Soil and Agriculture. The soil is upon the whole fertile and productive, in spite of the neglect of industry, which has permitted many parts of Hungary, and of the Polish provinces, to pass into wide forests and marshes. The latter country, particularly in many places, exhibits few symptoms of an inhabited and still less of a civilized region. Were skill and labor to assume the axe and spade, those very parts might display the greatest exuberance of fertility. The state of agriculture in Moravia is superior to the rest, being improved by Flemish farmer's.

Rivers. After the Danube, which has already been described, the river next in consequence is the Teis, which falls into the Danube W. of Belgrade, after a course of about 420 miles. At Belgrade the Danube receives the Save, which forms a boundary between Austria and Turkey. That of the Drave joins the Danube below Esseg. The Inn joins the Danube at Passau with a weight of water nearly equal to that stream, after a course of about 250 miles. It is now only a frontier of Austria, and that but for a small distance.

The Mulda joins the Elbe near Melnick, after passing through Pragile. "The Morau, passing by Olmutz, joins the Danube W. of Presburg

Lakes. The lakes in the Austrian dominions are numerous, and some of them of considerable size.

Mountains. The provinces of Carinthia, Carniola and Upper Austria present many considerable chains of mountains.

The Carpathian mountains, that grand and extensive chain, which bounds Hungary on the N. and E. have been celebrated from all antiquity. This enormous ridge extends in its whole circuit about 500 miles. The highest summits of these mountains, according to Dr. Townson, do not exceed 8 or 9000 feet, and they are for the most part composed of granite and primitive limestone.

Mineralogy. There is scarcely a province of this extensive territory, from the frontiers of Bavaria to those of Turkey, which cannot boast of advantages in the mineral kingdom ; and as it were by a destiny attached to the house of Austria, even the acquisitions in Poland contain one of the most remarkable mines in Europe, the saline excavations of Wielitska. The mines of Bohemia have been celebrated from ancient times. * Silver, copper, iron, quicksilver, lead, and garnets are found in different parts of the Austrian dominions.

But the principal mincs in the Austrian dominions are situated in the eastern provinces of Hungary and Transylvania. About 40 miles to the S. of the Carpathian hills are the gold mines of Cremnitz; and 20 English miles further to the s. the silver mines of Shemnitz: cities which have arisen solely from these labors, and thence called mining towns. Shemnitz is esteemed the principal. The academy here instituted for the study of mineralogy is highly respectable, and only rivalled by that of Freyberg in Saxony. Hungary contains mines of copper at Schmelnitz and Herrengrund, of

Busching, vol. vi. 126. French edit. 8vo.

very rich antimony at Rosenau ; and in different parts, of coal, salt,
and alum. Saltpetre is also produced in considerable quantities :
and natron or soda is found in a lake ncar Kismarja, towards the
frontier of Transylvania.* But a mineral peculiar to Hungary,
and as yet discovered in no other region of the globe, is the opal,
a gem preferred to all others by the oriental nations. The opal
mines are situated at Czerweniza. The hili, in which they are
fonnd, consists of decomposed porphyry; and they only occur at the
distance of a few fathoms from the surface, of various qualities,
from the opake white, or semi-opal, which is also discovered in
Cornwall, to that urmost effuigence of iridescent colors which dis.
tinguishes this nobie gem.

The mines of Transylvania and the Bannat are also numerous
and valuable.

The salt mines acqnired from Poland alone remain to be described. They are sicuated, as already mentioned, at Wiclitska, 8 miles to the S. of Cracow, being excavated at the northern extreinity of a branch of the Carpathian mountains. The descent is by pits of great depihs; and the galleries and chambers are of im. mense size, commonly supported by timber, or by vast pillars of salt, out of which material even subterraneous chapels are formed; but travellers have idly exaggerated the splendor and extent of the saline apartments. The salt is of an iron grey color, sometimes intermingled with white cubes ; and sometimes large blocks of salt appear imbedded in marl.f The purest sort is found at the bottom of the mine, and is sparry. The length of the mine is 6697 feet, the breadih 1115, and the depth 743. It has been worked above 600 years, and is apparently inexhaustible. Before the partition it yielded annually £17,222 sterling. But it has beon less productive since.

SWITZERLAND.

