count of Portugal, A. D. 1105, and 17 monasteries now uninhabited. On the south of the river, which is crossed by a bridge of boats, is the VillaNova de Gaya, chiefly inhabited by wine-coopers, and containing the immense vaults or lodges where the wine is kept until it is stored. On a rocky eminence above Villa-Nova is the vast convent and garden of Serra Cruzios, near which the British army crossed the Douro in 1809. The city, including Villa-Nova and all its suburbs, contains between 70,000 and 80,000 inhabitants.

BRAGA is only celebrated for its antiquities. GUIMARAENS is noted for its cutlery, linen, &c.; CALDAS DO GERES, for its mineral baths; and VIANA, a seaport town at the mouth of the Lima, has a flourishing trade, and engages largely in the fishing business.

VILLA REAL is a large, busy, commercial town, and the capital of Trasos-Montes. PESO DA REGOA, near the right bank of the Douro, and south of Villa Real, is noted for its annual wine fair, in February, where business to the amount of about $7,000,000 is transacted. BRAGANÇA is noted for its silk manufactures, and gives the ducal title, and is a sort of family name to the present royal family. CHAVES, near the northern frontier, has been celebrated for its mineral springs since the time of the Romans, and has a bridge built by them.

FARO, with 8,000, and TAVIRA, with 9,000 inhabitants, both in Algarve, are chiefly employed in the fisheries. SAGRES is a small fortified town near Cape St. Vincent. It was here that the infant Don Henriquez, Duke of Visieu, resided for many years, to prosecute those voyages along the coasts of Africa, which have rendered his name illustrious, as the father of modern maritime discovery.

The foreign possessions of Portugal consist of 1st. The Azores; 2d. Madeira and Porto Santo; 3d. The Cape de Verde Islands, on the western coast of Africa; 4th. Angola, Mozambico, and other territories in Southern Africa; and 5th. Goa, Diu, and other settlements, in the East Indies.

THE AZORES, OR WESTERN ISLANDS.

THIS remarkable group is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, between 370 and 39 north latitude, and 250 and 31° west longitude. It comprises nine separate islands, nained, respectively, Santo Miguel, Terceira, Pico, Fayal, Santo Jorje, Graciosa, Santa Maria, Flores, and Corvo, all of volcanic formation, of a rugged, rocky surface, and producing abundance of wine and fruit. SAN MIGUEL, 50 miles long, and from 6 to 10 miles broad, rises in many parts precipitously from the water, but in other parts its rise is very gradual. The more level parts are studded with hundreds of small hills, many of which are perfect cones, while others are truncated, or terminate in crater-shaped tops. The lower parts of the island only are cultivated, and houses and villages are scattered along the coast, intermingled with vineyards and orange gardens; the latter, a fruit for which the island is widely-celebrated. Ponta Delgada, on the south, is the principal town, and has a population of 16,000. Its harbor is bad, but yet the best of the island. It contains an English church and burial-ground. RIBEIRAGRANDE, on the north side, is also a flourishing town of 12,000 inhabitants. In 1811, a volcanic island rose from the sea, off the west end of Santo Miguel, but disappeared four months after. TERCEIRA is a large, compact island, to the west of San Miguel, and contains the capital of the Azores, Angra, an episcopal city of 13,000 inhabitants. FAYAL contains the town

of Horta, which possesses the best harbor in the group, and the most frequented after Angra and Ponta Delgada. Population, 10,000. In Pico is the small town of Lagens, noted for its excellent wine. In its vicinity rises the great "Pico," or snow-capped volcanic cone, to the height of 9,000 feet above the level of the sea. The other islands have nothing worthy of notice. The total population is upwards of 200,000; thus distributed :— Santo Miguel, 80,000; Terceira, 40,000; Pico, 24,000; Fayal, 22,000; Flores, 14,000; Santo Jorje, 10,000; Graciosa, 7,800; Santa Maria, 5,000; and Corvo, 7,000. These islands are often sought by ships in dis

tress.

