Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/813

 SWITZERLAND 777 them being in that of the Aar), two in the Po basin, one in the Rhone basin, and none at all in the Inn basin. It has been esti- mated that in the Rhine basin there are no fewer than nineteen large and thirty-seven small lakes. Of the smaller Swiss lakes we may mention the Dauben See, and the Oeschinen See, as well as the Miirjelen See close to the Gross Aletsch glacier. There are of course an infinite number of Alpine tarns. Name of Lake. River Basin. Area in Square Miles. Mean Height of Surface above Sea Level in Feet. Approximate Depth in Feet. Geneva* Rhone. 223 1230-3 984-3 Constance*.. Rhine. 208-1 1305-8 905-5 Neuchatel ... Aar, Rhine. 92-3 1427-2 472-4 Maggiore* . . . Ticino, Po. 827 646-3 1230-3 Lucerne Reuss, Aar, Rhine. 437 14337 ? 853 Zurich Limmat, Aar, Rhine. 33-8 1341-9 469-1 Lugano* Po. 19-4 889-1 902-2 Thun Aar, Rhine. 18-5 1837-3 711-9 Bienne Aar, Rhine. 16-2 1423-9 255-9 Za Reuss, Aar, Rhine. 14-8 1368-1 1321-4 Rrienz Aar, Rhine. 11-5 1851 856-4 Morat Aar, Rhine. 10-5 1427-2 157-4 Wallenstadt. ( Linth, Limmat,  Aar, Rhine. / 8-9 1394-4 c. 500 Sempach Aar, Rhine. 5-4 1663-4 ? Halhvyl Aar, Rhine. 4 1483 ? 1522-8 Water- falls. The lakes marked * are only partly in Swiss territory. There are a great number of waterfalls in Switzerland, the loftiest being that of the Staubbach (1001 feet), in the valley of Lauter- brunnen, or "Clear Springs" (Bernese Oberland). Iu the Ober- land, too, we find the Handeck (200-220 feet), near the source of the Aar, while the Reichenbach descends in seven falls and the Giessbach in thirteen. The falls of the Rhine at Schalfhausen contain an enormous mass of water, though they are only 82 feet in height. In southern Switzerland the Pissevache fall (200 feet), in the Rhone valley, is the best known. Glaciers. Dr A. Heini 1 reckons up 471 glaciers in Switzerland and 462 in Austria, his figures for France and Italy being untrustworthy and incomplete; but Switzerland has 138 glaciers of the first rank (i.e., over 4 f miles long) as against 71 in Austria, though Austria has 391 of the second rank (i.e., between 4| and 3 miles long) as against 333 in Switzerland. The distribution of the Swiss glaciers deserves notice, for in eleven cantons (that is, half of those in the Confederation) there are no glaciers at all, while in five others (Unterwalden, Vaud, St Gall, Schwyz, and Appenzell) they only cover about 13 square miles out of 709 "9 square miles of ice and snow in the Confederation, according to the official survey. Valais heads the li.st with 375 "1 square miles, then come the Orisons (138'6), Bern (111 '3), Uri (44'3), Glarus (13'9), and Ticino (13 "1). The longest glacier in the Alps is the Gross Aletscr in the Bernese Oburland, 15 miles long; it has a basin of 49 '8 squan miles and a maximum breadth of 1968 yards. In point of lengtl the Uuteraar glacier comes next (10'4 miles), followed by tin Corner and Yiescher glaciers (each 9 "4 miles). The lowest poin to which a Swiss glacier is known to have descended is 3225 feet attained by the Lower Grindelwald glacier in 1818. Dr Heim hai ascertained that the maximum annual snowfall in the Alps take place in the lower snow regions, a conclusion which the presen writer can confirm from personal experience gained on the ascen of several of the highest Oberland peaks in January 1874 and 1879 Dr Heim states that in the central Alps of Switzerland the limit o perpetual snow varies from 9259 to 9023 feet. See GLACIER. Climate. In Switzerland, where the height above sea-level varies from 64' feet (Lago Maggiore) to 15,217 feet (Monte Rosa), we naturally fin< very many climates, from the regions of olives, vines, oaks am beeches, pines and firs, to those of high mountain pastures rhododendrons, and of eternal snow (see ALPS). As regards th duration of the seasons, there is a corresponding variety. It ha been reckoned that, while in Italian Switzerland winter lasts onlj three months, at Glarus it lasts four, in the Engadine six, on th St Gotthard eight, on the Great St Bernard nine, and on the S Theodule always. A painstaking writer has calculated that, i Switzerland were flattened out into a plain, and reduced to th level of the sea, it would be comprised between the isotherm 51 "8 and 55 "4 F. As a matter of fact the mean temperatur varies no less than 34i, for at Bellinzona it is 54V F., at Genev 49ji at Basel 49^, at Char 48^, at Interlaken 48, while on th Great St Bernard it sinks to 30, and on the St Theodule to 20 The Alps form the boundary between the region where the rain fall is greatest in summer and that where it is greatest in autumn the winter and spring rainfall varying but slightly. These ar the percentages of the annual rainfall in Switzerland at diiferen seasons : Rhine Basin: winter, 18; spring, 25; summer, 33; autumn, 21. Rhone Basin: 21; 26; 26; 27. Ticino Basin: ,, 12; ,, 26; ,, 27; ,, 35. t has been shown by careful observations that the rain (or snow) all is greatest as we approach the Alps, whether from the north r south, the flanks of the great ranges and the valleys opening' ut towards the plains receiving much more rain than the high VI pine valleys enclosed on all sides by lofty ridges. Thus the annual ainfall is 35 inches at Basel but 64i at Beatenberg (above Inter- aken) and 69 at Schwyz, rising to 88 on the Grimsel and 102 on he St Bernardino, and falling again at Lugano to 63. Dr Heim
 * alculates that the percentage of snow in the total annual rainfall in

