72 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



The greater density of population in Mobile County out- 

 side of the city than in Baldwin and Escambia is due partly 

 to suburbs belonging geographically but not politically to the 

 city, partly perhaps to better railroad facilities, and partly 

 to a perceptible concentration of population near the coast, 

 which seems to be characteristic of all continents where 

 the coasts are not too precipitous or marshy or otherwise 

 forbidding on account of the fishing industries. 



An interesting feature of the population, not well 

 brought out by the above statistics on account of the way 

 the county boundaries are drawn with respect to natural 

 regions, is the presence of several hundred Indians, mostly 

 in southwestern Monroe County, northern Baldwin, and 

 western Escambia. The number returned at different cen- 

 suses varies considerably, presumably because they have a 

 considerable admixture of white blood and are not always 

 recognized as Indians by the enumerators.* Some statistics 

 of Indian farmers are given a few pages farther on. 



Some fragmentary statistics for two classes of people 

 not recognized at all by the census have been dug out of a 

 Mobile directory for 1913. As nearly as one can judge by 

 their family names, Jews constitute about 2 per cent of the 

 white population or a little more than 1 per cent of the 

 total population of Mobile. There are a few in the smaller 

 cities, probably only a fraction of 1 per cent, and almost 

 none in the rural districts, except for a few Russian Jews 

 who have settled in recent years near Bay Minette. 



Creoles are distinguished by a special symbol (but not 

 defined) in the Mobile directory, and can therefore be count- 

 ed pretty accurately. They constitute a little less than 1 per 

 cent of the population of the city, and there are said to be 

 quite a number of them in the southwestern part of Baldwin 

 County, near Weeks's Bay and Bon Secour. They perhaps 

 belong rather to the coast strip than to the pine hills, 

 though. 



In the last half century this region, presumably on ac- 

 count of the abundance of cheap cut-over lands, has been 

 the scene of many colonization schemes, some of which 

 have been very successful. Its population is probably the 

 most cosmopolitan of any part of the State, outside of the 

 larger cities. As long ago as 1880 the average Ameriean- 



*The remarkable variations in number of Indians returned at 

 different censuses since 1860 are shown in Table 26. 



