626 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gion, Basse-Navarre, has always enjoyed a considerable political 

 autonomy. Quite probably the ethnic segregation is due in part 



to this cause, as well as to the 

 peculiarities of language. This 

 fact that the Basques are not 

 an ethnic remnant barely hold- 

 ing their own in the fastnesses 

 of the Pyrenees, as is generally 

 affirmed ; but that they have 

 politically and ethnically as- 

 serted themselves in the open 

 ^^ u Jl^^^^l fertile country, reverses their 



Hj^^ V ^^^^^~ status entirely. It confirms an 



^PB ^m|^ ,|, ^ -.^^ impression afPorded by a study 



mm '1H^^^ Jii V ^"^ of their language that however 

 ^^ --^1^ nF '\si it may be in Spain, these people 



are a positive factor in the popu- 

 lation of France. 



In reality we have here in the 

 department of Basses-Pyrenees 

 a complex ethnological phenomenon, the Basques constituting the 

 middle one of three distinct strata of population lying on the 

 north slope of the Pyrenees. Our map of cephalic index, on 

 page 620, serves to illustrate this. The plains of Beam are occu- 

 pied by the extreme western outpost of the broad-headed, round- 



I 



Broad-headed Type. 



Like the Bearnais. 



^mer^^-^'^-^ 





m 



French Basque. Basses-Pyrenees. 



faced Alpine type of central Europe. A portrait of one of these 

 is given on this page. Then come the Basques jjroper, with their 

 broad heads and triangular faces. These lie mainly along the 



