TRE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 729 



that vast army of Teutonic invaders which all through the his- 

 toric period and probably since a very early time has poured over 

 the Alps and out into the rich valley of the Po ? Where are those 

 gigantic, tawny-haired barbarians described by the ancient writers 

 who came from the far country north of the mountains ? Even 

 of late there have been many of them Cimbri, Goths, Ostro- 

 goths, Visigoths, Saxons, Lombards. Historians are inclined to 

 overrate their numerical importance as an element in the present 

 population. On the other hand many anthropologists, Virchow 

 for example, have asserted that these barbarian invaders have 

 completely disappeared from sight in the present population. 

 Truth lies intermediate between the two. It is, of course, prob- 

 able that ancient writers exaggerated the numbers in the immi- 

 grant hordes. Modern scholars estimate their numbers to be 

 relatively small. Thus Zampa * holds the invasion of the Lom- 

 bards to have been the most considerable numerically, although 

 their forces did not probably exceed sixty thousand, followed 

 l)erhaps by twenty thousand Saxons. Eighty thousand immi- 

 grants in the most thickly settled area in ancient Europe surely 

 would not have diluted the population very greatly. We can not 

 expect too much evidence in this direction consequently, although 

 there certainly is some. The relative purity of the Piedmont 

 Alpine type compared with that of Veneto is probably to be 

 ascribed to its greater inaccessibility to these Teutons. Wherever 

 any of the historic passes debouch upon the plain of the Po 

 there we find some disturbance of the normal relations of physi- 

 cal traits one to another ; as, for example, at Como, near Verona, 

 and at the mouth of the Brenner in Veneto. The clearest indubit- 

 able case of Teutonic intermixture is in the population of Lom- 

 bardy about Milan. Here, it will be observed on our maps, is 

 a distinct increase of stature; the people are at the same time 

 relatively blond. The extreme broad-headedness of Piedmont 

 and Veneto is moderated. Everything points to an appreci- 

 able Teutonic blond. This is as it should be. Every invading 

 host would naturally gravitate toward Milan. It is at the focus 

 of all roads over the mountains. Ratzel, in his Anthropo-Geo- 

 graphie, has contrasted the influence exerted by the trend of the 

 valleys on the different slopes of the Alps. Whereas in France 

 they all diverge, spraying the invaders upon the quiescent popu- 

 lation ; in Italy all streams seem to concentrate upon Lombardy.f 

 The ethnic consequences are apparent there, perhaps for this 

 reason. 



* Les Gaulois d'ltalie, in Mem. pont. Acead. di Nuovi Lincei, Rome, viii, 1892, pp. 

 241-316. 



t On the significance of the Alpine passes, vide Lentherie, Les Alpes devant THomme; 

 .ilso Jahresbericht des Vereins fiir Erdkunde zu Dresden, xviii. 



