2d. The Rhætian Alps, or Alpes Rhætica, which run from the Bernhardino through the whole of the Grisons and the Tyrol, and southwards to Monte Pelegrino; 3d. The Pennine Alps which border upon the Valais, and separate that district from Piedmont. The primitive Alps form the central ridges of these chains; they consist of primitive granite. On the N. E. and S. W. side of the primitive Alps run the calcareous Alps, consisting of slate and floetz rock. On the exterior of these appear the alluvial ridges, consisting of sand-stone and marle; and on the N. and N. W. side of these ridges run the calcareous chains of the Jura. The Alps are generally divided into the High, Middle, and Low Alps. The first rise from 8,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, and are covered with perpetual snow and ice; their sides present naked and precipitous rocks, with here and there a patch of vegetation; and the immense masses of ice and snow which are piled upon their summits form inexhaustible reservoirs to the rivers which flow from the Alpine heights towards the lower countries of Europe. These are, to use the words of a late illustrious poet,

The palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps,
And throned Eternity in icy halls
Of cold sublimity, where forms and falls
The avalanche-the thunderbolt of snow!
All that expands the spirit, yet appals,
Gather around these summits, as to show

How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man below.'

The Middle Alps begin at about 5,500 feet above the sea, and rise to the line of perpetual congelation; they are rich in magnificent scenery, and covered with hardy Alpine plants; here too the most elevated pasturedistricts occur. The Lower Alps commence with an elevation of about 2,000 feet, and extend to 5,500 feet; they are covered with forests and afford the earliest pasture in spring.3

We subjoin the heights of the principal Alpine summits, from Ebel, Saussure, Tralles, Weiss, Welden, &c. which we have reduced to English feet: viz.

Mont Rosa in Valais

British feet.

15,170

The Matterhorn in Valais

14,784

The Finsterahorn in Berne

14,116

The peak of the Furca, M. St. Gotthard,

14,040

The Jungfrauhorn in Berne

13,730

Glaciers.] The glaciers of Switzerland are best pictured to the mind by imagining a stormy sea instantly congealed, scarcely presenting an inch of even surface, but bristling all over with sharp ridges. They appear to have advanced and receded in many parts much beyond their present limits: the weight of the newly accumulated snow pushing them down, while the heat of the lower region dissolves them as they descend. A recent traveller thus eloquently describes this feature in Swiss scenery: "The glaciers of the Aar, which we visited from the Grimsel, presented a scene which I am convinced the world cannot equal; which none who have beheld it can ever forget, and none who have not seen it can ever conceive. You cannot picture the scene; but you can form some idea of the awe-struck astonishment which filled our minds, when, after surmounting all the difficulties of the way, we found ourselves standing amidst a world of ice, extending around, beneath, above us,-far beyond where the straining sight, in every direction, vainly sought to follow the interminable frozen leagues of glaciers, propped up in towering pyramids, or shapeless heaps, or opening into yawning gulphs and unfathomable fissures. The tremendous barren rocks and mountains of the impenetrable Alps, amidst which the terrific Finsterahorn reared his granitic pyramid of fourteen thousand feet, appeared alone amidst this world of desolation. Eternal and boundless wastes of ice,-naked and inaccessible mountains of rock, which had stood unchanged and untrodden from creation, were the only objects which met our view. Hitherto, with all we had seen of desolation and horror, there was some contrast, some relief. The glaciers of Chamouni are bordered by glowing harvests; the glaciers of Grindelwald are bounded by its romantic vale; the glaciers of the Scheideck shine forth amidst its majestic woods. Even among the savage rocks and torrents of the Grimsel, though animated life is seen no more, the drooping birch and feathery larch protrude their storm-beaten branches from the crevices of the preci

To the W. of the Alps, along the boundaries of France, runs a calcareous ridge of the Jura mountains, lower than the Alps, but presenting many beautiful valleys and picturesque points of scenery. The highest summits of this ridge are:

Recolet de Thoery, highest summit,

5,642

5,536

5,463

5,453

5,324,

The Jorat, a sand-stone ridge, runs through the Canton de Vaud, and unites the Alps with the Jura. To it belong

The Mont Pelerin in Vaud
The Chalet à Gobet

4,083

3,010

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pices; and the lonely pine-tree is seen on high, where no hand can ever reach it. But here there is no trace of vegetation, no blade of grass, no bush, no tree; no spreading weed or creeping lichen invades the cold still desolation of the icy desert. It is the death of nature! We seemed placed in a creation in which there was no principle of life; translated to another orb, where existence was extinct, and where Death, unresisted, held his terrific reign. The only sound which meets the ear is that of the loud detonation of the ice, as it bursts open into new abysses with the crash of thunder, and reverberates from the wild rocks like the voice of the mountain-storms."

