THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



44' 



of the Paris-Bordeaux axis of fertility. At the northwest appears 

 the lower edge of the broad-headedness of the area of Brittany ; 

 then succeeds a belt of long heads from Paris to Bordeaux, to the 



Mediterranean Type. Montpellier. 

 Cephalic Index, 79-6. 



Alpine Type. Aveyron. 

 Cephalic Index, 86. 



south of which comes the main feature a central strip of the Al- 

 pine type pushing its way to the extreme southwest, as we have 

 said. The portrait herewith is a good example of the last-named 

 round-headed type, which forms the bulk of the population. We 

 are confronted by a racial distribution which appears to be utterly 

 at variance with all the laws which elsewhere in France deter- 

 mine the ethnic character of its population. 



One point is certain : either conditions have changed wonder- 

 fully since Strabo's time, or else the old geographer was far from 

 being a discriminating anthropologist, when he described the peo- 

 ple of Aquitaine as uniformly Iberians, both in race and in customs. 

 A large element among them is as far removed from the Spaniards 

 in race as it is possible in Europe to be. There is, as our map 

 shows, a strip all along the Mediterranean which is Iberically 

 narrow-headed and oval- faced, of a type illustrated in our portrait. 

 Especially is this true in the department of Pyrenees-Orientales, 

 shown on our map by the banded white area. This is the only 

 part of France where the Catalan language is spoken to-day, as we 

 took occasion to point out in our first article. This population in 

 Roussillon is truly Iberian both in race and language ; all the other 

 peoples of Aquitaine differ from the Spaniards in both respects.* 



* The prime authority upon this part of France is again Dr. Collignon. Vide Mem. 

 Soe. d'Anth., Paris, series 3, i, fasc. 3 and 4. Condensed statement of his views is given in 



