Along the flood-plains of the larger rivers are fertile " bottomlands," but the ruggedness of the plateau country as a whole has retarded the development of the state, much of which is still sparsely populated.
Elsewhere in the plateau province the land is higher and the surface far more irregular, increasing in ruggedness toward both the S.
In Galloway, also, the highest portions of the Uplands have acquired a ruggedness and wildness more like those of the Highlands than an y other district in the south of Scotland.
Here it projects in irregular bastions and buttresses, there retires into deep recesses and tunnels, but shows everywhere a ruggedness of aspect eminently characteristic. In striking contrast to these precipices are those of the Cambrian red sandstone a few miles to the east.
Much of the ruggedness and beauty of the mountains is due to the erosive action of many alpine glaciers that once existed on the higher summits, and which have left behind their evidences in valleys and amphitheatres with towering walls, polished rock-expanses, glacial lakes and meadows and tumbling waterfalls.
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