Note 85 — Chapter XV · INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE.

A report, made in connection with the Swiss National Exhibition of 1883, calculated that up to 1880, 1002 inns had been built for the special use of travellers, and that they contained 58,137 beds, an average of 58 apiece. The capital value of the land, buildings, and furniture belonging to these was estimated at 320,000,000 francs; the gross profits on which were 53,000,000 francs, or seventeen per cent.; this was reduced by deduction of working expenses to 16,000,000 francs, or five per cent. Of these 1002 inns no fewer than 283 are situated in positions above three thousand four hundred feet, and 14 are actually above six thousand five hundred and sixty-two feet in elevation.

Switzerland only became a “play-ground” within the last century. The first English guide-book appeared in 1818, by Daniel Wall, of London. The first of any kind was published in 1684, by Wagner, a Zurich naturalist, and called “Index Memorabilium Helvetiæ.”