Traveling is no more expensive in Switzerland than in any other country of Europe, and five or six dollars per day, at the outside, should cover all one's expenses.

The hotels of Switzerland are without doubt the best in the world. Take, for instance, the Métropole, the L'Ecu, or Des Bergues of Geneva, Gibbon of Lausanne, Monnet of Vevay, the Schweizerhof of Lucerne, and they can not be surpassed either in table, attendance, or beauty of position, by any other houses we ever visited. The charges of the principal hotels are, for chamber, 3 fr.; breakfast, from 14 to 24 fr.;