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SWITZERLAND

1858

SYDNEY

Basel University dates to 1460. The attendance in the universities is 5,626, with a total teaching staff of 641. Switzerland has 1,805 postoffices; 2,969 miles of railway; and a very complete system of telegraphs, which is almost wholly under state control. The chief towns are Zurich(189,088), Basel or Bale (131,914), Geneva(i25,52o), Bern (85,264) and Lausanne (63,926).

History. The first people of Switzerland were the Helvetii in the northwest and the Rhsetians in the southeast, both of whom were conquered "by the Romans and had parts of their territories settled by Bur-gundians, Alemanni and Goths. From the 5th to the 7th century Christianity was adopted. In the early part of the middle ages the country formed part of the Holy Roman empire. In the i3th century civil wars broke out, during which many of the towns obtained special rights and charters. The attack of Emperor Albert I on the great towns caused the men of the forest cantons in 1307 to begin a war against Austria, which gained them freedom in 1315. A league of eight cantons was formed in 1352, followed by other wars with Austria, ending with the famous Swiss victory of Sempach. In 1415 Aargau and Thurgau were conquered from Austria, and Ticino, beyond the Alps, was annexed three years later. In 1476 the battles of Granson and Morat (Murten) were won from Charles the Bold, and in 1499 Emperor Maximilian, was defeated in six engagements. Zurich, under the preaching of Zwingli, became a Protestant city in 1523, followed by Bern and other northern cantons. A religious war was waged against the Roman Catholic forest cantons, in which the Catholics were successful. In the treaty of Westphalia, at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the European states acknowledged the independence of Switzerland. The French seized Switzerland in 1798, but it recovered its freedom in 1814. The powers of Europe then guaranteed its perpetual neutrality and the inviolability of its territory. Since that time the chief events have been local rebellions and other attempts of the people in the various cantons to get back powers which they had gradually lost to corporations and great families. In 1844 the radical party organized bodies of armed men, called the Free Corps, for the purpose of driving out the Jesuits. The Roman Catholic cantons formed in their defense the league called the Sonderbund. After several town-revolutions a majority of the federal diet declared against the Jesuits and the Sonderbund, and waged a successful civil war against the Catholic cantons. The present constitution was chosen in 1874. Population 3,741,971. Consult Zschokke's History of Switzerland (English translation): The Swiss Confederation by Adams and Cunningham; and

SWORDFISH

Switzerland in   the   Story  of  the   Nations Series.

Sword'fish', a large fish of the open sea, having the bones of the upper jaw extended into a long blade. There is only one species, found abundantly in the Mediterranean, less abundantly along the New England coast. It is also found in the Pacific and other seas. The body is rather elongated but stout, ohe dorsal fin high, the ventrals absent. These fish are dark-blue in color, and range in length from four to fifteen feet or more and from 150 to 800 pounds in weight. They eat nearly all kinds of fish. Rising in the midst of a school, they strike several with the sword and eat them deliberately. They are sought as food, and harpooned from the bowsprit of small vessels. In former years about one and one half million pounds, annually, were brought into eastern ports of the United States.

Syc'amore, the common name in the United States of the plane or buttonwood, well-known for its white bark, broad leaves and round balls. The true sycamore is a species of fig, common in Egypt. The wood is so lasting that it was used for mummy cases. It is the tree mentioned in the Bible. The plane or buttonwood is a tree of infinite dignity, rises to a considerable height, and lives to a great age. The height is from 60 to 100 feet, the branches are of wide-spreading habit, and the free peeling of the dark outer bark reveals the glistening white inner bark and gives a mottled appearance to trunk and branches. The tree is vigorous, foliage abundant, leaves bright yellow-green above and paler below. On into winter the fruit remains on the tree, brown balls hanging from the ends of long peduncles. It is a favorite shade-tree, and is distributed generally in the country, being found in rich bottom-lands and along the banks of streams. The wood is reddish brown. Though not strong, it has a beautiful grain and is used for furniture and interior finish, and is also employed for cigar-boxes. Syd'ney, a city of Australia, the capital of New South Wales (q. v.), is on Port Jackson, a bay of the Pacific Ocean. The city looks like an old English town, with fine public buildings, as the exchange, the government-house, the parliament-houses, the treasury, the museum, the national art-gallery, the university and two cathedrals. It has fine parks and a botanical garden of 38 acres.