SWITZERLAND
358
SWITZERLAND
984 till the destruction of the shrine St. Swithin was
the patron of Winchester Cathedral. He is best
known from the popular superstition attached to his
name and expressed in the following rhyme:
St. Swithin 's day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain; St. Swithin's day if thou be fair For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
There have been many attempts to explain the origin of this belief, but none have proved generally satis- factory. A similar belief attaches in France to 8 June, the feast of kSts. Gervasius and Protasius, and to other feasts in different countries (see "Notes and Queries", 1885, XII, 1.37, 253). St. Swithin's feast is kept on 15 July, the date of his first translation, and is retained in the Anglican Calendar.
The materials for the saint's life will be found in Acta SS., July, I, 321 sqq. .See also Potthast, Wegweiser, 1588; Hunt in Diet. Nat. Bios., s. V. Swithun; Hakdy, Descriptive Catalogue, I (1862), u, 513 sqq.
Raymund Webster.
Switzerland, a confederation in the central part of Western Europe, made up of twenty-two cantons, three of which are divided into half-cantons. The country lies between 45° 49' 2" and 47° 48' 32" north latitude, and 5° 57' 26" and 10° 29' 40" longitude east of Greenwich. Its area is 15,976 square miles. The name comes from the designation of one of the orig- inal cantons, Schwj'z (Schwiz), which was extended in the course of time to the entire confederation.
Physical Geography and P]thnography. — As re- gards its physical geography Switzerland is divided into three divisions: the Alps, the central region, and the Jura. The Swiss Alps form a part of the great curve of the Alpine chain of central Europe; they extend from Mont-Dolent in the chain of Mont Blanc in the west to Piz Mondin, in the Lower En- gadine in the east, and have a length measured in a straight line of 170 miles. The smaller part of the Jura range, including, however, its highest peaks, is on Swiss soil. Between the Alps and the Jura extends the central region, which is traversed by countless valleys and includes about 30 per cent of the entire area of Switzerland. The highest peak of the Swiss Alps is Monte Rosa, 15,217 ft. The rivers which have their sources in Switzerland belong to one or another of the following four river-basins : the basin of the Rhine, the waters of which flow into the North Sea; the basin of the Rhone, which carries its waters to the western Mediterranean; the basin of the Po, which empties into the eastern Mediterranean, and the basin of the Inn, which empties into the Danube and with this into the Black Sea. The three river-basins first mentioned have a common watershed, the range of the Gothard. Switzerland also contains a large num- l)er of lakes, the largest of which are on the edges of the Alps and Jura, such as Geneva or Leman, Constance, Neuchatel, Lucerne, Lugano, Maggiore, and Zurich. The lofty mountain chain of the Swiss Alps above a definite height is permanently covered with snow which feeds the glaciers. Switzerland con- tains altogether not less than 1077 glaciers, which cover an area of 709 sq. miles. Taken altogether 25.2 per cent of the area of Switzerland is completely unproductive.
The climate of Switzerland is not uniform. The differences in temperature of the various parts are conditioned by the differences in altitude, which vary from 581 feet to 15,217 feet above sea-level, and by the Alps, the southern slopes of which have a Medi- terranean climalo, while their northern slopes show that of central Euni])e. These striking diffcreiic-cs determine llie <'haraclcr of the flora and fauna. With the excei)tion of the vegetation which flourislies on a seashore all European types of flora are to be found. The species of animals characteristic of the Alps arc:
the chamois, the ibex, the marmot, the golden eagle
and several other species of birds. Of the productive
area 3390 sq. miles are covered with forests, 8427
sq. miles are farm and pasture lands, and 108 sq.
miles are planted with vineyards.
In 1850 the total population of Switzerland was 2,392,740 persons; the census of 1910 showed 3,753,- 293 inhabitants; on 1 December, 1910, the resident population (those actually present in the different locahties) was altogether 3,705,002 persons. The original inhabitants of Switzerland were predomi- nantly of Celtic race, although south of the Alps the Italian Lepontii lived in Ticino, and the Grisons was apparently inhabited by Etruscan Rhaeti. A mixed population appeared in most parts of the territory owing to the Roman supremacy, the arrival of the Burgundians in the south-western district and of the Alamanni in other parts of the country. Four differ- ent languages appeared: German in the districts inhabited by the Alamanni, French in the western regions, where the scanty Burgundian population interiiiarried with the romanized Helvetii, Italian in Ticino, and Rhato-Romanic in the Grisons. According to the last census the inhabitants were classified, by native tongues, as follows: Of 3,765,002 inhabitants, 2,599,1.54 spoke German; 796,244 French; 301,325 Italian; 39,834 Romanic; 28,445 spoke other languages.
Political History. — In the prehistoric era the territory of the present Switzerland was partly inhab- ited far up into the valleys of the Al])s, as is evident from remains found in various caves and graves. Switzerland entered its historical era with the over- throw of the western Helvetii by Ca'sar in the year 58 B. c. The entire country came under the control of the Roman Empire after the eastern districts were conquered by Drusus and Tiberius in 15 B. c. On the organization of the Roman provinces before Diocletian the north-western part of the territory of Switzerland belonged to the Province of Germania Superior, the south-western section (Geneva) to the Provincia Narbonensis, the eastern and the greater part of the south-eastern region to the Province of Rhsetia. The region of the south-western Alps was divided into special administrative districts, of which the district of the "Alpes Poenina;" included the present canton of Valais and the adjoining portions of Savoy. In the reorganization of the empire by Diocletian the Province of Rha?tia and the district of the "Alpes PoeninaB" were left as they were, the north-western part of the country was included in the Province of Maxima Sequanorum, the south-western section in the Provincia Viennensis, the southern point of Ticino to Liguria, a province of Northern Italy.
During the migi'ations the territory of Switzerland was occupied by two German tribes. The Burgun- dians, who had settled in 443 south of Lake Geneva, pushed northwards and occupied the south-western and western regions of Switzerland. They mingled with the Romanic pojjulation and quickly adopted the Romanic tongue and customs, so that the language of this section remained Romanic (French). In the fifth century the Alamanni pushed forward as far as the Alps and coinjilclely destroyed Roman civiliza- tion, so that the language of this section became Ger- man. At the beginning of the sixth century all Switzerland north of the Alps fell under the suprem- acy of the Prankish Kingdom. At a later date, when the Lombard Kingdom was conquered by the Franks, the districts of Switzerland south of the Alps also came under the Frankisli mastery. Thus Switz- erland belonged to Charlemagne's great empire and shared its fortunes. In the (xirlition of the prankish Empire by the Treaty of Verdun in 84:5 the central and eastern parts of Switzerland fell to the Kingdom of Alanianuia, the western to the Kingiloni of Lor- raine, and later to France. The power of the counts
