Engadine

Engadine, a famous valley in the Swiss canton of the Grisons, and one of the loftiest inhabited regions in Europe, extends north-east for about 65 miles along the banks of the Inn and its lakes, from the foot of Mount Maloja to the village of Martinsbruck. It is divided into two portions—that toward the south-west, called the Upper Engadine, and that toward the north-east, the Lower Engadine. The latter is the more wild and bleak; but the Upper Engadine, although it is more open, and possesses fine meadow-lands, has also an inclement climate throughout, except in the extreme south-west. The Inn has many villages upon its banks, the highest of which, St Moritz, is 6090 feet above sea-level, while the lowest, Martinsbruck, is 3343 feet. Most of these villages have of late years become, as health and pleasure resorts, clusters of inns, and several English churches are among the conveniences prepared for the great numbers of visitors. The influx of so many strangers has altered many of the old habits of the people; but, though no longer the nearly invariable rule, it is still not uncommon for the young men to betake themselves to the large towns of the Continent, whence they return, with the little fortune gained as confectioners or waiters, to end their days in their cold, lovely valley. Pop. about 11,600, almost all of the Reformed or Calvinistic Church. The language most generally spoken is the Ladin (a corruption of Latin), a Romance tongue, but differing from the other Romance dialects of the Rhætian Alps, and bearing a resemblance to the Italian.