32 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



haps the clearest detailed illustration of the expression of this 

 racial peculiarity is offered by the people of Brittany. Many 

 years ago observers began to note the contrasts in the Armorican 

 Peninsula between the Bretons and the other French peasantry ; 

 and especially the local differences between the people of the 

 interior and those fringing the seacoast. The regularity of the 

 phenomenon is made manifest by the preceding map. This is 

 constructed from observations on all the youth who came of 

 age during a period of ten years from 1850-'59. There can be no 

 doubt of the facts in the case. It has been tested in every way. 

 Other measurements, made twenty years later, are precisely paral- 

 lel in their results, as we have already seen in Finisterre.* 



The average stature of the whole peninsula is low, being only 

 about five feet and five inches ; yet in this " tache noire " it de- 

 scends more than a full inch below this. This appreciable differ- 

 ence is not wholly due to environment, although the facts cited 

 for Finisterre show that it is of some effect. The whole penin- 

 sula is rocky and barren. The only advantage that the people on 

 the coast enjoy is the support of the fisheries. This is no insig- 

 nificant factor, to be sure. Yet we have direct proof beyond this 

 that race is here in evidence ; this is afforded by other physical 

 differences between the population of the coast and that of the 

 interior. The people of the littoral are lighter in hair and eyes, 

 and appreciably longer -headed ; in other words, they show traces 

 of Teutonic intermixture. In ancient times this whole coast was 

 known as the "litus Saxonicum," so fiercely was it ravaged by 

 these northern barbarians. Then, again, in the fifth century, 

 immigrants from Britain, who in fact bestowed the name of Brit- 

 tany upon the country, came over in hordes, dispossessed in Eng- 

 land by the same Teutonic invaders. They* were probably Teu- 

 tonic also; for the invaders of Britain came so fast that they 

 literally crowded themselves out of the little island. The result 

 has been to infuse a new racial element into all the border popu- 

 lations in Brittany, while the original physical traits remain in 

 undisturbed possession of the interior. The Normans to the 

 northeast are, on the other hand, quite purely Teutonic, espe- 

 cially marked in their height. In this case environment and 

 race have joined hands in the final result, but the latter seems 

 to have been the senior partner in the affair. 



One more detailed illustration of the persistence of stature 

 as a racial trait may be found in the people of the Austrian 

 Tyrol, familiarized to us in the last paper. Unfortunately, our 



* Dr. Chassagne has maps almost identical with this, for the period 1874-"78. Vide 

 Revue d'Anthropologie, second series, vol. iv, p. 439 seq. Our map is adapted from 

 Broca's original results in Memoires de la Societe d'Anthropologie, Paris, series one, vol. 

 iii, p. 186 seq. 



