Grisons

The Grisons, often referred to as "Switzerland in miniature," is the largest canton in Switzerland. Here three languages -- German, Italian, and Romansch -- are spoken. This is the canton, together with the Bernese Oberland, which is the most familiar to the sport lovers of all nations. Here are located St. Moritz, Davos, Arosa, Flims, Lenzerheide, Klosters and many other world famous, all year round resorts. But it is not only for its sports or its beautiful mountains and 150 valleys that the Grisons is famous. It can boast as well of a rich cultural tradition and a vivid history.

The canton of the Grisons is the largest canton in Switzerland, covering 2703 square miles and including more than one sixth of the Confede″ ration. The canton consists of an immense network of mountains furrowed by 150 valleys and in many ways is Switzerland in miniature. Here three languages are spoken -- German, Italian and Romansch. A little more than half of the population speaks German, a third Romansch and the rest, about a sixth, an Italian dialect.

Because of the mountainous nature of the country, it might be expected that this region would not have had a particularly interesting history. In reality the history of the Grisons is most dramatic. Existing records show that Rhaetus, Prince of the Etruscan tribe, first invaded this district which he named Rhaetia, as early as 600 B.C. In 15 B. C. this part of the country became a Roman province called Rhaetia Prima. The population fought in the Roman army and their graves have even been discovered as far distant as Libya.

The history of the Grisons actually centers around its many mountain passes which have brought great advantages but also much trouble to the canton. It was over these passes that the German empe″ rors travelled to be crowned in Rome or to fight their enemies on Italian soil. And these passes were of such strategic importance during the Thirty Years War, that the Grisons were invaded by the armies of Austria, Spain and France. But thanks largely to the energy and ability of Jurg Jenatsch ( 1596″ 1693), a most daring and colorful individual, the country finally rid itself of foreign influence. From the 15th century onwards the « Grey Confederates » as they were called (from whence the German name of the canton: Graubünden) were on good terms with the Swiss and in 1803 their territory was incorporated in Switzerland as the 18th canton.

In addition to its mountain passes the Grisons is famous for its rivers which flow north, south and east, into the North Sea, the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The Rhine rises here -- and naturally there are quarrels as to which of the contributory streams is the Rhine -- but by the time these streams have reached Reichenau, they flow peacefully on as one river, past Chur where they are joined by the Landquart, and eventually reach the North Sea. The streams in the eastern valleys flow into the Inn which eventually joins the Danube. While the rivers to the south join the Adda and eventually flow into the Po.

It has been said that the business of the Grisons is Germans, English, wood and cattle. During the war years, the forests of the Grisons cóntributed greatly towards providing fuel to replace the coal which could no longer be imported, while the cattle of the Grisons are a sturdy small, brown race, known throughout the world. Yet cattle raising in such mountainous regions is fraught with difficulties. On account of the severity of the climate, the cattle have to be kept in stables half the year, which means large quantities of hay. Yet the farmers of the Grisons are still using the same old fashioned scythes their ancestors used. A great deal of time is also consumed driving the cattle up in the mountains to graze and then back down again into the valleys. The farmers here, as in the Valais, have a hard life which serves as a decided contrast to the fashionable cosmopolitan life led in the world famous hotels of this canton.

The Paris Basin

In the center of these concentric rings the inner part of the Paris Basin forms a very shallow bowl-shaped depression. When its limestone, sand, and clay of Cretaceous and Tertiary age were uplifted, the edges were raised more than the center. Hence the youngest deposits lie at the center in the so-called Isle de France. Under the influence of erosion the different geologic layers have been converted into a series of concentric zones, especially on the east. Concentric escarpments, with their steep sides away from Paris represent the outcrops of hard rocks and form a natural defense against invaders from the east. The western rivers, such as the middle Loire and the Seine with its branches, run toward the center of the basin. it will be remembered, and then break their way westward. The eastern rivers, the Meuse and the Moselle, on the contrary, follow the escarpment and continue northward towards the Rhine and Holland. At two points in northwestern France local uplifts have brought older layers to the surface. The most northern of these is the continuation of the Weald in England.

The Paris Basin is the chief agricultural region of France. Here, as in Belgium, the limestone soils have a cover of rich loam, brought as loess by dry winds during the glacial period when the northern icesheet lay not far off. The rolling hills near Paris and to the northward are almost entirely used for wheat, oats, and sugar beets, except for a local development of truck gardens along some of the valleys and around Paris. Wheat is the most abundant crop, for relief, soil, and the moderately dry and rather sunny climate make this region well suited for that crop. Here are the best yields of France, and from here comes the greater part of the large French wheat production. So abundant is the crop that in good years the yield here and in the rest of France suffices for the needs of the whole country, even though France consumes more per capita than any other country. Bread is an essential part of every French meal. Oats replace wheat in the eastern part of the Paris Basin where the rainfall increases as a result of elevation. Sugar beets, in spite of yields much lower than those of the Netherlands and Belgium, suffice to supply France with sugar.

The border zone around the Paris Basin shows a type of agriculture different from that of the center. In the northwest intensive grazing once more prevails and dairy products predominate. This is partly a result of more rain and lower temperature, but soil and relief also play a part. Heavy soils are found in the coastal marshes of Flanders of which France has a small share, and the structural uplift or anticline mentioned above as a continuation of the English Weald causes higher altitude. East of Paris the escarpment region shows an especially pronounced zonal arrangement in accord with the geologic structure. Forests cover the sandstones, sheep graze on the dry limestones, and rye prevails as the main food crop except in the more fertile Moselle Valley where wheat once more predominates. But here another use of the land comes to the foreground, namely, the raising of grapes. The last border region is in the south. Here the Loire River as a zone of intense agriculture, vines, fruits, and vegetables, while the uplands, lacking the fertile loam cover of the north, are mainly under rye and buckwheat. The small section of extensive grazing in the bend of the Loire south of Orleans is the Sologne, a region of moors, void of population except for the shepherds.

France Relief and Natural Regions

In a central position from the human standpoint, but well to the north of the center geographically, lies the Paris Basin consisting of nearly level deposits of recent age surrounded by slightly tilted Mesozoic layers of sandstone, shale, and limestone. Outside of these lies a discontinuous ring of old hard rocks forming a series of four disconnected uplands or highlands. The first of these is the Western Upland including the Upland of Brittany, Normandy, and the Vendée south of the Loire. The next unit is the Central Plateau. The third is the Vosges, forming a small upland east of the Paris Basin; and the fourth is the Ardennes in the northeast, of which only a small section extends into France. These four are separated by broad lowland passages, through which the rock structure and relief of the Paris Basin project outward and connect more or less closely with another concentric although incomplete ring of lowlands. The northwest part of the highland ring seems to be open, but in reality the Pennine Chain and the highlands of Cornwall and Devon in England are part of this system. All the highland blocks in France, like their English counterparts, display clear evidence of an old peneplain which was finally warped and uplifted into the present uplands during the period of Alpine mountain-building. All four also are rather similar in their agricultural response to an upland climate with relatively heavy rain and poor, leached soil.

The lowland ring outside the highlands includes the Aquitaine Basin in the south, the Rhone Valley in the southeast, the Rhine Graben or rift valley in the east, and the lowlands of Belgium. Still farther out the final ring consists of high mountains of the Alpine type. It is incomplete, however, for it includes only the Pyrenees on the south, the French Alps on the southeast, and the Jura on the east. In spite of various irregularities, France consists essentially of the central Paris Basin surrounded by a ring of disconnected uplands or highlands, an outer ring of lowlands, and a partial ring of high mountains.