SCHAFFHAUSEN.

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that of Suabia . The surface of the canton is hilly, and the soil mostly calcarinous. Thegeneral slope of the valleys is southwards towards the Rhine , which drains the wholecountry. This canton produces corn, wine, flax, hemp, and fruits, especially cherries.Agriculture forms the chief occupation of the people. The climate, compared with otherparts of Switzerland , is mild. The canton has iron-mines, from which about 30,000hundredweight of iron is annually obtained. Most of the ore is smelted in the furnacesof Laufen, near the fall of the Rhine .

The government was formerly like that of the Swiss cantons; the citizens of the headtown being the legislators, and the country population subject to them, but the demo-cratic principle became established by the new constitution of 1831. By this arrange-ment all citizens of twenty years of age became electors. Paupers, bankrupts, andcriminals were deprived of the franchise. Foreigners purchasing the bourgeoisie, orfreedom of one of the communes of the canton, became entitled, after five years, to theelective franchise. The legislative body, called the great council, consists of seventy-eight members. The little council, like it, is renewed every four years.

iSchaffhausen was originally a hamlet for boatmen and a place for unlading goodsfrom the lake of Constance by the Rhine , the boats being obliged to stop here on accountof the falls in the river below the town. Hence its name Scapha. In the eleventh cen-tury a large monastery being built in the neighbourhood, a town afterwards grew aroundit, and in the thirteenth century it was walled, and obtained the rank of an imperialtown. It was long in the possession of the house of Austria , but subsequently recoveredits independence, allied itself to the Swiss cantons, and was received as a member of theconfederation.

For a long period all attempts to build a bridge at Schaffliauseu utterly failed. Theywere either constructed on wrong principles, or, apparently right, were too fragile tosustain the impetuous rush of the waters. At length, Grubenmann, a common carpenter,a native of Appenzcll, an ingenious but self-taught man, contemplated the construction ofa new bridge, which was now of great importance. He succeeded in his object, and thesingle arch, having a span of three hundred and forty-two feet, roofed in at top, andwith a carriage-way let into the middle, which he threw across the waters of the Rhine ,remained for forty years a witness to his skill. And so it would have continued, but itwas burned down by the French army under Oudinot , in the year 1799, at the instant theAustrians took possession of Schaffhausen . Three other bridges were constructed inSwitzerland by this remarkable man and his brother, which have escaped so disastrous afate.

Schaffhausen now meets the view as built on the side of a hill which slopes to the bankof the Rhine , and is about 1,200 feet above the sea. It is surrounded by walls, flankedwith houses, and has a fort, the vaults of which are bomb-proof. The streets are verylow, and most of the houses have an aged appearance, but many are modern and handsome.The most remarkable buildings are the cathedral, the church of St. John, the town-house,and the arsenal. There is a college, with two professors, a gymnasium, several elementaryschools, and an orphan asylum. The town library has come into possession of the libraryof John Muller, the historian of Switzerland . A bridge has re-placed that of Gru-bemnann.

The small town of Stein, which is situated at the outlet of the Rhine from the Untersee ,or lower Lake of Constance , has a handsome bridge over the Rhine and some remarkableold buildings.

The cataract begins about a league above Laufen, where the river, passing over a rockychannel, forms a succession of rapids. With a force gradually acquired from its speed, itfalls first in a broad verdant sheet, and then, “whitening by degrees into foamingimpetuosity, it bursts at last in three distinct brunches over a precipice, upwards of eighty