THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 321 



distinctly Alpine by race. The character of this culture, its manners 

 and customs, and its skill in the arts, are shown by the accompanying 

 cuts.* This is a reproduction of the design upon a bronze " situla " 

 or vessel found at Watsch in the Austrian Tyrol in 1882. A culture 

 capable of such work as this, and possessed of such a civilization to 

 represent, centered in the eastern Alps at a very early time. We 

 are assured, moreover, that the people were overwhelmingly Alpine 

 in racial type. Study of upward of one thousand crania from their 

 graves has made this certain, f At the early period when this culture 

 flourished, Scandinavia and Britain were probably in a far lower stage 

 of civilization. Hence if, as we say, the invasion by the broad-headed 

 race had been by force of arms, every advantage would have been 

 on the side of the more civilized race against the primitive possessors 

 of the soil. The clew to the situation would have lain in the relative 

 order in which culture was acquired by the competing populations. 

 It would then have been possible that the Alpine invaders, pene- 

 trating far to the west by reason of their equipment of civilization, 

 would have lost their advantage so soon as their rivals learned from 

 them the practical arts of metallurgy and the like. Unfortunately 

 for this supposition, the movement of population was rather an infil- 

 tration than a conquest. How may we explain this ? 



Our solution of the problem as to the temporary supersession of 

 the primitive population of Europe by an invading race, followed by 

 so active a reassertion of rights as to have now relegated the intruder 

 almost entirely to the upland areas of isolation, is rather economic 

 than military or cultural. It rests upon the fundamental laws which 

 regulate density of population in any given area. Our supposition 

 is this : that the north of Europe, the region peculiar to the Teutonic 

 race to-day, is by nature unfitted to provide sustenance to a large and 

 increasing population. In that prehistoric period when a steady in- 

 flux of population from the east took place, there was yet room for 

 the primitive inhabitants to yield ground to the invader. A time, 

 however, was bound to come when the natural increase of population 

 would saturate that part of Europe, so to speak. A migration of 

 population toward the south, where Nature offered the possibilities 

 of continued existence, consequently ensued. This may have at 

 times taken a military form. It undoubtedly did in the great Teu- 

 tonic expansion of historic times. Yet it may also have been a 

 gradual expansion — a drifting or swarming forth, ever trending 

 toward the south. We know that such a migration is now taking 

 place. Germans are pressing into northern France as they have 



* Consult our Bibliography for a full list of authorities by von Sacken, Hochstetter, 

 Hoernes, Chantre, and others. Ranke, in Der Mensch, gives a good account of it. 

 f Zuckerhandl, 1883, pp. 93 seq. 

 vol. lii. — 25 



