THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 601 



cruited from its ranks. The contrast of this type, whose energy 

 has carried it all over Europe, with the persistently sedentary Alpine 

 race is very marked. A certain passivity, or patience, is character- 

 istic of the Alpine peasantry. This is true all the way from north- 

 western Spain, where Tubino (1877) notes its degeneration into 

 morosity in the peasantry, as far as Russia, where the great inert 

 Slavic horde of northeastern Europe submits with abject resig- 

 nation to the political despotism of the house of the Romanoffs. 

 Ordinarily a negative factor in politics, always socially conserva- 

 tive, this race when once aroused becomes irresistible. As a rule, 

 not characterized by the domineering spirit of the Teuton, this 

 Alpine type makes a comfortable and contented neighbor, a re- 

 signed and peaceful subject. Whether this rather negative char- 

 acter of the Alpine race is entirely innate: or whether it is in 

 part, like many of its social phenomena, merely a reflection from 

 the almost invariably inhospitable habitat in which it has long been 

 isolated, we may not pretend to decide. 



The peculiar temperament of the Alpine population comes to 

 the surface in political affairs, being attested by great conservatism. 

 This reactionary instinct is in the long run far more common to all 

 human nature, I believe, than is generally supposed; in the Alpine 

 Celt it is developed or conserved, if you please, to a marked degree. 

 Socially, the peculiarities of disposition we have mentioned are 

 of even greater importance, as we sought to impress in our preced- 

 ing article. In fact, the future of the type depends largely upon 

 this circumstance. The most persistent attribute of the Alpine Celt 

 is his extreme attachment to the soil, or, perhaps, better, to locality. 

 He seems to be a sedentary type par excellence; he seldom migrates, 

 except after great provocation; so that, once settled, he clings to his 

 patrimony through all persecution, climatic or human. If he mi- 

 grates to the cities, as does the " mobile " Teuton, he generally 

 returns home to the country to spend his last days in peace. Such 

 re-emigration of the Alpine type late in life is in fact offered by Col- 

 lignon * as the main explanation for the prevalence of the long- 

 headed variety in the towns to-day. He inclines to this view rather 

 than to the theory that it is due to the greater number of the immi- 

 grant Teutons, as Ammon and Lapouge are disposed to maintain. 

 At all events, whichever explanation be true, the fact that mental 

 differences between our racial types exist, if they become ac- 

 centuated with the ever-increasing pressure of civilization, can 

 not but profoundly affect the future complexion of European 

 populations. A phase of racial or social competition of such 



* 1895, p. 125. 



