THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



301 



are here in opposition to the manifest blurring of all sliarp racial 

 lines and divisions. Despite this disturbing influence, the Au- 

 vergnat area appears as a great wedge of pigmentation penetrat- 

 ing the center of France on the south. This is somewhat broken 

 up on the northern edge, because of the recent immigration of a 

 considerable mining population into this district which has come 



BRUNETNES5 



France 



3k ;X"'*/ 



Relative 



ORDER. 

 OF 



DEPARTMENTS 



After Topinard 



Zoo.ooo Observations 



from other parts of the country. The Rhone Valley appears as a 

 route of migration of blondness toward the south. Little more 

 than these general features can be gathered from the map of color, 

 except that the progressive brunetteness as we advance toward 

 the south is everywhere in evidence. Were we to examine the 

 several parts of France in detail we should find competent expla- 

 nations for many features which appear as anomalous as, for 

 example, the extreme blondness upon the southwest coast of 

 Brittany. 



The map of stature still preserves evidence of the threefold 

 division of the short Alpine people into Savoyards, Auvergnats, 

 and Bretons. It demonstrates in great clearness the influence of 

 the Rhone Valley in the production of tall stature. In this case 

 the process is cumulative, for the fertile valley productive of in- 