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Avalanches.] The avalanches or slips of snow form another peculiar feature in the scenery of Switzerland. "We sometimes," says Simond, saw a blue line suddenly drawn across a field of pure white; then another above it, and another, all parallel, and attended each time with a loud crash like cannon, producing together the effect of long-protracted peals of thunder. At other times these portions of the vast field of snow, or rather snowy-ice, gliding gently away exposed to view a new surface of purer white than the first; and the cast-off drapery, gathering in long folds, either fell at once down the precipice, or disappeared behind some intervening ridge, which the sameness of colour rendered invisible, and were again seen soon after in another direction, shooting out of some narrow channel a cataract of white dust, which, observed through a telescope, was, however, found to be composed of broken fragments of ice or compact snow, many of them sufficient to overwhelm a village if there had been any in the valley where they fell. Our guides assured us that pushing with your foot against the edge of a beginning cleft in a bed of snow, is often sufficient to determine the fall of an avalanche; that is, the sliding of the newer over the older bed of snow. The discharge of a gun, the jingling of the bells of mules, the voices of men may be attended with the same consequences." There are innumerable valleys in Switzerland entirely desolated, and almost inaccessible to any thing having life, in consequence of being the constant receptacles of these tremendous visitations from the surrounding cliffs. Not only the snow-fields, but mountains themselves occasionally slide down into the country below. In 1806 a piece of the Rossberg, twice as large as the city of Paris, slipped down at once into the lake of Lowertz, and occasioned the most dreadful devastation. Another accident of the same kind occurred on the lake of Lucerne in 1801, when eleven persons were drowned at a village on the opposite side of the lake by the wave raised by the plunge of the falling mass. The latest devastation committed by a snow avalanche occurred in 1827 in the Valais, when the village of Biel, in the valley of Conches containing 459 inhabitants, was overwhelmed, and a great number of lives lost. Various contrivances are adopted in order to secure the houses from avalanches ; sometimes the exposed side is strengthened by strong walls; and sometimes a triangular building as high as the roof, the acute angle of which breaks the shock, is used as a protection. In the valley of St Anthony in the Prettigau, these pyramids are formed of snow.

Rivers.] The principal rivers of Switzerland are: 1st. The Rhine. This noble river has its three sources in the Rhaetian mountains to the E. of the Gotthard, and pursues a course of above 200 miles within Switzerland, or on its borders. The Farther Rhine collects its waters from the Crispalt a branch of the St Gotthard, the Tavetscherthal, and a small lake in the Urserenthal; and flows through the valley of Disentis along with

the Middle Rhine which descends from the Luckmanier, a mountain in the Medelseethale. The Hither or Upper Rhine flows from mount Avicula, and joins the first two torrents united under the name of the Lower Rhine, in front of the picturesque castle of Reichenau, at an elevation of above 6,180 English feet above the level of the sea. It then flows through the Rheinwald, a magnificent and stupendous ravine, bordered by perpendicular rocks, which rise to the height of 3000 feet on both sides, and are clothed to their summits with stately firs. This river then flows through the lake of Constance from E. to W. and after passing Schaffhausen forms a celebrated cataract, which, with the remainder of its course, have been already described in our account of Germany.-2d. The Rhone is the second great Swiss river. It rises in a glacier of the Furca,* and soon after receives the Eler. Before entering the lake of Geneva it receives the Siders, the Sitter, the Bisonza, and the Dranse; but after quitting the canton of Geneva it becomes a French river.-3d. The Tessin or Ticino also rises in the Gotthard, and flows towards the Lago Maggiore in the Italian territories.-4th. The Inn rises on the south side of the Septimer Berg, from a small lake called Lungin, and is called the Aqua de Oen at its entrance into the lake of Sits or Zeglio, a small way from its source in the Grisons.

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Lakes.] The lakes of Switzerland are numerous, and some of them of considerable magnitude. Among the largest are: 1st. The lake of Geneva, the ancient Lemanus, and called by the French Lac Leman, which covers a surface of above 330 English square miles, and is above 40 miles long. It is 1,230 English feet above the level of the sea. The Rhone flows through the clear, placid Leman,' and its banks exhibit the most lovely scenery, having on one side the Alps and on the other the heights of the Jura. The depth of this lake-though evidently gradually diminishing like most other fresh water lakes-is in some places 1000 feet. The water frequently fluctuates greatly within a few hours. These sudden flows and ebbs, or occasional rufflings, are called seiches.-2d. The lake of Constance, lying between the cantons of Thurgau and St Gall, has been already described in our article Germany.-3d. The lake Lugano in the canton of Tessino, at an elevation of 882 French feet above the sea, is nearly 25 miles long, and 6 miles broad in some places. It communicates with the Italian Lago Maggiore by the Tresa.-4th. The lake of Lucerne, called also the lake of the Forest-towns, lies at an elevation of 1,408 English feet above the sea, between the cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schweiz, and Underwalden; it is above twenty British miles in length, and from 8 to 10 in breadth; its greatest depth is about 600 feet, and its navigation is dangerous.-5th. The lake of Zurich is a very romantic sheet of water, about 23 miles long and 4 broad.-6th. The lake of Neufchatel, or Neuenburg, is about the same extent as that of Zurich.-7th. The lake of Thun,