Extent. 'THElength of Switzerland from E. 10 W. is about 200
miles; its breadth froin N. to S. about 130. The contents, in
square miles, are, according to Hassei, 15,755.

Boundaries. Bounded N. W. by france ; N. by the Rbine and
the lake of Constance, which separate it from the grand anthy of
Cleves, and the kingdom of Bavaria, both in Germany; E by the
Tyrol, which is a part of Bavaria, by the kingdom of Italy, and by
Piecimont; S. W. by Savoy.

Divisions. Switzerland formerly consisted of 13 cantons, with
their allies and subjects. Several of the aliud and subjected states
have been annexed to France and Italy. The remaindes have
been formed into new cantons. The old 13 cantons retain their
former names and extent, and arc the first in the following table,
taken from Hassel, and exhibiting the state of the country, in 1809.

!

* Journ, des Min. No. 2.

The population is partly from a census, and partly from his este mate. Cantons. Inhabitants.

Cantons.

Inhabitants. 1. Ş Bern

232,508
11. Zug

14.735 2. Aargau* 134,444 12. Switz

31,400 3. Basil 42,193, 13. Uri

17,500 4. Schaffhausen 27,590 14. Underwald

21,200 5. Zurich

182,123 15. Grison's Country 74,000 6. Appenzel 55,000 16. St. Gall

162 000 7., Glarus 19,280 17. Tessinot

161,000 8. Friburg 89,610 18. Thurgaut

74,000 9. Lucern

110,000 19. Pays de Vaud 145,215. .10. Soleure

43,610

The following countries lately belonged, or were allied, to Swit. zerland; Geneva, now a part of France; Neufchatel, taken from Prussia by the French, now a dependency of France; the Valteline, annexed to the kingdom of Italy; and the Valais, to France.

The situation of these various districts can best be learned from the map.

Historical Epoche. The chief historical epochs may be ar. ranged in the following order :

1. The wars with the Romans; the subjugation of the Helvetii. and Rhæti, and the subsequent events ull the decline of the Roman empire in the west.

2. The conversion of the country to Christianity by the Irish. monks, Columbanus, Gallus, and others, in the beginning of the 7th century.

3. The commencement of the Swiss emancipation, A. D. 1307 i and the subsequent struggles with the house of Austria.

4. The history of the reformation in Switzerland.

5. The insurrection of the peasants of Bern, in the middle of the 17th century.

6. The dissolution of the confederacy by the French invasion, A. D. 1798.

Religion. The inhabitants compose but two sects, Calvinists and Catholics. The former are the most numerous. portion is more than 9 to 7. The Calvinistic clergy were all on a level. The Catholics were subjected to one archbishop, and six bishops.

Government. A new constitution was established for them by the First Consul, in 1802. The government consists of two land. ammans, a senate, and a diet. The diet, composed of representatives from the cantons, meets annually; and, at the proposition of the senate, declares war and makes peace, ratifies treaties, and adopts, or rejects such laws, as less than two thirds of the cantons have approved. The senate consists of 2 landammans, 2 stadtholders, and 26. councillors. It names all public functionaries.

Aargau is a part of the old canton of Berne. † Tessino, formerly the Italian Bailliages. Thurgau or Turgoria.

Pays de Vaud, or Waadt.

The pro

MA deputation of the senate administers the government during a
recess of that body.

This government was forced upon the inhabitants at the point of
the bayonet.

Population. Hassel's general estimate is 1,638,000.

Army. The military force, in 1809, was 15,023 men. There
were then from 20 to 30,000 Swiss soldiers in foreign countries.
France alone had 15,000; the rest were in England, Spain, and
Holland.

Revenue. The revenue, in 1809, was stated by Hassel at
7,000,000 German guilders, or 555,500 dollars. Formerly it was
*computed at more than a million sterling. Bern is still the richest
of the cantons, and is said to have large sums in foreign funds.

