452 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tified it in northern Africa. From all these places it has now dis- 

 appeared more or less completely. Only in two or three other 

 localities does it still form an appreciable element in the living 

 population. There is one outcrop of it in a small spot in Landes, 

 farther to the southwest, and another away up in Brittany, in 

 that peculiar population at Lannion which we left in our last 

 article with a promise to return to it. On the island of Oloron off 

 the west coast there seems to be a third survival. A very ancient 

 type has also been described by Virchow in the islands off north- 

 ern Holland, which is quite likely of similar descent. 



In all these cases of survival above mentioned, geographical 

 isolation readily accounts for the phenomenon. Is that also a 

 competent explanation for this clearest case of all in our popula- 

 tion in Dordogne ? Why should these peasants be of such direct 

 prehistoric descent as to put every ruling house in Europe to 

 shame ? Has the population persisted simply by virtue of num- 

 bers, this having been the main center of its dispersion in pre- 

 historic times ? Or is it because of peculiarly favorable circum- 

 stances of environment ? It certainly is not due to isolation 

 alone, for this region has been overrun with all sorts of invaders, 

 during historic times at least, from the Romans to the Saracens 

 and the English. Nor is it due to economic unattractiveness ; for^ 

 be it firmly fixed in mind, the Cro-Magnon type is not localized 

 in the sterile Limousin hills, with their miserable stunted popu- 

 lation. It is found to-day just to the southwest of them in a fairly 

 open, fertile country, especially in the vicinity of Bordeaux. 

 These peasants are not degenerate ; they are, in fact, of goodly 

 height, as indeed they should be to conform to the Cro-Magnon 

 type. In order to determine the particular cause of this persist- 

 ence of an ancient race, we must broaden our horizon once more, 

 after this detailed analysis of Dordogne, and consider the whole 

 southwest from the Mediterranean to Brittany as a unit. It is 

 not impossible that the explanation for the peculiar anomalies in 

 the distribution of the Alpine stock hereabouts may at the same 

 time offer a clew to the problem of the Cro-Magnon type beside it. 



The main question before us, postponed until the conclusion 

 of our study of the Dordogne population, is this : Why has the 

 Alpine race in the southwest of France, in direct opposition to 

 the rule for all the rest of Gaul, spread itself out in such a pecul- 

 iar way clear across the Garonne Valley and up to the Pyrenees ? 

 It lies at right angles with the river valley instead of along it. In 

 other words, why is not the Alpine type isolated in the unattract- 

 ive area of Auvergne instead of overflowing the fertile plains of 

 Aquitaine ? The answer is, I think, simple. Here in this utter- 

 most part of France is a last outlet for expansion of the Alpine 

 race repressed on every side by an aggressive alien population. 