Switzerland varies from 63 on the Great St Bernard to 6 at Geneva, he mean fall of 34 being at Platta in the Orisons. Thunderstorms jenerally vary in frequency with the amount of rainfall, being most
 * ommon near the great ranges, and often very local. The floods

caused by excessive rainfall are sometimes very destructive, as in L839, 1852, and 1868, while the same cause leads to landslips, of which the most remarkable have been those on the Rossberg above oldau (1806), at Evionnaz (1835), and at Elm (1881). As regards the larger cyclones or storms of Europe, a south wind in the Alps indicates that the barometrical minimum is in the English Channel, a west wind that it is in the North Sea, a north wind that it is in the Eastern Alps, and an east wind that the depression is in the Mediterranean, about Corsica. When the baro- metrical minimum shifts from the Atlantic over Scandinavia to Russia, a south-west wind in the Alps is followed by west and then north winds. The "fb'hn" is the most remarkable of the local winds in Switzerland, a strong south-west or south wind, very hot and very dry. It was formerly supposed to come from the Sahara, but is now held to be a south-west or south wind which, saturated with moisture, crosses the Alps, precipitating a copious rainfall in its course ; commencing its descent in the northern valleys with a high temperature for these great heights, it neces- sarily increases in temperature and dryness as it passes into the high pressure of lower levels. Dr Hann concludes from observa- tion that, assuming the air to cool at the rate of 1 C. in every 100 metres of ascent, and the ridge crossed by the fo'hn to be 2000- metres in height, the heat lost on the ascent is only 0- 5 C., so that when the folm reaches the north side it will have a heat, not of 10, but of 20. The fo'hn occurs most frequently im spring. Other local winds in the Alps are those which blow up a valley in the morning and down it in. the evening, due to the heating of the air in the valleys by the sun during the day and its cooling by terrestrial radiation at night. The cloud streamers from great Alpine peaks are due to the condensing of the moisture in a layer of air, and, as the moisture is carried away by the wind, so the streamer is dissolved. For all these reasons Switzerland has many varieties of climate; and, while, owing to the distribution of the rainfall, the Ticino and Aar valleys are very fertile, the two great trenches between the main chain and its north outlier, though warm, are less pro- ductive, as the water comes from the rivers and not from the skies. Asphalt is the only raw mineral product the export of which Mineral exceeds the import ; and it is obtained only in the canton of products. Neuchatel, where the output of the Yal de Travers deposit in 1883 reached 28,000 tons. Though iron ores are known (according to Weber and Brosi's map) to exist in 13 localities, gold in 3, silver in 22, copper in 29, lead in 27, nickel and cobalt in 2, tin in 1, sulphur in 3, Switzerland is practically dependent for all its metals on foreign supply. While 35,161 tons of iron were obtained in 1870 (mostly from mines in the Jura), only 19,045 were obtained in 1881. True coal is wholly absent; lignites, however, occur both in the Tertiary and the Quaternary formations, the most important workings being those of Kapfnach, Utznach, Morschwyl, Diirnten, Lutry, Conversion, and Oron. In 1870 the output was 33,364 tons, in 1881 only 6184. Anthracite occurs in Valais. Peat is common in many parts. Salt (42,000 tons) is procured from wells in Aargau, Basel, and Vaud. The first salt-deposit was discovered in 1836 :it Rothenhaus (Basel canton), that of Rheinfelden in 1844, of Ryburg in 1845, and of Kaiseraugst in 1865. The wells at Bex have been worked since 1554. 2 Game is not abundant in any part of Switzerland; and rigorous Game, game laws and other devices have been adopted in order to increase the number of wild animals. In 1875 a law was passed in accord- ance with which a commission marked out certain reservations or "districts francs pour la chasse au gibier de montagne"; and in 1881 their limits were revised for another term of five years, in- cluding an area of 5268 square kilometres in 1885. There were then within this area 8487 chamois and about 106 roebuck. The- chamois were most abundant in the Grisons, Bern, Glarus, and Freiburg. In the Alpine regions the marmot and Alpine hare are still common, and their numbers have increased under the pro- tective system. Grouse, partridge, wild duck, and snipe are the 2 See Stockalper, Rapport sur le groupe 16 Produits Units Erp. A'at. S. a Zurich, S83 and Hermann Strcne. " Kohprodukte u. deren Fundorte in der Schweiz," in 1 In his epoch-making work, IlanMueh der Glelschertunde, Stuttgart, 18-5. 1R83, and Hermann Strcne. " Kohp Zeitsch.f. sclmeiz. Statistik, 1884. XXIL