THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



297 



headed department of Yonne on the east. This latter district lies 

 on the direct route over to Dijon and the Rhone Valley. Teutonic 

 peoples have here penetrated toward the southeast, following the 

 path of least resistance as always. Why, you will ask, is the 

 Loiret about Orleans so much less Teutonic in type ? The an- 

 swer would appear were the country mapped in detail. The great 

 forest of Orleans, a bit still being left at Fontainebleau, used to 

 cover this little upland between the Seine and the Loire, east of 

 Orleans. It was even until recently so thinly settled that it was 

 known as the Oatinais, or wilderness. Its insular position is for 

 this reason not at all strange. The Teutons have simply passed 

 it by on either side. Those who did not go up the Seine and 

 Yonne followed the course of the Loire. Here, then, is a parting 

 of the ways down either side of Auvergne. 



Another one of the best local examples illustrating this law 

 that the Alpine stock is segregated in areas of isolation and of eco- 

 nomic disfavor is 

 offered by the Mor- 

 van. This " mau- 

 vais pays " is a 

 peninsula of the 

 Auvergne plateau, 

 a little southwest 

 of the city of Dijon. 

 It is shown on our 

 geographical map. 

 It is a little bit of 

 wild and rugged 

 country, about for- 

 ty miles long and 

 half as wide, which 

 rises abruptly out of the fertile plains of Burgundy. Its moun- 

 tains, which rise three thousand feet, are heavily forested. The 

 soil is sterile and largely volcanic in character ; even the com- 

 mon grains are cultivated with difficulty. The limit of culti- 

 vation, even for potatoes or rye, is reached by tilling the soil 

 one year in seven. This little region contains at the present time 

 a population of about thirty-five thousand less to-day than fifty 

 years ago. Until the middle of the century there was not even a 

 passable road through it. It affords, therefore, an exceedingly 

 good illustration of the result of geographical isolation in minute 

 detail. Its population is as strongly contrasted with that of the 

 plains round about as is its topography. The people, untouched 

 by foreign influence to a considerable extent, have intermarried, 

 so that the blood has been kept quite pure. The region is so- 

 cially interesting as one of the few places in all France where the 



Types in the Morvan. 