MADEIRA AND PORTO SANTO.

MADEIRA, off the northern coast of Africa, lies in latitude 32° 30′ north, and longitude 17° west. It is 35 miles in length, and 10 or 12 broad. Abruptly rising from the Atlantic, it forms a huge mountain mass, interspersed with numerous chasms and precipices, many of which are frightful and inaccessible. Rivulets meander in every direction, and cascades leap from rock to rock, through bushes of rosemary, laurel, and myrtle. Groves of pines and chesnuts stretch along the declivities; the large leaves of the banana wave over the water, and the splendid palm-tree overtops the houses. Coffee trees form hedges and copses, while mimosas and a variety of the most gorgeous palms rise into tall and stately trees, displaying their far glittering blossoms in the most delightful of climates. The uniformity of the temperature is remarkable, seldom ranging to greater extremes than 570 in winter, and 760 in summer; the usual mean being 66° Fahr. But every variety of climate can be enjoyed, with corresponding changes in scene and vegetation, on the acclivities of the Pico Ruivo, which shoots its snowy crown 8,165 feet above the sea level. Madeira has long been the resort of invalids, and especially of consumptive patients. The best season for them is from November to the middle of June. In July, August, and September, the heat is sometimes excessive, and the influence of the scirocco has been known to raise the temperature to 130°, a heat sufficient to melt wax. The winters, too, are sometimes stormy and uncomfortable. The geological structure of the island is also an impassable obstacle to the making of good roads, so that the invalid cannot have the benefit of riding. Funchal, the capital, is a lage town of 25,000 inhabitants, on the south side. The whole population is about 120,000.

PORTO SANTO Consists of tertiary sand-stone and lime-stone, alternating with volcanic strata. It is a small island, 35 miles north-east of Madeira. The DEZERTAS lie to the south east-of Madeira, and consist of only some small rocky islets.

Portugal, anciently called LUSITANIA, was taken by the Romans 200 before Christ, previous to which some Phoenician and Carthagenian colonies are supposed to have been planted on its shores. It remained a Roman province to the 5th century, when it was invaded by the Suevi, Viso-goths, &c. The Moors, in the early part of the 8th century, overrun the country, but the natives soon drove them from the northern and mountainous portions. About this period the name of Lusitania seems to have been changed to that of Portucale, subsequently changed into Portugal from the circumstance of Oporto, the principal of the Christian strongholds, being then called Calle or Porto Calle. In the 11th century Portugal became an earldom under the kingdom of Castille and Leon, and during the 12th was erected into an independent kingdom. Its power now rapidly increased, and by the acqui

sition of Algarve in 1249, it arrived at its present limits. The discoveries which Portugal commenced in the latter part of the 14th century have shed immortal lustre on the Portuguese name. During the 15th century, Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores were discovered and colonized, and in 1498 Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and thus opened a new route to India.

In the following century the Portuguese discovered and took possession of Brazil; made immense acquisitions in India and the Persian Gulf, and discovered the Moluccas, by which successful enterprises they monopolized the commerce of the east and a great part of that of the west. But the prosperity of Portugal was short lived. After the disastrous defeat and death of King Sebastian in Africa, in 1598, Philip II. of Spain seized on the kingdom, and retained it as a Spanish province from 1580 to 1640, and when she regained her independence, the greater part of her commerce and of her foreign possessions were in the hands of the Dutch. Regaining most of these, however, her glory was reviving, but the revolution which commenced in France invaded the Portuguese territories, and the whole fabric of her institutions was changed, Brazil was lost to her, and the remaining colonies she still possesses are but the shadow of her once extensive empire. Portugal is virtually under British protection.

THE CONFEDERATION OF SWITZERLAND.

