546 LIFE A RELATED TO PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 



it happens that certain plains have been 

 innumerable wars. The great plain of 

 phrates was the gathering ground and 

 ancient monarchies. The plains of the 

 arena in which embattled Europe has 

 deadliest strifes, while the level lands of 

 dyed again and again with the blood 



the seats of almost 



the Tigris and Eu- 



battlefield of vast 



Po have been the 



settled some of its 



Belgium have been 



of thousands and 



A PART OF THE PLAIN OP* WATERLOO, BELGIUM 



thousands of Europe's bravest sons. The brutal invaders 

 of 1914 cynically admitted that they overran Belgium be- 

 cause it was the shortest and easiest military route to Paris. 



Life on Coastal Plains. The valuable minerals of the 

 earth are usually found in the older rocks, so there is no 

 mining on a coastal plain, and because the rivers are shal- 

 low and fall over no ledges as they flow across these plains, 

 no great water power for manufacturing can be developed. 

 The sluggish streams are often dammed and small water 



