Hartley's Railroad Transportation.
American Railways.
CHAPTER VII
FACTORS IN THE LOCATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS
The population of the world is very unevenly distributed. Not far from nine-tenths live in lowland plains, below an altitude of 1,200 feet, in regions where food-stuffs grow. The remainder live mainly in the grass-producing regions of the great plateaus, the mining regions or the flood-plains and grassy slopes of the higher montane regions.
Communal Life.—In each of these regions, also, there is a very unequal massing of population. In part, the various families live isolated from one another; in part, they gather into cities and villages. In other words the population of a habitable region may be classed as rural and urban. In the United States and western Europe, agricultural pursuits encourage rural life, each family living on its own estate. In Russia, the agricultural population usually cluster in villages.