The Swiss have no language of their own. Most little Swiss boys and girls who live near Italy speak Italian. Many of the Swiss who live near Germany speak German, and many of those near France speak French. So, whether you choose to take the trip through the tunnel or the trip over the pass, you come from the Switzerland of Italian speech into the Switzerland of German speech.

Your choice. — Do you think now that you would rather go through the tunnel, or over the pass? Why? Would you choose to go the same way in summer that you would choose in winter? Why?

From the Tunnel to Lucerne. — On the map in Figure 129, there are signs for many of the things you would see on the next fifty-five miles of your trip across Switzerland. The following questions and directions will aid you in reading these signs. It will be very .helpful if some one will read the questions and directions aloud so that you can follow them on the map without having to look away so often. You can show when you are ready to hear the next question or direction by raising your hand.

1. Can you see from the first look at the map that this is a region of many mountains?

2. Can you find signs for rivers? Can you see that there are valleys between the mountains?

3. Can you find signs for lakes? For towns? For snowfields and glaciers?

4. The signs that are new to you are named in the legend. See if you found the right sign for snowfields and glaciers.

5. With the help of the legend, find signs on the map for roads, railroads, and tunnels.

6. Find the longest tunnel shown on the map. This is the St. Gotthard Tunnel. Find the letter "T" on the map. This marks the sign for the St. Gotthard Tunnel. Had you found the right sign for this tunnel?

7. Find the town near the southern end of the tunnel.

8. Find the roadway that goes from the town near the southern end of the tunnel to the town near the northern end. Find the letter "P" on the map. This marks the place where the roadway goes through the St. Gotthard Pass.

9. Find a roadway that leads west from the one running through the pass, and move the point of your pencil westward along it till you come to a town.

10. Find the glacier nearest this town. It is the Rhone Glacier. The letter "R" on the map marks the sign you should have found for the Rhone Glacier (Fig. 128). The sign for the other glacier (Fig. 127) which you saw on your side trip is not shown on this map. It is about twenty miles southwest of the Rhone Glacier.

11. Find the river which flows southwest from the Rhone Glacier. It is, of course, the Rhone River.

12. Find again the town at the northern end of the St. Gotthard Tunnel. Find, near the northern edge of the map, the dot marked "L." This stands for the town of Lucerne. Find the railroad that runs between the town at the northern end of the tunnel and Lucerne. This is the railroad over which you travel as you continue your journey across Switzerland. Are there any tunnels on this route? Any spiral tunnels?

13. In Figure 130, part of the city of Lucerne is shown. The city is built on both sides of a river. Part of it also touches a great lake. How does your map show you these things?

14. What does the railroad follow for the first half of the journey? Do you see, from the picture in Figure 124, any reasons why many roads and railroads in Switzerland follow river valleys? How many roads and railroads shown in this picture follow the valley? How does the railroad which crosses the great bridge leave the valley?

15. The picture in Figure 131 was taken at the town marked" .\ "on the map. This picture gives you an idea of the beautiful scenery along this route.

16. After the railroad has followed the river valley down to the mouth of the river, what does the railroad run near in many places?

17. On the map, how many towns are shown along the railroad between the town marked "A" and Lucerne?

18. Do you think that you would be out of sight of mountains at any place on the trip, except in the tunnels?

Finishing your visit to Switzerland. — Another trip, about as long as the trip from the St. Gotthard Tunnel to Lucerne, would bring you to Basic. On the trip between Lucerne and Basic, you would find that the views are much like those in the parts of Switzerland you have seen. Switzerland is indeed a land of beautiful scenery.

From the following stories you can find out what you would see many of the Swiss people along the way doing if you visited in their homes.

