HUMAN ACTIVITIES IN MOUNTAINS AND PLAINS Civilization among the Mountains.—The words " mountaineer," " highlander," " mountain white," and " hillsman," usually suggest people who differ from plainsmen not only in habits and modes of life, but in physique and character. The giclicazy defines a moun taineer as " a person who lives in a mountainous country or district; hence a boorish person." The word highlander makes us think of bold raids such as are described in Walter Scott's novels. Mountain white suggests people of the white race who are backward and uned ucated because they live in rugged and inaccessible regions. To many people hillsman brings to mind some of the wild tribes that live in the mountains north of India.
These are not the only ideas associated with these words, however, for mountaineer also makes us think of men who go to the Alps, the Rockies, the Himalayas, and other high mountains for the pleasure of climbing. Among civilized people the mention of the mountains probably calls up the idea of vacations and fine scenery more often than anything else.
Yet even so, there is a tendency to think of the people who live all the time among the mountains as different from others. Moun taineers are apt to be sturdier and manlier than the people of the plains, but even in highly civilized countries they are also likely to be less educated, more provincial, and a little behind the times. In the less civilized parts of the world the mountains are the homes of secluded people like the Tibetans, of untameable tribes like the Afghans, or of varied and warring races like those of the Balkans and the Caucasus.
Civilization in the Plains.—When plains are mentioned, we think of prosperous people living in flourishing villages, among fertile fields and rich farms, or else in thriving cities. The people of the farms and villages may be conservative, but not so much so as those of the mountains.
As we think of plains, we recall the growth of early civilization in the fertile plains of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere. We realize
that to-day the great nations of the world all have their densest popu lation and greatest cities in the plains, or at least in the lowlands 78 where the relief is gentle. Think of the world's great cities: London, Paris, Berlin, Petrograd, Vienna, Budapest, Constantinople, Bom bay, Calcutta, Pekin, Tokio, Rio Janeiro, Buenos Aires, New York, Chicago, and many others. Not one of them is actually among the mountains, although some, like Rio Janeiro, Bombay, and Vienna, are close to their foot. The plains of the world, together with the lowlands where the slopes are gentle, are evidently the most desirable places for human habitation and progress.
How Mountains are Formed.—The study of how mountains orig inate and pass from youth to old age is one of the most interesting branches of geography. Here, however, we can merely call to mind a few of the chief processes. The shrinking of the earth and the bend ing and folding of the outer crust sometimes cause long breaks or faults extending hundreds of miles. The two sides of the fault move differently, so that one finally may stand thousands of feet higher than the other and forms a tilted block mountain. Such moun tains are generally steep on the faulted side and more gentle on the other side, as may be seen in the Wasatch range, which has a steep fault face on the west side and a gentler slope toward the east; and in the Sierra Nevadas, where the reverse is the case. Other mountains are formed by a wavelike folding of the crust as in the Jura Mountains of France, where each, ridge represents a wave. Such simple folded mountains, however, are rare. Most great mountain ranges consist of a crumpled mixture of folds and fault blocks, and often the blocks have been pushed in various directions or even one over another. The structure of these complex mountains is reflected in the irregularity of their ranges and ridges; as may be seen in the Alps, Rockies and Himalayas.