Gris-nez (Gree-nay'), Cape, a headland (164 feet high) in the French dep. of Pas-de-Calais, opposite Dover, is the point of land nearest to England (barely 20 miles). A lighthouse surmounts it.

Grisons((Gree-zong'; Ger. Graubunden), the largest and the most thinly peopled of the Swiss cantons, is bounded E. by Tyrol and S. by Lombardy. Area, 2773 sq. m.; population, 106,000, nearly half of German stock, and more than half Protestants. The whole canton is an assemblage of mountains intersected by narrow valleys. These last form three groups, of which the first and most important lies along the course of the Rhine; the second, forming the Engadine (q.v.), extends north-east along the Inn ; and the third belongs to the basins of the Ticino and the Adige. During the middle ages the Bishop of Chur sought to oppress the people, who in self-defence formed themselves into leagues. One of these (1424), was called the gray league (Ger. der graue bund), from the gray home-spun worn by the unionists, and hence the German and French names of the canton. In 1471 these separate unions entered into a general federation, which in 1497-98 formed an alliance with the Swiss cantons.