A little Swiss girl’s home. — Gerda is a Swiss girl. To reach the village near which she lives you must follow a steep, winding road for miles along a river valley. Finally you come to a broader place in the valley, where there is room enough for a few farms. Most of the homes of the village are huddled close together at one side of the valley. Gerda’s home is built a short distance from the village, on the lower mountain slope, and from it she can look down on the roofs of the houses in the village. Can you find, in Figure 132, the white house in which Gerda lives? The lower part is made of stones and has been whitened like the one in Figure 123. The upper part of the house and the shingles are of wood. Do you think the picture in Figure 132 was taken in summer or in winter? Why? The workers in the field are harvesting flax. Women help with this work. Most of the larger fields which you see near the village, however, are not fields of flax, but fields of hay. Notice the lower slope of the mountain side on which Gerda’s home is built. The little light and dark patches on it are little farms and gardens like those in Figure 121. Potatoes are growing in many of them. In some, there is rye. What do you see growing on the mountain side above these gardens? Have you ever heard the sound the wind makes as it blows through a group of pine trees? If you have, you can imagine what Gerda hears when the wind is blowing through this forest above her horn

The herders. — Not so many people live in this village as you might think from the number of roofs Gerda can count as she looks down on it, because many of the buildings are for cattle and goats. Almost every family in the village owns goats, or cattle, or both. Does it seem strange that there are none to be seen in the picture? The reason is that some of the men and boys of the village have taken the animals to the pastures far up the mountain side. One of these high mountain pastures, called" alps," you can see in Figure 133. Max, the boy whom you see in the picture, lives in the village near Gerda’s home, and they go to the same school. This picture was taken in July, about the same time that the one in Figure 132 was taken. Gerda's father is also a herder. The herders left the village the fifteenth of May. The day in spring on which the herds start for higher mountain slopes is a holiday. Gerda and the other children, together with the grown-up villagers, followed the herders part way up the mountain side. As they went, they sang gay songs. Since that festival day Gerda’s father has returned to the village once to carry down some cheeses and to take back bread and vegetables.

As long as the cattle graze in the pasture shown in Figure 133, the herders live in the little huts near the waterfall. Do you see why the houses for the herders were built near the waterfall? How can you tell that these houses have been built merely for summer shelters? Of what are the houses built? From where do you think the material came? What has been used instead of nails to hold the shingles on the roof? Why do you think these have been used instead of nails? Why, then, are the roofs not very steep? Why not make them perfectly flat, so it would be even easier for the poles and stones to stay on?

The herders in this pasture lead a busy life. They are up at sunrise, and on summer days the sun rises earlier here than it does in Greece (p. 80). The first work of the day is to milk the cows. During the day the cows graze at will in the pasture, returning from time to time to the stream to drink. Some of the herders watch to keep them from wandering into dangerous places. Others take care of the milk. They cool it in water obtained at the foot of the little waterfall. They use most of it to make cheese, because cheese keeps a long time and is easier to carry down the mountain side than milk. During the four or five months that the herders spend in the high pastures, they commonly make more than a hundred pounds of cheese from the milk of a single cow. This means that if the herd is large there are several thousand pounds of cheese to be carried down to the village. Some of the herders go down to the village from time to time to carry part of the cheese. In Figure 134, you can see a herder carrying down a large cheese. What two helps does he have?

Near some of the larger high pastures there are little grassy places on steep slopes where it would be dangerous for cattle to climb. Goats can reach some of these spots safely because they can climb better than cattle, but there are others where even goats cannot graze. The thrifty herders, however, do not let the grass in these little places go to waste. Figure 135 shows you what they do with it.

At sunset the cattle are driven back to the huts and are milked again. Sunset is later here in summer than in the Mediterranean countries, but although the summer days are long, you see there is enough work to keep the herders busy. After staying two or three weeks in the pasture shown in Figure 133, the cattle are driven to pastures still higher up the mountains. Later, on the way down from the high pastures, they may stay in this one again for a few days to eat any fresh grass that in the meantime may have grown there. By the middle of October the herders, the cattle, and the goats will be back in the village.

Gerda’s summer work. — While the herders are away in the mountain pastures, Gerda is busy at home. She takes care of her baby sister while her mother works in the garden. She helps to rake the hay in the fields into piles. Later it is carried to the sheds and kept there to feed the cattle in the winter. Sometimes the hay and the grain need to be hung on racks like those in Figure 136 to dry before they are put in the sheds. Gerda carries vegetables from the garden to the cellar, where they are stored for winter use. She helps sometimes, too, to get ready simple meals of potatoes, cheese, and bread. She does not have much time for play because there is so much to do in the few months of summer to get ready for the long, cold winter, that the help of the children, as well as that of the older people, is needed.

