56 NATIONALITY AND RACE 



which cranial index, stature, and colouration reveal 

 the preponderating presence of the three races in 

 turn. The most southerly is the headquarters of 

 the Mediterranean race, notable along the south and 

 stretching up the Atlantic coast, where it is modi- 

 fied by admixture with Alpine and Nordic elements. 

 The central highlands extend across France from 

 their broad base in the Alps and Jura through 

 the Auvergne and Cantal and the Cevennes towards 

 the desolate Landes in the south-west, with outliers 

 in the Morvan and in Brittany. These regions 

 are occupied by the Alpine race, and the popula- 

 tion shows a marked preponderance of round heads 

 with high cranial index, medium stature with strong, 

 stocky build, and medium colouration. In all these 

 regions the Alpine race still clings firmly to the hills 

 and the more inaccessible regions ; in the open fertile 

 plains the cranial index is lower, falling almost 

 directly with altitude. For wave after wave of Nor- 

 dic immigration has brought a long-headed, tall, and 

 blond population into France from the north ; this 

 race has spread over the whole of the north, and has 

 followed the plains and the river valleys down to 

 Marseilles and Bordeaux. 



Belgium and the Netherlands. — These countries seem 

 to have retained almost no racial trace of the Spanish 

 domination, and the population is a mixture of 

 Alpine and Nordic stocks. The Dutch are conspicu- 

 ously Nordic, tall, fair and long-headed, but towards 

 the south, and especially on either side the lower 

 waters of the Rhine, the Alpine race is revealed by a 

 very great rise in the cranial index, a darkening of the 

 colour and a shorter stature. In Belgium the boun- 



