Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/682

 666 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

separated from it by the Bristol Channel, forms likewise a moun- tainous double peninsula clearly separated from the rest of the country by deep indentations of the sea, and by rivers and moun- tains. In the north, beyond the Humber and the Mersey, there rises the mountainous portion of England proper. The land grows narrower and narrower between the North and the Irish Seas. There is then a fourth distinct region, as well from the point of view of geography and geology as from that of history. To the north of this region another narrowing of the land is pro- duced by the penetration of the Solway Firth and the mountain walls which from one sea to the other separate the north of Eng- land from Scotland. From these high plateaus one descends to the low plains of the Firth and of the Clyde, which form new geographical divisions. From the plain one ascends new moun- tains, those of the Scotch Highlands, with their innumerable valleys.

The Romans after the conquest still further strengthened these natural divisions by walls and towers intended to stop the incur- sions of the Highlanders. Mountains are not in reality barriers ; mountaineer populations always tend to occupy both slopes and to descend into the plain, just as the inhabitants of the plain tend to ascend toward the heights. These are sociological movements, of which geographical conditions are only particular factors. Ire- land, likewise, although less elongated and more massive than the island east of it, is also divided by groups of mountains into dis- tinct regions; hence its long historic dissensions and conflicts. However, its divisions constitute, in general, less of a geo- graphical unity, and are more strongly geological.

The Scotch Highlands were to remain longest outside the general movement of civilization. On the other hand, the low part of England, especially at the south, where it faces the con- tinent, was to be the line of contact rather than of separation, where the first peaceful relations would be established. There civilization was to develop most rapidly; there, too, the capital turned toward continental Europe would be fixed.

It was only after the discovery of America, and the conse- quent industrial development, that great centers were formed in