Mountain chains which diverge from plateaus and their serrated rims seem, nevertheless, to have some relation to them, even though they cannot be considered continuations of them. The Lebanon chain, for instance, which turns away at a right angle from the Taurus range, and runs southward through Syria and Palestine; the Lutznetskia and the Alatau Mountains, mineral ranges running from the Altai northward to Tomsk; the Yablonoi and the Stanovoi Chrabet ranges running to the northeast; the still unknown or little known range of Farther India, traversing the whole peninsula of Malacca, come under this head. Completely unlike the groups thus far considered, are the isolated mountain systems, with uniform slopes on all sides, and with a roof-like form, distinguishable to the base. The mountains of Europe are mostly of this class—the Ural, Carpathian, Scandinavian ranges, the Alps, Apennines, and, in part, the Pyrenees. They give rise to rivers, not on one side alone, as do the Himalayas and the Andes; they are rich in resources of all kinds for the student and the economist, and thus make up in part for their comparatively unimportant dimensions. Their double-sidedness gives them a large influence on civilization, since rivers flow from them in all directions; while from the Himalayas they only flow to the south, and from the Andes to the east. Plateaus and mountains, different as they are in appearance and characteristics, yet constitute, in their mutual action and reaction, and in their forms of transition from the one to the other, the highland system of the globe. Their relations are inexhaustible as Nature herself. We cannot study them without profit; but we can never come to a perfect knowledge of them all. The Relations of Plateau Systems. Like mountain systems, plateaus are not to be estimated in respect to elevated and superficial area alone, but in respect to form and position as well. The American plateaus are elongated from north to south, but are of disproportionate breadth from east to west. The Asiatic plateaus, on the contrary, are not only of great length, but also of great breadth. The Spanish plateau, that of the Atlas system, and that of Asia Minor have their length and breadth nearly equal.