The glacier of the Rhone is the most beautiful in the Upper Valais; it expands like a fan, and forms an immense segment of a sphere, from the summit of which, as from a centre, deep fissures of a fine blue diverge and terminate in the circumference. At the base of this segment two arches of ice appear, whence two impetuous torrents rush, which, after uniting, carry to what the peasants call the source of the Rhone, the first tribute which it receives. In reality, these two torrents are the sources of the Rhone; for they rush from higher ground, and carry twenty times the volume of water which the little stream believed by the peasantry to be the real source contains. The latter, however, which rises in the middle of a beautiful valley, is treated by the inhabitants of the country with great veneration; this preference is perhaps owing to the fact of its being a warm spring, resisting the cold of winter, and clothing the meadows in which it rises with perpetual verdure. The heat of this spring is 65" F.; its height above the Mediterranean 6004 English feet.

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wide. in the canton of Berne, is 4 or 5 leagues long, and almost a league Its depth is 350 feet, and its height 1,900 English feet above the sea.8th. The lake of Brientz, in the same canton, is much smaller; but its aspect is more wild than that of any other lake in Switzerland, for its high calcareous mountains descend rapidly to the water. Among the smaller lakes are the lake of Morat, near Aventicum; the lake of Biel, with the beautiful island of St Pierre celebrated by Rousseau's stay on it; and the thermal springs found among Lac de Joux, in the Vaud. There are many the valleys of the Alps, which some geologists have attributed to the presence of pyrites in the soil, others to the subterranean fires which are supposed to have first elevated these rocks by volcanic agency.

Climate.] From the great elevation of Switzerland, the air is pure and salubrious; and though in some of the valleys the heat of summer be intense, yet the atmosphere is in general much cooler than might be expected from the latitude. Three different climates may be said to exist in Switzerland: viz. The cold in the Alps, the temperate in the plains, and the hot in the canton of Tessino, which has an Italian sky and climate. In the valleys of Switzerland, however, the temperature of districts at a short distance from one another, often varies extremely. The elevation of the valley of Untersee is the same as that of Gestein; yet the thermometer in 1822-3 fell only to 8° below Zero in the former, whereas in the latAccording to Humboldt, on the ter it fell to 144°, and at Berne to 16o. southern Alps, between the latitude of 454° and 46° the inferior limit of perpetual snow is at the height of 8,768 English feet. According to other authorities the height at which it never melts is 9,268 English feet. The distance between the trees and snow is 2,880 feet; the upper limit of trees 5,880 feet, the last species of trees towards the snow is the pinus abies; and the distance between the snow and the corn 4,480 feet.

Productions.] The great variety in temperature enables Switzerland to produce a greater variety of plants than is found in almost any other region of the same extent in Europe. Wine is produced in the cantons of Tessino, Vaud, Geneva, Valais, Neufchatel, Berne, Thurgau, Aargau, Schaffhausen, and Zürich; the Vin de Vaud, and the Vin de la Côte of Geneva are esThe fruits are pears, apples, cherries, teemed the best Swiss wines.

plums, peaches, olives, figs, and lemons.

Animals.] Cattle are plentiful in Switzerland, and form the chief wealth of the inhabitants. The horses are not esteemed. The tame animals are those common to Europe; but there are a few wild animals which are rarely found in any other place. Among these may be mentioned the chamois and the steinbuck, both inhabiting the Alps; but the latter is extremely rare. In some cantons lynxes, wolves, and bears are yet found. Birds of prey are not unfrequent, among which is the Lammergeyer or vulture of the Alps, ( Vultur barbatus L.) which is often known to carry off lambs, and of which the peasants relate incredible stories. Fish are plentiful in the lakes, amongst them we find the Cyprinus nasus, the Coppus, the Salmo lavaretus, the Salmo Umbla or chevalier Ombler, and the Trat or Ferat.

Minerals.] It might be supposed from the mountainous nature of Switzerland, that minerals should be here found in plenty ; but this appears and we not to be the case. In some of the streams particles of gold occur, believe there is a gold-mine wrought in the Valais; mines of silver also have been mentioned, but the quantity of these metals seems to be inconsiderable. Iron is not scarce, particularly in the district called Sargans ;