The Rhaetian Alps are a mountain range in the Eastern Alps in Europe.

In London Labour and the London Poor edition: 

Phase 1

Of the Street Sellers of Live Birds. (Volume 2): "Of the Street Sellers of Live Birds. (Volume 2): "The price of a canary of an average quality was then from 5s. to 8s. 6d., and a fair proportion were street-sold. At that period, I was told, the principal open-air sale for canaries (and it is only of that I now write) was in Whitechapel and Bethnal-green. All who are familiar with those localities may smile to think that the birds chirping and singing in these especially urban places, were bred for such street-traffic in the valleys of the Rhætian Alps!"