St Gotthard,

St Gotthard, a mountain-knot of the Alps, that has its feet planted in the Swiss cantons of Uri, Grisons, Ticino, and Valais, and lifts its head, 9850 feet high, to the eternal snows. In its arms it holds the sources of the rivers Rhine and Rhone, Ticino and Reuss, and so sends the water from its melted snows to the German Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic. On its shoulder it bears one of the most celebrated of the Alpine passes from Switzerland to Italy. The road that crosses this pass (6936 feet) leads from the shores of Lake Lucerne to the shores of Lago Maggiore. This route was first used by the Longobardi in the 6th century. In the days of Charlemagne the path was made practicable for pack-animals; but down to 1820 it was not wider than 13 feet. In 1820-24 it was widened to 18 feet and smoothed for carriages. Near the summit of the pass stand two hotels and a hospice, the latter for poor wayfarers, of whom some 12,000 used to travel this way every year. Since 1882, however, a railway has climbed up the lower slopes of the St Gotthard, and then burrowed through it in a tunnel. The making of this tunnel was begun in 1872 and finished in 1880; it extends from Götslienen (at a height of 3639 feet) in Uri to Airolo (3757 feet) in Ticino, measures 9¼ miles in length, is 26 feet wide and 21 high, rises with a gradient that reaches on an average 26 in 100 feet, and cost £2,270,000 to make. The total cost of the St Gotthard railway was £9,080,000, of which Switzerland contributed £1,120,000 as a subvention, Italy £2,200,000, and Germany £1,200,000; whilst £1,840,000 was raised by shares, and £2,720,000 by mortgage. The line has proved very successful financially, the shareholders' dividends rising annually. See Nature, vol. xxi.