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sures of Switzerland, but the result of their labours regarding the currency has not yet appeared.

$ 3. DISTANCES.

There is not less perplexity and variation in the measurement of distances, than in the calculation of money, in Switzerland.

Distances are reckoned throughout Switzerland not by miles, but by stunden (hours, i. e. hours' walking) or leagues. The measures of length given in the following routes have been taken from the most perfect tables that could be procured; but the Editor is aware that there must be many errors, and that an approach to accuracy is all that can be expected from them. The length of the stunde has been calculated at 5278 mètres, or 2708 toises 1800 Bernese feet; 21,137 of such stunden go to a degree of the equator. To make this measurement agree with the actual pace of walking, it is necessary to advance 271 Paris feet in a minute.

It is a reproach to the Swiss Government that no authorised measurement of the roads throughout the country should have been undertaken by them at the public expense. Since the correction of weights and measures in 1833-34, 3-10ths of a mètre (=3 decimètres, or 132,988 Paris lines) has been constituted the legal Swiss foot, and 16,000 Swiss feet 1 stunde.

S 5. MODES OF TRAVELLING IN SWITZERLAND.

POSTING.

The means of travelling in Switzerland have been greatly improved and increased within the last fifteen or twenty years. The great roads are excellent, and those over the Alps stupendous in addition; upon almost all of them diligences run;

and since 1823, when the first experiment with steam was made on the Lake of Geneva, every one of the large lakes is navigated by steamboats.

Posting is unknown in most of the cantons of Switzerland, and is confined to the following routes near the frontier;-From Constance to St. Gall and through the Grisons to Coire; over the Splügen to Chiavenna and Milan; over the Bernardin to Bellinzona, Lugano, and Milan; from Geneva to Milan over the Simplon, along both shores of the Lake Leman, by Lausanne or by Thonon ; from Airolo at the south base of the St. Gotthard to Bellinzona. The traveller may likewise post from Basle to Schaffhausen, and from Schaffhausen to Constance, if he choose the routes through Baden on the right bank of the Rhine It is stated that post-horses are kept in Canton Argovie, between Basle and Schaffhausen, and in Neuchâtel, but on this point the writer cannot speak with certainty. The tariff and charges for horses and postilions vary in the different cantons, but the regulations of the adjoining states are for the most part followed. For instance, in Thurgovie and St. Gall the charges are according to the Baden tariff; in Geneva, Vaud, and the Vallais, according to the French; and in the Grisons, according to the Austrian. Further particulars are given in the respective routes upon which post-horses are maintained.

At Coire, and other post-stations on the great road through the Grisons, the post-masters give the traveller a printed ticket, containing the details of all charges according to the distance and number of horses.

***It is very generally asserted that the Diet is about to authorise the establishment of post

horses throughout Switzerland, and that this new enactment may be expected to come into force next year.

$ 6. DILIGENCES.—Luggage.

Diligences now run daily between most of the large towns of Switzerland, and there are few carriage-roads in the country not traversed by them twice or thrice a-week at least.

They generally belong to the government of the different cantons, and are attached to the postoffice, as in Germany. The places are numbered, and all baggage exceeding a certain fixed weight is charged extra, and often greatly increases the expense of this mode of conveyance, which is one reason among many why travellers should reduce their baggage to the smallest possible compass. The public conveyances are by no means so well organised as in Germany. On some routes, particularly in going from one canton into another, passengers are sometimes transferred into another coach, and run the chance of waiting several hours for it, being set down in a remote spot to pass the interval as they may, and this not unfrequently in' the middle of the night.

The conducteur's fee is included in the fare, but the postilion's trinkgeld is paid separately by. the passengers in some parts of the country; in St. Gall, for instance, they expect from 6 to 9 kr. per stage.

Travellers in Switzerland will frequently be glad to avail themselves of the public conveyances to forward their luggage from one place to another, while they are making pedestrian excursions among the mountains. In such cases, they have only to book their packages at the coach-office, after carefully addressing them, and, in some

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cases, entering a specification of their value in a printed form. They will then receive a receipt, and the article will be forwarded and taken care of until reclaimed.

In making application' for packages so consigned, as well as for letters at the post-office, the Englishman should present his name in writing, as our pronunciation is frequently unintelligible to foreigners, and without this precaution the applicant may be told that his luggage has not arri– ved, when in reality it is all the while lying in the depôt. The traveller may also request to look over the packages in search of his own.

S7. VOITURIER.-LOHNKUTSCHER.

Posting, except along the few routes mentioned already in p. xx, ceases at the Swiss frontier, and those who have been travelling post must therefore engage a voiturier at the first Swiss town, with a suitable number of horses to draw their carriage. If it be light, and the party small, two horses will suffice; but the coachman must then drive from the box; with a heavy carriage, three or four horses must be taken, and the driver will ride as postilion. The towns of Basle, Schaffhausen, Zurich, Bern, Thun, Lausanne, and Geneva, are the head-quarters of the voituriers; at all of them there are many persons who keep job-horses for hire, and will either conduct the traveller themselves, or send coachmen in their employ. At most of the frontier towns return horses are to be met with, and the traveller may save some days of back fare by availing himself of them.

Before making an engagement, it is prudent to consult the landlord of the inn or some other respectable inhabitant-(N.B. not the waiter)-to ecommend a person of approved character to be

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employed. As there are many very roguish voíturiers, ready to take advantage of the traveller on all occasions, such a recommendation will be a guarantee, to a certain extent, for good behaviour. The landlord should be referred to apart, not in the presence of the coachman, nor, indeed, with his cognizance. It is a bad plan to intrust a waiter or inferior person with the negociation; he will most probably sell the traveller to the voiturier, and make a job for his own advantage. The most judicious mode of proceeding is, to discard all go-betweens and subordinates, to insist on seeing the principal, the owner of the horses, and to make the bargain at once with him. Besides ascertaining that the voiturier is a respectable man, that his horses are good, and his carriage (when it also is required) be clean and stout, it is desirable in many cases that he should speak French as well as German, and, in all, that he be acquainted with the roads to be traversed. The engagement should, in the first instance, not be made for any specific time, at least not for a long period, until man and horses have been tried and have given satisfaction. It is better to take him on from day to day, holding out the prospect of his being continued if he behaves well.

Some persons engage a voiturier for a certain sum, to perform a stated journey in a fixed number of days; a bad plan, since it ties down the traveller to a prescribed route, without the power of diverging, if he choose to alter his plans, or of tarrying by the way. The employer should reserve to himself the power of dismissing his voi→ turier as soon as he reaches a post-road (see the map).

The established charge throughout Switzerland, per diem, is 9 Fr. francs for each horse, and 1 Fr.

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