The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

OLABUS. 171
at the foot of the Uotlibcrg, and at the lower end of its lake, where the rivers
Limiuat and Sibl effect their junction, is far more accessible than Luzern, and
commands some of the most imiwrtant natural bi;^h-roads. ITence its strategical
iiuportauce. It was at Zurich, on the Jird N'ondcniiaire of the year VIII., that
Massena saved Franco by annihilating the Russian army marching upon Basel.
The city of Zwingli is but little inferior to that of Calvin, as regards the number
of its inhabitants, but it is far superior to it in the facilities which are offered
by its numerous educational institutions, its Polytechuicum, its university, its
museums and libraries. Ziirich makes great efforts to deserve the epithet of
" Athens of Switzerland," which its citizens have bestowed upon it. Scheuchzer,
the tirst man who studied the physical geogniphy of the Alps in a scientific spirit,
was a native of Zurich, as was also Lavater, the famous physiognoiuist. It is a
manufacturing town, too, with silk and cotton mills, foundries, and machine shops.
Steam-engines constructed at Zurich have been exported even to England and to
America. ^lore than half the corn trade of Switzerland is conducted by Ziirich
houses, its leather fairs are well attended, and the visits of commercial travellers
are more frequent than in any other town of Switzerland. Zwingli preached in
the old parish church, a basilica of the twelfth century. The silk and cotton
industry enriches also many of the neighbouring towns and villages as far as the
canton of Zug. Wahl (5, 0-55 inhabitants) and Usfer (5,808 inhabitants), to the
east of Ziirich, on the river Aa, which connects the Pftiffikon with the Qreifen
Lake, are busy manufacturing centres. The river Aa, which supplies motive
power to the numerous mills of these towns, is popularly known as the " river
of millions." Wintcrthur (9,404 inhabitants), next to Ziirich the most important
town of the canton, is the modern representative of the Roman station of Vitodurum.
It is ambitiously termed the Liverpool of Switzerland, because it imports so
much cotton. There are, however, few towns of equal size which can boast of
more varied industries, or of a larger number of educational and other public
institutions. Its foundries and machine shops are more especially noteworthy.
Giants* (in French Glaris, 5,516 inhabitants) is the capital of a canton and a
busy manufacturing and commercial centre, but in the mountain country of the
Grisons,t which lies beyond it, there are no manufactures, and Chtir (in French
• Glarut.—Area, 267 square miles ; population (1876), 36,129. In 1870 there were 28,238 Protcstanta
and 6,8S8 Catholics. The canton includes the valley of the Llnth, as far as the Walon Lake, and is
quite Alpine in its character, glaciers covering 6 per cent, of its surface. Formerly a land of herdsmen,
it haa become a manufacturing country, cotton and woollen mills and hosiery manufacture emjiloying
more hands now than dairy-farming or agriculture. The battles of Naeft-ls (1352 and 1388) resulted in
the liberation of the canton from the yoke of Austria.
t Graubundcn (Grisons).—.rVrea, 2,774 square miles; population (1870), 91,782, (1876) 92,906. In 1870
there were 51,887 Protestants and 39,843 Roman Catholics. The canton is the largest in Switzerland,
but very thinly inhabited. It includes the valley of the Upper Rhine ; the valley of the Upper Inn, or
Engadin, separated from the former by the Albula Alps ; and the valleys of Calanca and Misocco, on the
southern slope of the Alps, and tributary to the Ticino. Only about 5 per cent, of the area is cultivated
(barley is grown up to 5,810 feet, wheat up to 4,740 feet). Wine is grown around Chur and on the
Italian elopes. Sericulture and the breeding of snails (for exportation to Italy) are likewise of some
importance. The mines supply lead, copper, silver, and iron, and there are quarries of marble, alabaster,
and pot-stones. Amongst the 6fty mineral springs are Tarasp and St. Jloritz.
In the tenth century the Grisons were annexed to the Gorman Empire, and numerous eccleaiattical