pure, and prevent its stagnation in the valleys.

The soil of Switzerland is, in general, stony and unfertile, but the
peasants spare no pains to render it productive. I have had more than
once before occasion to express my astonishment at the sight of
mountains divided into terraces, and cultivated to their very summits. I
have been informed by a gentleman, who has devoted much of his attention
to agricultural pursuits, that the general return of grain in
Switzerland is about five times the quantity sown, and that Switzerland
does not produce much above a tenth part of the corn necessary for the
subsistence of its population, which he calculates at 130 to the square
mile, or nearly two millions; but if the parts which it is impossible
can ever be cultivated, were left out of the calculation, the average
population to the square mile would be of course greatly increased; as
the present scheme includes the whole superficies of the country.

The proportion which some other countries bear to Switzerland, in
respect to the population subsisting on each square mile, is as follows,
viz.

China, the most populous country
in the world, of the same extent 260

Holland, which has a greater population
than any country of its limited
extent 275

France, as in 1782 174

United kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland 145

Russia in Europe 30

Iceland 1

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