THIS Country lies between the latitudes 45° 50′ and 47° 49' north, and between the longitudes of 60 and 10° 35′ east, being bounded on the west by the French Republic; on the north by Baden and Wurtemberg; on the east by the Tyrol; and on the south by Austrian and Sardinian Lombardy and the Duchy of Savoy. Its extreme length, from Vattay, in the Canton of Vaud, to Martinsbruck, in the Grisons, is about 208 miles; and its greatest breadth, from Chiasso, in Tessin, to the northern extremity of Schaffhausen, is 156 miles. The superficial area is estimated at 17,208 square miles.

Switzerland is a very high and rugged country, traversed by ramifications from the Alps and Jura mountains. The centre of the Alpine system is Mount St. Gothard. From this point two ranges are given off to the southwest, forming the valley of the Vallais, watered by the Upper Rhone. Another range extends eastward through the Grisons, and forms the watershed between the Upper Rhine and the Swiss affluents of the Po. From these main ranges branches diverge, covering about two-thirds of the country, and forming numerous vallies, drained by an equal number of mountain torrents, all of which are ultimately precipitated either into the Rhine, the Rhone, the Po, or the Danube. The chain of the Jura is entirely separated from the Alps by the Lake of Geneva, the valley of the Rhone, and a long, narrow plain, which stretches eastward for nearly 180 miles, between the lakes of Constance and Geneva, but separated from both by ranges of hills and highlands. The width of this plain nowhere exceeds 20 miles, and its elevation varies from 1,200 to 1,350 feet above the sea-level.

The immense masses of these mountain regions exhibit a perfect chaos, and present on all sides inaccessible rocks and everlasting snows. The in

tervening valleys, however, contain extensive districts, fertile and beautiful, and forming a singular contrast with the mountains that overshadow, and seem ready to overwhelm them. The gradations of animal and vegetable life are singularly marked at different elevations; and the vine, the oak, the beech, the fir, rapidly succeed each other until, from the limits of perpetual snow, animal and vegetable life becomes gradually more and more dwarfish, and at length gives way beneath the blight of inhospitable regions which penetrate the skies. The higher Alps commence at 6,500 feet elevation, and the reign of winter is here perpetual. At 8,000 feet is the region of "glaciers," or gletchers. These remarkable objects are formed exclusively in the highest valleys, where the sun never penetrates. A "glacier," as defined by M. Agassiz, is a mass of ice hanging on the sides of an alpine ridge, or enclosed in one of its valleys, and which is moving continually down its declivity, impelled by their own gravity. The surface and figure of these is determined by the nature of the locality on which they rest. Their extent is also ever varying, and in general decrease as they approach the lower valleys. Their margins are bounded by dykes of roundish blocks of stone, called moraines, which are continually pushed forward or abandoned by the glaciers, as these advance or retire. From Mont Blanc to the frontier of the Tyrol 400 glaciers are counted, varying in size from three to 18 or 20 miles in length, and from half to 24 miles wide, and from 100 to 600 feet thick. Altogether, the glaciers of Switzerland compose a sea of ice more than 1,000 square miles in extent, and it is from these inexhaustible sources that the principal rivers of Europe are supplied with water. It is probable, from the geological deductions, that these glaciers once occupied the great valleys of the Rhone and the Aar, and the Lake of Geneva, to the height of many hundreds of feet above their present levél.

Every species of rock is contained in the Alps. The primitive rocks are found in deeper ranges and valleys. Resting upon these, and frequently at a great height, transition rocks appear. The secondary rocks, or those of the tertiary class, though frequently found at a great height, yet generally underlie the primitive and transition series. In the strata of the tertiary formations organic remains are more or less abundant. The overlaying vegetable soil of the valleys varies from a few inches to several feet in depth. The whole geological structure, however, is anomalous, and the secondary and tertiary are confusedly mingled with trap and the old volcanic rocks; and diluvial and alluvial deposits, with the new igneous or volcanic.

