CONSTANCE, LAKE (named from the city of Constance, Ger. Konstanz, or Kostnitz, Lat. Constantio: German Bodensee, formerly Bodem see, Bodmensee, Bodmanscc, from the castle of Bodman on its shores, 31L. Locus Podamieus, Mare Podanum, Lat. Locus Brigantines, Locus cenetus et Acronius). A lake of glacial ori gin. situated at the north base of the Alps and forming a portion of the boundary be tween Switzerland and Austria (Vorarlberg) on the south, and the German States of Baden, Wurttemberg, and Bavaria on the' north (Map: Switzerland, D I). It is on the course of the Rhine, which enters from the south and flows out in a westerly direction. Lake Constance ex tends northwest and southeast, and at its north west end forks into a northern prolongation known a-i-Ueberlinger See, which has a broad con nection with the main lake; and into a southern fork, called the Lower Lake (Untersee), for merly known as the Zeller See, connected with the main lake by a narrow channel, 600 to 1600 feet wide, and only two and one-half miles long. The outlet of the lake is at the foot of this arm. The height of its surface is about 1300 feet above sea-level; the length of the lake is about 40 miles: the greatest breadth about nine miles; the length of shore line 160 miles. and the area 208' square miles. The greatest depth is 906 feet.
The water of the lake is subject to sudden rises of from three to twelve feet, due to the melting of the snows. While the Rhine from the south is the main affluent, a number of minor streams discharge into the lake, nearly all of them on the northeast side. Among these tributaries are the Bregen zer Ach, Leblach, Argen, Schussen, Stein aeh, Ach of Uhldingen, and Stockach.
The lower lake is covered with ice nearly every winter, but it is only rarely, in an extreme win ter, that the surface of the main lake becomes frozen. The lake contains twenty-six varieties of fish, among them salmon and salmon trout, and twenty-two species of shell-fish. The shores are hilly and picturesque. The land is produc tive and in great part under cultivation, but extensive woodlands still remain. Lake Con stance formerly extended much farther south than at present, and even within historic times, in the fourth century, it extended as far as Rheineck (Itheinegg). The towns on the shores of Lake Constance are Bregenz, Linda u. Fried richshafen, reberlingen, Constance, Arbon, and Rorschach. Steamboats navigate the lake, and railways follow its shores,