6z6 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gion, Basse- Navarre, has always enjoyed a considerable political 

 autonomy. Quite probably the ethnic segregation is due in part 



to this cause, as well as to the 

 peculiarities of language. This 

 fact that the Basques are not 

 an ethnic remnant barely hold- 

 ing their own in the fastnesses 

 of the Pyrenees, as is generally 

 affirmed ; but that they have 

 politically and ethnically as- 

 serted themselves in the open 

 fertile country, reverses their 

 status entirely. It confirms an 

 impression afforded by a study 

 of their language that however 

 it may be in Spain, these people 

 are a positive factor in the popu- 

 lation of France. 



In reality we have here in the 

 department of Basses- Pyre'ne'es 

 a complex ethnological phenomenon, the Basques constituting the 

 middle one of three distinct strata of population lying on the 

 north slope of the Pyrenees. Our map of cephalic index, on 

 page 620, serves to illustrate this. The plains of Bdarn are occu- 

 pied by the extreme western outpost of the broad- headed, round- 



BROAD-HEADEU TYPE. Like the Bea 





FREXCH BASQUE. Basses-Pyrenees. 



faced Alpine type of central Europe. A portrait of one of these 

 is given on this page. Then come the Basques proper, with their 

 broad heads and triangular faces. These lie mainly along the 



