traveler may see through the gallery-like windows the cataract pouring
close beside him down into the valley. On the route that passes the
great Rhone glacier, the road ascends a high mountain in a zigzag that,
as viewed in front from the valley below, looks like a colossal
corkscrew. This road is as well kept as the better turnpikes of New
York, teams moving at a fast walk in ascending and at a trot in
descending, though the region is barren and uninhabitable, and wintry
nine months in the year. These two examples, however, give but a faint
idea of the vast number of similar works. The federal treasury
appropriates to several of the Alpine cantons, in addition to the sums
so expended by the local administrations, from $16,000 to $40,000 a year
for the maintenance of their post roads.

With lower postage than any other country, the net earnings of the Swiss
postal system for 1889 were $560,000. This, however, is but a fraction
of the real gain to the nation from this source. Without their roads,
railroads, stage lines, and mail facilities, their hotels, numbering
more than one thousand and as a rule excellently managed, could not be
maintained for the summer rush of foreign tourists, worth to the country
many million dollars a year. The finest Alpine scenery is by no means
confined to Swiss boundaries, but within these lines the comforts of
travel far surpass those in the neighboring mountainous countries. In
Savoy, Lombardy, and the Austrian Tyrol, the traveler must be prepared
to put up with comparatively antiquated methods and primitive
accommodations.

Yet, previous to 1849, each Swiss canton had its own postal
arrangements, some cantons farming out their systems either to other
cantons or to individuals. In each canton the service, managed
irrespective of federal needs, was costly, and Swiss postal systems, as