Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/296

288 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 support 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 mountains 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 Roman legions and the soldiers of Hannibal toiled. But here has been achieved one of the most striking of the conquests of man over nature. The Mount Cenis railway tunnel route, which pierces these mountains, carries the modern tourist from the Rhône to the cities of the upper Po Valley in a few hours. The French slopes of the Alps support only a scant population of mountaineers. Many of these migrate in winter to the plains in search of work, or, housed for long months in their frozen valleys, devote themselves to household industries or to reading and self-education. It is a matter of general remark in the towns of the Rhône 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. Besançon 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.