Winter work. — The winter days are a little shorter in Gerda’s land than they are in Demetra’s land. During the short winter days, Gerda spends most of the time in school. Many days she goes to and from school in a sled, for snow covers the roads and fields. The cattle must be kept in the sheds. Gerda’s father spends much of his time feeding the cows, milking them, helping with the cheese-making, and hauling wood from the forest. He cuts up the wood to burn in the open fire-places in his house. When he is kept indoors by bad weather, he carves little wooden animals that he can sell for toys. When Gerda’s mother has any spare time, she makes lace so she, too, can have something to sell.

Four Swiss C’s. — Gerda’s oldest sister Thea has gone to a city to live because she can make more money working there than she can at home. In the summer Thea works in a large hotel, but in the winter the hotel is closed, for most of the people who visit Switzerland want to do so in the summertime. In the winter, Thea works in a factory. Did you ever eat milk chocolate? Do you know that it is called milk chocolate because milk, as well as sugar and chocolate, are used in making it? It is a milk chocolate factory in which Thea works. The chocolate used in the factory is brought from lands far away, but the Swiss cows furnish the milk that is used. In some cities there are factories where the milk, instead of being used for milk chocolate, is condensed and canned to sell to people in lands where milk is hard to get. Have you ever seen condensed milk? There are still other factories, in which cheese is made from milk. So you see the making of cheese, condensed milk, and milk chocolate in city factories depends upon the cows in the Swiss pastures.

Two Swiss F’s. — If you could see all the Swiss people at work as you have seen Gerda and her family, you would find that about a fourth of them make their living from pastures and little farms much like those where Gerda and her mother and father work. You would also find that about half of all the Swiss people make their living as Thea does in the winter time, by working in factories in the cities. Not all of them work in food factories, however. Perhaps you have seen or heard of Swiss watches. Many people work in factories where these watches are made. Others work in cloth factories and embroidery factories. Did you ever hear of " dotted swiss" or "figured swiss"? These are cotton goods with dots or figures embroidered on them. They are used for dresses and for window curtains. They are called "swisses" because many of them are made in the Swiss factories. In some Swiss factories furniture is made; in others, ma- chinery; and in the remainder of them, many other things.

On your trip through Switzerland, you saw several beautiful waterfalls. There are many such falls in this mountainous land, and they are as useful as they are beautiful. Falling water can turn the wheels of machines that can generate electricity, and this electricity can be made to run the machinery in factories. In Figure 131, find the largest building in the village. It is a "power" house. In it are machines that generate electricity. The water is falling through the square "pipe " you see on the mountain side. Electricity can be sent by means of wires from this power house to places many miles away where it is needed. Since the picture in Figure 131 was taken, a new water power station, the largest in all Switzerland, has been built at this place.

One reason, then, why the Swiss have many factories is that in Switzerland there are many falls.

Three great helps. — Read again the second paragraph under the heading "Something to look for" (p. 84). Think now of the guides and hotel keepers, of the herders, and of the people who work in factories, and name three things you have seen that help the people very much to make their livings in this land of many mountains.

Find the last two words in the third sentence in the paragraph "Finishing your visit to Switzerland," on page 92. Find the last word in the paragraph "Four Swiss C’s," pages 96-97. Find the last word in the third paragraph under the heading "Two Swiss F’s" on this page. Do these words name the three helpful things that you found?

Switzerland. — The part of the world map that stands for Switzerland is such a tiny part that it is hard to show just where it is. The distance from the town north of Genoa to Basle shows the width of the country from south to north. It is a little longer than that from east to west. Only a part of the Alps Mountains are in Switzerland. But even though your map of this land of mountains is very small, it should make you think when you look at it of the beautiful scenery, the pastures, forests, patches of farms, waterfalls, and factories that help so many people to make their living.

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