of houses against the mountain side.[1299] In the wilder, half-conquered parts of Sze Chuan the villages crown the lower peaks, cling to the base of the mountains, or are perched on ledges of rock overlooking the gorges.  Among the steep cliffs bordering the upper Yangtze, occupied chiefly by the timid, displaced Mantze aborigines, at an altitude of 10,000 feet, small platforms resting on beams projecting from the sheer mountain face support minute houses, whose backs burrow into the cliff behind.  The small children are tied to the door post, to keep them from falling into the millet field below.  The house is accessible only by bolts driven into the cliff.  Above and below is the farm—­small patches of tilled soil, often not larger than a bath towel, to which the cultivator lowers himself by a rope.[1300] Here life hovers on the brink of death and despair.

[Sidenote:  Mountain pastures and stock-raising.]

Paucity of arable land in mountain regions leads to the utilization of the untillable slopes for stock grazing.  This industry is always a valuable ally to mountain agriculture on account of the manure which it yields; but in high altitudes, where the steepness or rockiness of the soil, cold and the brevity of the growing season restrict or eliminate cereal crops, it becomes the dominant occupation of the inhabitants, while agriculture takes a subordinate place, limited to the production of hay and fodder for the winter feeding of the stock.  Above the line of tree growth flourish the natural summer pastures up to the border of perpetual snow; and just below lies a zone which, if cleared of its forests, supports a thick carpet of grass and herbage, though too cold to ripen grain.

The high pastures are particularly nourishing.  Cows feeding here in the Alps give better milk than the “home” or valley cows, though a smaller quantity.  Sheep and goats do equally well, but swine are profitable only as a by-product, to utilize the refuse of the cheese and butter industry.  The area of these pastures far exceeds that of arable land in mountain regions.  In Switzerland they comprise about 27 per cent. of the total productive area; hay meadows 24 per cent., but fields and gardens only 20 per cent.[1301] In the Austrian province of Salzburg, pastures make up 13.3 per cent., hay meadows 34.5 per cent., and tilled fields only 11.7 per cent. of the total productive area.  In the Tyrol the figures are much the same.[1302] Since Norway has over 67 per cent. of its total area in bare mountains, snow fields, bogs and lakes, it is not surprising to find only 7.6 per cent. in pastures, 2.2 per cent. in meadows, and 0.7 per cent. in grain fields; but here the pastures are ten times the arable area.[1303] The season of the summer feeding on the grass lands is short.  In the so-called High Alps it frequently lasts only six or seven weeks, in the Grisons at most thirteen weeks[1304] and in Norway from two to three months.[1305]