[Sidenote:  Types of settlements in the valley approaches.]

Genuine mountain passes have only emergency inhabitants—­the monks and dogs of the hospice, the road-keepers in their refuge huts or cantoniere, or the garrison of a fort guarding these important thoroughfares.  The flanking valleys of approach draw to themselves the human life of the mountains.  Their upper settlements show a certain common physiognomy, born of their relation to the barren transit region above, except in those few mountain districts of advanced civilization where railroads have introduced through traffic over the barrier.  At the foot of the final ascent to the pass, where often the carriage road ends and where mule-path or foot-trail begins, is located a settlement that lives largely by the transmontane travel.  It is a place of inns, hostelries, of blacksmith shops, where in the busy season the sound of hammer and anvil is heard all night; of stables and corrals crowded with pack and draft animals; of storehouses where the traveler can provide himself with food for the journey across the barren, uninhabited heights.  It is the typical outfitting point such as springs up on the margin of any pure transit region, whether mountain or desert.  Such places are Andermatt and Airolo, lying at an altitude of 4000 feet or more on the St. Gotthard road, St. Moritz below the Maloja Pass, Jaca near the Pass de Canfranc over the Pyrenees, Kugiar and Shahidula[1236] at an elevation of 10,775 feet or 3285 meters on the road up to the Karakorum Pass (18,548 feet or 5655 meters), which crosses the highest range of the Himalayas between Leh in the upper Indus Valley and Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan.

[Sidenote:  Lower settlements.]

Farther down the transverse valley the type of settlement changes where side valleys, leading down from other passes, converge and help build up a distributing center for a considerable highland area.  Such a point is Chiavenna in northern Italy, located above the head of Lake Como at the junction of the Mera and Liro valleys, which lead respectively to the Spluegen and Maloja passes.  It lies at an altitude of 1090 feet (332 meters) and has a population of 4000.  Such a point is Aosta (1913 feet or 583 meters elevation) in the Dora Baltea Valley, commanding the Italian approaches to the Great St. Bernard Pass, and the less important Col de Fenetre leading to the upper Rhone, the Little St. Bernard highway to the valley of the Isere, and Col de la Seigne path around the Mont Blanc range to the valley of the Arve.  Aosta was an important place in the Roman period and has to-day a population of about 8000.  Kokan, in the upper Sir-Daria Valley in Russian Turkestan, commands the approach to the passes of the western Tian Shan and the northern Pamir.  Its well-stocked bazaars, containing goods from Russia, Persia and India, testify to its commercial location.

[Sidenote:  Pass cities and their markets.]