1936 On the Continent

several of these tours, see a really amazing amount of the country. It is advisable to make one town in each district one’s headquarters, planning excursions from this and, wherever possible, the return trip should be by a different route than the outward journey. It is also best to plan the whole holiday systematically, proceeding by natural stages, but always allowing a certain amount of elasticity for breaking away from the schedule to explore inviting parts of the country that are encountered en route.
    Before launching on to a description of the various districts, a brief outline of the history of Switzerland may interest prospective visitors.
    Remains of prehistoric man have been found in the caves in the Jura mountains and several other parts of Switzerland, and it is believed that the earliest known inhabitants of the country were nomads during the paleolithic period about 6000 B.C. There are remains of lake dwellers of the neolithic period, particularly at Meilen on Lake Zürich, which are amongst the earliest relics of man in Europe. There are some interestingruins near Grandson which seem to indicate that these early inhabitants of Switzerland belonged to a druidical religion. With the dawn of recorded history, the tract of land now forming the Swiss Republic, but then known as Helvetia, becomes the scene of a continual ebb and flow as the various tribes spread over the confines of their own countries. A race of Celts from the upper Danubian valley invaded the country, facing the Ligurians further south, and from these Celts (400 B.C. ) are said to be descended the inhabitants of the French-speaking cantons. The history of the next few centuries is very vague, except that legend tells that St. Beatus, an Irish monk, introduced Christianity about the first century A.D. , and there are many legends connected with his name. During the time of Julius Caesar Helvetia was an ally of the Roman Empire, and there are traces of the Roman occupation to be found in several places, as well as in the place-names. About the sixth century there was an influx of Burgundians into the south-westerly part of Helvetia, and it is from that period that French became the prevalent language in these centres. About the same time, the Franks and the Alemanni poured into the northern part, and many of them settled permanently. Although there is nowadays a considerable amount of inter-marriage, the Germanic type, tall, fair and of powerful build, is still very noticeable. At the same time the Ostrogoths invaded Rhaetia, under the great Theodoric, and settled there. From this time onwards Switzerland, although nominally a part of the Holy Roman Empire, becomes a battleground for various powers that wish to annex it and, as a result, much oppression was practised. This finally became so unbearable that the three cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden formed a league about 1250 to free themselves from the oppressor, and this association culminated in the episode (1307) which the name of William Tell has made famous. These three cantons formed the nucleus of the present Swiss Republic, which derives its name from the first one. From this time onwards, canton after canton joined the original league or made pacts with others for mutual defence against the oppressors until, in 1648, the Peace of Westphalia gave Switzerland her political independence. Just before this, the Reformation which wassweeping across Central Europe had also caused much strife in Switzerland, where Zwingli was its chief protagonist and had in great part contributed to the eventual independence of the country.
    Very little of interest to the foreigner happened until 1815, when the Congress of Vienna determined the boundaries of Switzerland at their present-day limits and also fixed its perpetual neutrality, by virtue of which Switzerland enjoys a unique position in Europe. During the War it was the base for the International Red Cross, as well as being fertile ground for the intelligence services of the combatant nations. Switzerland was the only logical, in fact the, inevitable choice, for the seat of the League of Nations, and has been the scene of many important scenes in post-War history.
How to get there
    There are several routes to Switzerland, the main ones being via Dover-Calais, whence there are through services for the Grisons, Bernese Oberland and the Rhône Valley, or Dover-Ostend with through-connection to Bale. The latter route, while involving two