If we pass from the differences of temperature manifested in the plains to
the inequalities of the polyhedric form of the surface of our planet, we
shall have to consider mountains either in relation to their influence on
the climate of neighboring
p 327
valleys, or according to the effects of the hyposometrical relations on
their own summits, which often spread into elevated plateaux. The division
of mountains into chains separates the earth's surface into different
basins, which are often narrow and walled in, forming caldron-like valleys,
and (as in Greece and in part of Asia Minor) constitute an individual local
climate with respect to heat, moisture, transparancy of atmosphere, and
frequency of winds and storms. These circumstances have at all times
exercised a powerful influence on the character and cultivation of natural
products, and on the manners and institutions of neighboring nations, and
even on the feelings with which they regard one another. This character of
'geographical individuality' attains its maximum, if we may be allowed so to
speak, in countries where the differences in the configuration of the soil
are the greatest possible, either in a vertical or horizontal direction,
both in relief and in the articulation of the continent.
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