The Mountains, which appear to us so gigantic, are
really. Compared to the size of the earth, only small irregularities on the case
surface. They have been compared to the wrinkles on the rind of an orange. All
mountains and hills are formed of hard rock. Otherwise they would long ago have
been levelled to flat plains. The great ranges were probably formed when the
substance of the earth. Which was once molten, was cooling: but their shape and
size have been much modified during the ages h the action of water, frost and
volcanic force.
Mr. Ruskin has pointed out that mountains are of
the greatest possible use to man in three ways in connection with air. Water
and earth.
The Mountains have a great deal to do with keeping
the air circulating, and renewing its purity. The snow covered summits of high
mountains make the air in contact with them very cold; and as cold air tends to
sink, it descends to the plains and lowlands in cooling winds: while the hot
air of the plains rises up to the higher altitudes to be cooled and descend
purified again to the lower levels. The air can, therefore, never remain
stagnant in one place, but is always moving and being refreshed by the cool
rocks and snows of the mountains.
Mountains again, are the great reservoirs of the
earth’s fresh water. And are the source of the rivers and streams, without
which men could not live. They catch the rain and store it up, in the following
way. Warm moisture-laden winds are cooled down when they blow against a lofty
mountain range, and in summer condense ingrain, and in winder in snow. All the
winter, the high mountains are storing up water in the form of snow and when
the summer comes, a great deal of this snow melts and pours down in torrents
and streams of water to feed the great rivers. Much of the snow, too, descends
from the higher levels, where it never melts. in the form of glaciers. which at
a lower level melt, and are the source of rivers; and a good deal of the rain
that falls on mountains finds its way through crevices in the rocks to
underground caves, which become reservoirs of water to feed perennial streams.
Lastly, mountains province the material that forms
the fertile soil of the plains. The rocks at high leis on the mountains are
constantly being split and broken b the intense frost. The fragments of rock
fall into the valleys. and the smaller ones are carried down by the rushing
torrents. And gradually broken and rubbed and ground down into sand and gravel
and mud. The mountain torrents carry this sand and mud into the big rivers; and
the rivers when they are in flood deposit it on the land and thus enrich it.
Even a small stream will bring down tons of sand and mud in one year,. We
therefore own to the mountains, fresh air, fresh water and fertile soil.