The accumulated snows often fall from the tops of the mountains, and in their course down their steep slopes frequently occasion very serious injury. These falls, called "avalanches or lavanges," carry along with them fragments of rocks, with trees, and other objects, which may lie in their downward track, and rapidly increasing in size, sometimes overwhelm villages and sweep down extensive forests. Still more serious are the "land-slips," which fall like avalanches from the sides of the mountains, but consist of masses of earth torn from their beds by the expansive force of freezing. The ruin and desolation caused is sometimes terrific. One of the most disastrous of these took place in 1806, when Goldau, and several other villages in the valley of Arth, were overwhelmed by the fall of the earth and stones from the Rossberg.

Unlike the Alps, the chain of Jura is clothed from base to summit with luxuriant pine forests. It stretches about 240 miles along the western and

north-western frontier, from the Rhone to the Rhine. Precipitous and abrupt towards Switzerland, the ridges of the Jura become gradually subsident on the side of France. They are principally formed of calcareous rock, in some places mixed with marble, and contain prodigious deposits of marine remains. No part of them rises to the limit of perpetual snow.

Switzerland is pre-eminently a country of lakes. That of CONSTANCE, in the north-east, is formed by the Rhine, and divided into two equal parts, the upper lake, or the "Ober-see," being 40 miles long, varying from one and a half to 20 wide; while the lower lake, called Zeller-see, is only 10 to 14 miles long, and very irregular in breadth. Their elevation is 1,305 feet above the ocean, and their greatest ascertained depth is 1,334 feet. The superficial area is 299 square miles. In picturesque beauty the Lake of Constance is only excelled by that of Geneva-its banks are covered with castles, smiling towns and villages, in the midst of orchards and vineyards. Several islands stud these beautiful expanses, and convert the locality into a perfect paradise. The LAC LEMAN, or LAKE OF GENEVA, in the south-west, formed by the Rhone, measures in its greatest length 40 miles, varying from a few hundred feet wide at Geneva, to 9 or 10 miles to the westward of Lausanne. It has an area of 336 square miles; its depth is more than 996 feet; its medium depth 560 feet, and its surface between 1,100 and 1,200 feet above the level of the sea. The water sometimes rises suddenly to the height of 5 or 6 feet-a phenomenon called by the people seiches. The Rhone flows in three branches into the upper end of the lake, which receives besides the waters of 41 streams. This is considered the finest lake in the south of Europe. On the north-east, east, and south-east, it is surrounded by high and rugged mountains, but the north-western shore is bounded by lower bills and more gradual slopes, which form a most beautiful country of cornfields and vineyards. Ice is seldom formed more than to the extent of a few feet from the shore. Next to these the LAKE OF NEUFCHATEL is the largest, being 25 miles long, and six in its greatest breadth. Elevation above the sea, 1,437 feet. The LAKES OF LUCERNE and ZURICH are each about 23 miles long, but very narrow. The former is 1,320, and the latter 1,279 feet above the sea-level, and the depth of both about 600 feet. The other lakes are all of smaller dimensions, but some of them are not inferior in picturesque beauty to those that have been described. These are the Lake of Lugano and Lago Maggiore, in Tessin; the lakes of Morat, Sempich, Zug, Lowerz, Halwyll, Baldegg, Sarneu, Lungern, Egeri, Greiffen, and Pfaffikon; the Lac-de-Joux, in Jura; the Beiler-see; the Lake of Thun; and a number of others.

west.

Several of the great rivers of Europe have their rise and pursue part of their courses within the Swiss limits. The RHINE (Rhein) is formed in the Grisons by the union of the Vorder, Mittler and Hinter Rhein, (Fore, Middie, and Back Rhine,) three separate streams issuing from the south and The first issues near St. Gothard, from a small lake and a stream from the glacier of Mont Badus, and, receiving many torrents in its descent, traverses the Tavetsch, and at Disentis joins the middle branch, which comes from the Lake of Dim, in the Val Cadelina. The Hinter Rhine rises from the Vogelsberg, and flows rapidly through the Rheinwald and Schamserthal, and joins the Vorder Rhein near Reichenau. Below the confluence the united streams are navigable for heavy rafts. Hence it flows northward, receiving from both sides several streams, and enters the Lake of Constance below Rheineck. Leaving the Lake, the river flows through