MOUNTAIN REGIONS. 683 



relative augmentation ; if the atmospheric pressure is much too weak, 

 the blood extravasates, and forces itself out through the nose, the 

 ears, and the pores of the skin. In a word, that peculiar malady 

 which has been named the mal des montagnes, and which is not 

 always unattended with danger, attacks the hardiest traveller, and 

 compels him with all speed to return to lower and securer levels. 



When, therefore, we speak of " the pure and living air" of the 

 mountains, of the vigour and health of their inhabitants even as 

 the poet says 



" An iron race the mountain-cliffs maintain" 



we are really to understand those lofty hills which are decorated in 

 some places with the name of mountains, or the table -lands that 

 form the first steps of the great chains. Such, indeed, are the only 

 inhabited and inhabitable mountains. There only is the cultivation 

 of a few plants still possible ; there only can the wild beasts find an 

 asylum in wood or forest, and the cattle green fields of pasture ; 

 there may man plant his feet, build his dwellings, devote himself to 

 rearing his herds, to the chase, or to more sedentary industries. Let 

 us remember, moreover, that the salubrity of the air of elevated dis- 

 tricts has been greatly exaggerated, and that if we meet with many 

 mountaineers agile, robust, and intelligent, we also meet with a great 

 number affected by organic diseases either wholly unknown or very 

 rare in the plains, such as goitre, scrofula, and cretinism. 



The structure of the mountains, their form, and the nature of 

 their soil, suffice, even without these meteorological conditions I have 

 just indicated, to render them impracticable as the dwelling-place of 

 man and of most animals. To ascend them is almost always an 

 enterprise of the most hazardous, frequently of the most perilous 

 character. To climb the lofty peaks of the Himalaya, to scale the 

 majestic brow of Chimborazo, to ascend the frozen sides of the Jung- 

 frau or Mont Blanc, is an achievement of which the boldest boast, as 

 if they had won a Waterloo or an Inkermann ! Only a keen longing 

 after that notoriety which for some minds fills the place of renown, 



