11^ 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the canton of Berne extends over three regions quite distinct in 

 character. A middle strip along the valley of the Aar as far as 

 the city of Berne consists of an elevated, not infertile table-land, 

 with a rolling, hilly surface. This becomes gradually more rug- 

 ged, until it terminates in the high mountains of the Bernese 

 Oberland south of Interlaken. Here in this chain we have the 

 most elevated portion of Switzerland ; and, we may add, one of 

 the most unpropitious for agriculture or industry. The peasants 

 hereabouts must live upon the tourist or not at all. The north- 



Blond Type 

 Bernel 



ern third of Berne covers the Jura Mountains, quite high, but of 

 such geological formation that the soil yields not ungraciously to 

 agriculture. Thus from the economic point of view we may di- 

 vide the canton into two parts, setting aside the southern third 

 the Oberland as decidedly inferior to the rest. The people of 

 this region in the ante-tourist era could not but be unfavorably 

 affected by their material environment. 



Our map shows that this economic contrast is duplicated in 

 the anthropological sense by a considerable increase of blondness 

 within the Oberland, which becomes more marked as the fast- 

 nesses of the mountains are approached. North of the city of 

 Berne there are from seven to eleven per cent of pure blondes ; in 