Manners and Custome. The houses of the Swiss are of wood,
-constructed in the most simple form, with staircases on the out-
side. The dress of the inhabitants, in most of the cantons, was
"regulated by sumptuary laws. In the rest, the changes of fashions
"Were little regarded. The cleanliness of the houses, and of the
people, was striking. Even the cottages conveyed a lively idea of
neatness and simplicity, and impressed a pleasing conviction of the
peasant's happiness. Each had its litile territory distributed into
a garden, a field, a meadow, and a pasture, frequently skirted with
trees, and well supplied with water. The diversions of the inhab-
itants were chiefly of the active and warlike kind, such as running,
wrestling, and shooting with the bow and musquet. The magis-
trates were exemplary in the punishment and prevention of petty
offences, than which no surer method can be taken to preserve the
morals of the community. The Swiss were intensely attached to
their native country. The slightest circumstances reminded the
absent soldier of the scenes of his infancy, and drew him back by
: an irresistible attraction to the streams and the valleys, the moun-
tains and the forests, among which he had passed the happiest sea-
son of life. Such were the happy Swiss, before the French subju.
gated their country. What changes this sad event has produced
are unknown to the writer.

Language. The French is spoken in the Pays de Vaud. The
language called the Vaudois appears to have been confined to the
'valleys of Piedmont.

Literature. Switzerland boasts of many eminent names, as the Teformer Ulric Zwingli, or Zuinglius; Conrad Gesner, born at Zurich in 1516, who published an universal library. Among the writers of the last century may be named' Bernoulli, the mathematician, a native of Basil ; Scheuchzer, the natural historian; Haller; John Gesner, the natural philosopher; Solomon Gesner, the poet; Bonnet, Hirzel, and Zimmerman, physicians ; Rousseau, and Necker, natives of Geneva ; Lavater, the physiognomist; Euler, the mathematician ; and many others.

Education. Switzerland resembled Connecticut in the general diffusion of knowledge. The education of the common school was universally shared by the inhabitants. Religious instruction was communicated successfully every sabbath, and the inhabitants gen

1

1

erally had an important acquaintance with the doctrines and the duties of Christianity. There was an university of some reputa. | tion at Basil, founded in 1469, and colleges at Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne.

Cities and Toquna. Basil, or Basle, is on both sides of the Rbine. A bridge connects the two parts.

Its extent is capable of containing 100,000 inhabitants, and it is said to have 220 streets and 6 market places. The environs consist of fine level fields and meadows. Here were extensive manufactures of ribbands and cottons, and the trade of the place was considerable. The number of inhabitants is 15,060.

Berne stands on a peninsula formed by the Aar, the neck of which is fortified. The streets are wide, and the houses mostly of stone. The great church is a most beautiful piece of architecture. The city is of singular neatness, and beauty, and the environs are rich and fertile, presenting a prospect of hills, lawns, wood, and water, bounded at a distance by the long chain of the superior Alps. Inhabitants 13,339.

Zurich, is at the mouth of the Lake of Zurich, where its waters are discharged northwards, through the Lammat towards the Rhine. Inhabitants, in 1807, 10,353.

Climate. Many of the mountains are covered with perennial snows, and the frosts of winter are often very severe. But the summer has sufficient heat to mature the grape, though the vine harvest is rendered precarious by the occasional cold winds from the Alps. Even the corn harvest is so often injured by rains and tempests, that public granaries have been crected to supply the failure of crops. The valleys are generally warm, and such is the diversity of seasons in different parts, that the inhabitants are often, reaping on one side of the mountains, when they are sowing on the other.

Face of the Country. Switzerland is generally mountainous, but less so in the north, than in the south.

Soil and Agriculture. The valleys and plains, though generally stony, are feruile. The sides of the hills, also, with a vigorous cultivation, repay the labor of the husbandman, and perhaps in no country, (xcept llolland, does the eye meet with more numerous proofs of persevering industry. Sufficient grain is commoniy raised for home consumption. Barley is cuitivated on the mountain tops ; oats, ryc, and spelt, require successively a warmer situation. Flax and hemp are cultivated 10 a considerable extent; and tobacco has lately been introduced. The vine is cultivated with most success in Berne, Schafhausen, and the Pays de Vaud. The attention of the Swiss farmer is, however, chiefly devoted to his cat£le, and most of the feruile land is used for meadow and pasture. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, and nuts, are found every where in abundance; and, in the warmer districts, peaches, almonds, figs, and pomegranates.

Rivers. The Rline and the Rhone, already described, pass through Switzerland.

The Aar pursues a winding course towards the Ņ. W. through