sugar or other preservative substances. Switzerland is veritably the land “flowing with milk and honey, and cattle upon a thousand hills.” Great attention is paid to apiaries; the honey is famed for its aroma and delicacy; though some tourists are disposed to doubt if that which is on every breakfast-table is all the product of the little busy hymenopteran. The first railway on Swiss soil was a short piece from St. Louis to Basel, opened in 1844; but the first purely Swiss line was that from Zurich to Baden, opened in 1847; yet Switzerland has to-day more railways in proportion to area than any other country of Europe. Its railroad mileage per ten thousand population, stands third in Europe, being exceeded only by Sweden and Denmark; and in outlay for the same per capita, it comes second, England being first. By a federal law of 1872, the right to grant concessions to railroads was vested solely in the Confederation, but the co-operation of the Cantons was to be sought in the preliminary negotiations. The revised Constitution of 1874 expressly sanctioned the condition into which railroad affairs had been brought by previous legislation; for the 23d article repeats the constitutional provisions of 1848 regarding public works, and another article is added; the 26th declaring that “legislation on the construction and management of railroads belongs to the Confederation.” All railroad companies, whether confined to a single Canton or running within the limits of more than one, and of whatever length, from trunk lines down to the shortest funicular, desiring a concession, must first apply to the Federal Council, submitting the necessary documents and information. These are at once transmitted by the Federal Council to the cantonal government or governments through which the projected railway proposes to run, and negotiations take place between cantonal authorities and representatives of the railway as to the concessions asked for, under the presidency of a delegation of the Federal Council, including the chief of that particular department. After the Federal Council has settled the terms of the concession, it sends a message, with the text of the proposed conditions, to the Federal Assembly for their consideration. The ultimate decision rests with the Federal Assembly, and they may grant a concession even if the Canton opposes it. The purchase of the Swiss railways by the Confederation has been much discussed of late years, but so far without any result. The Confederation has left the development of railroads to private enterprises, and never exercised its right of subsidies to railways except in the case of the St. Gothard Company, which pierced the Alps with a tunnel of incalculable value to the whole of Switzerland. By this tunnel Switzerland overcame the isolation resulting from an altitude above the sea; linking north and south, central Europe and Italy, in new bonds of amity, and opening through the very heart of