SWITZERLAND (Schweitz, Suisse, Svizzera), a mountainous country in Europe, situated between 45° 48' and 47° 49' N. lat., 5° 55' and 10° 30' E. long., is bounded W. by France, between Basel on the Rhino and Geneva on the RhOne, the boundary being formed by one of the ridges of the Jura Mountains, and by the river Denim, an affluent of the Rhino ; S. by Savoy, Piedmont, and Austrian Italy, the boundary-line being formed generally by the Lake of Geneva, high ranges of the Alps, and a part of the crest of the main chain of that great mountain system ; E. by the Tyrol and Bavaria, from which it is separated by lofty mountain ranges, and by the Rhine from Sargane to the Lake Constanz ; and N. by the Lake of Constanz and the Rhine, which divide Switzerland from Wfirtemberg and Baden. The territory of the canton of Schaffhausen, and the territory of Eglisau, belonging to the canton of Zilrich, however, lie on the Baden side of the Rhine. The town of Constanz and a small tract round it, on the south side of the Lake of Constanz, belong to Baden.
Switzerland extends a little more than 180 miles near 46' 30'N. lat., where its length from west to east Is greatest, and about 130 miles at 9° E. long., where it is widest. The boundary however is most irregular : from the head of the Val Formazza in Piedmont to the Rhino below Eglisau the width is only 76 miles; and between the Val Formazza and the Rhine near Sargans, on the Tyrolese border, the distance only just exceeds 60 miles. The area of Switzerland is 15,179 square miles; the population, according to the census of 1850, amounted to 2,392,740, of whom 971,800 were Catholics, 1,416,786 Protestants chiefly of the Calvinist faith, 3146 Jews, and 2198 were houseleas or vagrants. The number of foreigners, including refugees, amounted to 71,570.
The surface of Switzerland presents a greater variety than most countries of Europe. Monte Rosa, on the southern boundary, attains an elevation of 15,226 feet above the sea-level; while the our face of the Rhine at Basel is only SOO feet, and that of the Logo Maggiore, on the southern boundary, only 678 feet above the sea.
The greater part of the country is mountainous. The ranges of the Alpe and their numerous offsets extend over the southern and south eastern districts, and occupy about one-half of Switzerland. Along its western boundary run the ridges of the Jura Mountains. The country between these two mountain systems has towards the south the form of a plain, interspersed with isolated hills; and towards the north it is traversed by ridges or groups of bills of moderate elevation. Thus Switzerland is naturally divided into four regions : the Alps, the Plain, the Hilly Country, and the Jura Mountains.
I. The Region of the Alps, which is the most extensive, is divided from the Plain and Hilly Country by a line which begins on the north bank of the Lake of Geneva, at the town of Vevey, and running north by east passes over Mont Molesson, which may be considered as the most western summit connected with the Alps in these parts. It traverses the river Saana at Gruyere, north-east of Mont Molesson, and thence runs east by north to the western extremity of the Lake of Than. From the northern 'hares of the Lake of Thun it runs again north by east to Mont Napf, which is on the boundary line between the cantons of Bern and Luzern, near 47° N. lat., b• E. long. From Mont Napf it runs due east to the northern extremity of the Lake of Luzern, and thence east by north crossing the Lake of Zug to Mont Hoch Ezel, which is near the most southern part of the Lake of Zurich. From this point it follows the depression which runs east by south from the Lake of Zurich through the valley of the Limmat, the Lake of Wallenstadt, and the low ground which extends from the eastern extremity of the last-mentioned lake to Sargans and the banke of the Rhine. The whole country south of this line is occupied by the mountain masses and chains of the Alps, and only a small portion of it is cultivable; a larger portion, which is on the upper declivities of the mountains, is available as pasture-ground.