436 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the Rhine, from the time of Attila to that of the Emperor 

 William I. It is the strategic key to central Europe. The only 

 other routes from France to Germany cut straight across the diffi- 

 cult Ardennes plateau, following either the valleys of the Meuse 

 or the Moselle shown on our map. These valleys are both ex- 

 tremely fertile, but narrow and easy of defense. Sedan commands 

 the one and Metz the other. This depression at Belfort has 

 played quite a unique part in the natural history of Europe as 

 well as in its military campaigns. It is the only route by which 

 southern flora and fauna could penetrate to the north, since they 

 could not traverse the Alpine highlands. The parallel is con- 

 tinued by the constant counter-migration of southern culture over 

 the same way, evinced in archaeology and history. It is not sur- 

 prising that in anthropology this Gap of Belfort should be equally 

 important.* 



This Ardennes plateau is the core of a considerable popu- 

 lation, which is primarily of the Alpine racial type. It is an 

 anthropological table-land of broad -headedness, surrounded on 

 every side except the south, where it touches the Alps, by more 

 dolichocephalic populations. Turn for a moment to our map on 

 page 440. Notice the wing of dark tint extending up to Luxem- 

 burg from Belfort. Observe how it is eroded on the east along 

 the Rhine Valley, and toward Paris in the fertile plains of the 

 Isle de France. In the recesses of the Vosges Mountains the 

 cephalic index rises 87; in the valleys of the Meuse and the 

 Moselle it falls to 83. f The Germanic tribes in their ceaseless 

 wanderings are the cause of that phenomenon beyond question. 

 It is evident that for Teutonism to enter France, it must pass 

 through the Gap of Belfort, around north through Flanders, or 

 follow the valleys above mentioned. All three of these it has 

 certainly done in the anthropological sense. It has overflowed 

 along each of these channels, traversing the Alpine racial barrier. 

 It has done even more. Its influence is manifest even in the 

 nooks and byways. For the people of the whole region are well 

 above the average French in stature. They are quite Teutonic in 

 this respect. But the invaders have not been able to efface that 

 most persistent trait of the primitive population the broad, 

 round head. Here, as in the Black Forest, just across the Rhine, 



* W. Marshall, Tierverbreitung, in Kirchoff's Anleitung zur deut. Landes- u. Volksfor- 

 schung, p. 256. Montelius, Verbindungen zwischen Skandinavien und dem oestlichen 

 Europa, Archiv fur Anth., 1891, pp. 1-21. 



f The authority' upon this region is Dr. R. Collignon. Vide his Anthropologie de la 

 Lorraine, Nancy, 1886; especially, the map opposite page 9, showing the influence of the 

 river valleys: L' Anthropologie, I, 1890, p. 211 seq. ; and Bull. Soc. d'Antb., Paris, 1887, p. 

 306 ; ibid., 1883, p. 463. Auerbach gives a fine description of the geographical features in 

 Revue de Geographie, Paris, 1890-'91. 



