288 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



toral country. Because of the regularity of the mountain chain this 

 region affords an unrivaled opportunity to study social structure as 

 influenced by altitude. In the upper mountain valleys the shepherds 

 group their homes into clusters of houses. From them the flocks are 

 led out to pasture, for weeks at a time, on the highest slopes that sup- 

 port vegetation. In these altitudes there are no true villages except 

 where a military station and a custom house draw a few troops and 

 officers together, or where springs have given rise to water-cures. No 

 minerals have drawn thither a mining population. There is nothing 

 but water, forest and pasture. Ten or twelve miles down the moun- 

 tains the upper valleys open into larger ones. At these outlets are 

 the mountain market towns. These mark the ends of the railway 

 spurs, and from them the shepherds procure their supplies. Another 

 twelve miles down, and the level plains are reached. Close to the 

 openings of the lower valleys the railway branches join to form railway 

 centers, and towns of considerable size have grown up to transact 

 the business between the mountain and the plain. 



Between Italy and France the highest portion of the Alpine range 

 intervenes. Over these mountains the Eoman legions and the soldiers 

 of Hannibal toiled. But here has been achieved one of the most strik- 

 ing of the conquests of man over nature. The Mount Cenis railway 

 tunnel route, which pierces these mountains, carries the modern tourist 

 from the Ehone to the cities of the upper Po Valley in a few hours. 

 The French slopes of the Alps support only a scant population of moun- 

 taineers. Many of these migrate in winter to the plains in search of 

 work, or, housed for long months in their frozen valleys, devote them- 

 selves to household industries or to reading and self-education. It is 

 a matter of general remark in the towns of the Ehone Valley that the ■ 

 schoolmasters come from the mountains. 



Switzerland and France are divided by the Jura Mountains, but 

 through the Pass of Belfort a large commerce finds passageway. The 

 Jura present a semi-Swiss character, though, compared with the Alps, 

 they are less lofty, differ in geological structure, and receive a greater 

 rainfall. They are noted for luxuriant pastures and dense forests. The 

 chief industries are cattle raising and the manufacture of butter and 

 cheese. In the latter business the co-operative form of industry largely 

 prevails. The rivulets of the mountains afford numerous small water- 

 powers, which are employed in wood-working and the manufacture of 

 watches. Besancon is the watch market of the region. From the 

 timber are made casks for the wine merchants of Champagne. 



North of the Jura lie the Vosges Mountains, along the crest of 

 which the Germans have placed their boundary for some distance. 

 The slopes of the Vosges toward Alsace are steep; those toward France 

 are gradual. The rains which water the region come from the west. 



