A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium, during the summer and autumn of 1814Bernard, Richard Boyle
History
A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium, during the summer and autumn of 1814
Bernard, Richard Boyle
Europe -- Description and travel
I have been assured that in one part of the Canton of Appenzell, the
population amounts to 562 per square mile. It is one of the most
secluded parts of Switzerland, and is famous for the music called the
_Ranz des Suisses_. The Alps greatly increase the surface of Switzerland
when compared with less mountainous countries, and it therefore can
support vast flocks in situations where agriculture would be
impracticable. I have been frequently surprised to see cattle in places,
whither they must have been carried by the inhabitants. The number of
the cattle, in many of the Swiss Cantons, greatly exceeds that of the
inhabitants.
_Haller_ has observed that Switzerland presents, as it were, three
distinct regions; that on the tops of _the mountains_ are found the
plants indigenous in Lapland; _lower down_, are found those of the Cape
of Good Hope; and the _valleys_ abound with plants peculiar to
Switzerland, besides others which are found in the same latitude. I
observed in a former chapter, that the great occupation of the
inhabitants of Geneva consists in the manufacture of watches, clocks,
&c. and having a desire to see some specimens of their workmanship, I
accompanied a friend, who had purchased a _musical snuff-box_, to the
workshop of its fabricator, who although he was of the first celebrity
in Geneva, had no warehouse in a more accessible situation than his
workshop on the fifth story. I afterwards found that most of the
watchmakers had their workshops at the tops of the houses, which here,
as in Edinburgh, are mostly occupied by several families, who have a
common stair-case to their apartments. I was much pleased with the
display of ingenuity in this warehouse, and found that many of the
articles were intended to be sent to Paris, to Asia, &c. Geneva itself
could not, of course, supply purchasers for such a profusion of
expensive mechanism. The _taste_ of many of the articles, is by no means
such as would ensure them a ready sale in London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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