CONSTANCE, LAKE (called by the Germans Bodensee or Bodmansee, from the old tle of Locus Brigantinus of the Romans), lies on the north side of the Alps of Switzerland, and forms a meeting point of the five territories—Baden, Wiirtemberg. Bavaria, the Tyrol, and Switzerland. It has an elevation variously estimated at from 1250 ft. to 1335 ft. above the sea. Lake C. is traversed by the Rhine from e. to w.; its greatest length is about 44 m., utmost breadth 9 m., and depth 961 feet. It is divided into the upper and lower lakes, the latter of which extends from Constance to Stein. Anciently, the lake was more extensive toward the s. than now. In the 4th c., it is said to have extended as far as Rheineck, now some milesdistant from the shore. The shores are formed by hilly lands, with low tracts at the mouths of the Rhine and smaller rivers. Cornfields, vineyards, pastures, orchards, and wooded declivities, with here and there the ruins of old castles interspersed, surround the lake. The water has a dark-green hue, often rises suddenly some 10 or 12 ft.
during a thaw, and rolls in high waves during the prevalence of a strong s., n.w., or e. wind. Without visible cause, it sometimes rises and falls to a considerable degree.. In one hour, in 1770, it rose between 20 and 24 feet above the ordinary level. It is sel dom frozen, except in very severe winters. The lake contains sixty kinds of aquatic fowl; twenty-five species of fish, including fine salmon and salmon-trout; and several species of shell-fish. Since 1821, steam-na vigation has added to the facilities of com merce across the lake, and its commercial importance has been greatly increased by the opening of a railway from Friedrichshafen, by Ulm and Stuttgart, to Heilbronn.