Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/868

* SWITHIN. 758 SWITZERLAND. obligation of paying tithes. Swithin was buried, according to Ills own desire, in a place outside of Ills cliurch at incliestcr, where passersby might tread upon his grave and the rain drop on it from the eaves. A centur}' later he was canonized and his body exhumed and buried inside the church. According to the legend tliis translation, which was to have taken place on July 15, was delayed in consequence of violent rains, which continued without intermissiou for forty days. Out of this circumstance arose the still current belief that if rain falls on July 15 it will continue to rain for forty days. SWIT'ZERLAND (Fr. Suisse, Ger. Schtceiz). A country of Europe extending between latitudes 45° 50' and 47° 45' N. and longitudes 6° and 10° 25' E. It is bounded on the west by France, on the north by Germany and the Lake of Constance, on the cast by Austria-Hungai-y (Tyrol and Vo- rarlberg) and Liechtenstein, and on the south by Italy and the French Department of Haute- Savoie, from which it is separated by the Lake of Geneva. Area, 15,975 square miles. It stretches over 200 miles east and west and 120 miles north and south. The boundaries are complicated and do not follow natural fea- tures, excepting that the Jura Mountains form the natural border between Switzerland and France, and the main crest of the Alps is mainly the border on the south side. TopOGBAPHT. Switzerland is the most moun- tainous country of Eui'ope, three-fourths of its area being covered with mountains. The central and southern parts are occupied by the Swiss Alps, which spread over nearly three-fifths of the entire area. The Jura Mountains cover the northwestern portion of the country. Between the Jura Mountains and the Alps is the Swiss high plain, where most of the inhabitants live surrounded by these great natural ramparts. The Jura JNIountains form a generally southwest- northeast curve. Their summits do not ordinarily exceed 5000 feet, the loftiest in Switzerland be- ing the Dole, 5505 feet. The folded Juras have fifteen main folds, nearly parallel with one an- other, none of them extending the whole length of the district. Between the ranges are long valleys, transverse gorges connecting one val- ley with another; and these features produce scenery of great beauty and variety. Many fine forests of firs cover the upper slopes and an abundance of rich pastures is spread below them, mingling with the fields and vineyards which extend down to the margin of the small lakes that occupy some of the valley bottoms. The central plain is steeply walled in between the Juras and the Alps. It is about 1300 feet in general elevation. It is a plain chiefly in con- trast with the mountains around it and in other countries would be called an elevated region, thickly studded with picturesque hills. It ex- tends in a southwest and northeast direction from the Lake of Geneva across Lake Constance to Wiirttemberg, and has an average width of about thirty miles. Its hills are due chiedy to un- equal erosion, the coarse gravel brought down from the Alps (knovn as 'Nagelflue,' often ce- mented into a hard conglomerate) having been able especially to resist the destructive action of time and weather. The debris from the Alps, with which it is covered to a great depth, forms ita soil, but the disintegrated granites and gneisses contribute too large a proportion of sand and pebbles to make the soil very rich in plant food, though the conditions are more favorable where there is a considerable admixture from the limestone mountains. The Alps rising from this central plateau are thi-ee times as high as the .Juras. The utmost complexity appears to mark the arrangement of the towering ranges, masses, spurs, and precipices of the Swiss Alps. 'The group of Saint Gottliard, however, is the central knot of this mountain world. It is the middle point from which radiate on almost every side the mighty Alpine ranges that fill the centre and the south of Switzerland. The ranges of Ticino from the south, the mountain masses extending from the Siniplon in the southwest, the Bernese Oberland from the west, the Titlis group from the north, the Todi chains (the Alps of Glarus and Scliwyz) from the northeast, and the mighty complex of the Grisons from the southeast, all converge upon Saint Gottliard. This group is also a great hytlrographic centre. The head- waters of the Rhine flow from its eastern and of the Rhone from its western sides, cutting the Swiss Alps into a northern and a southern half. The Reuss rises from its northern and the Ticino from its southern slopes. The Swiss Alps are the middle part of the great highland region of South Europe, which extends in the form of a bow from the Gulf of Genoa to the plain of Hungary. The southern Swiss Alps (south of the Rhine and Rhone) be- gin in the west in the splendid glacier-cov- ered chain of the Pennine Alps, which have their culmination in Jlonte Rosa (15,217 feet), in- ferior in height only to Mont Blanc in France. The Mischabelhtirncr, the Weisshorn, the Breit- horn, and the incomparable pinnacle of the Mat- terhorn are among the Pennines which extend eastward to the Simplon. Over thirty summits ex- ceed 12.000 feet. East of the Simplon extend the Lepontine Alps, the water parting between the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Po, with many valleys deeply excavated by torrents and crossed by a number of important passes to Italy. East of the Ticino Vallev and between the Rhine and the Inn are the Alps of the Grisons, whose snows chiefly feed tributaries of the Rhine, many summits ex- ceeding 10,000 feet. Lastly, south of the Inn and the most eastern group of the southern Swiss Alps are the magnificent peaks of Bernina, whose culminating point is 13,2SS feet above the sea. These southern Alps are formed of crystalline rocks, while the north,ern Swiss Alps are chiefly of limestone stupendously folded. The chains of the northern Swiss Alps are separated one from another by three deep val- leys: (1) that of the Aar with the lakes of Brienz and Thun, which carries nearly all the drainage of North Switzerland to- the Rhine; (2) the valley of the Reuss with Lake Lucerne: and (3) the Walensee and Lake Zurich. Thus sep- arated the four great groups of the northern Alps are: First, the Bernese Alps (Oberland), the water parting between the Aar and the Up- per Rhone, which include the greatest snow moun- tains of the Alps ; first among them the crystal- line summits of the Finsteraarhorn (14,026 feet), the .Jungfrau (13.672), Miinch (13.440), Eigcr. Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, and others, a compact mass of snowy and rugged peaks with the Aletsch glacier, IG miles long, the largest of