THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 631 



among anthropologists. It is of great significance for the student 

 of sociology. His explanation for the Basque type is that it is a 

 subspecies of the Mediterranean stock evolved by long- continued 

 and complete isolation, and in-and-in breeding primarily engen- 

 dered by peculiarity of language. The effects of heredity, aided 

 perhaps by artificial selection, have generated local peculiarities 

 and have developed them to an extreme. The objection to this 

 derivation of the Basque from the Mediterranean stock which at 

 once arises is that the latter is essentially dolichocephalic, while 

 the Basques, as we have shown, are relatively broad-headed. It 

 appears, however, that the Basque is broad-headed only at one 

 spot, and that far forward near the temples. The cranium itself 

 at its middle point is of only medium width and the length is 

 only normal. The proportions, in fact, excluding the frontal 

 region, are very much like those of the Mediterranean stock in 

 Spain across the Pyrenees. They approach much nearer to them, 

 in fact, than to the Alpine or broad-headed stock. It is thus 

 only by its abnormal width at the temples that the cranium of 

 the Basques may be classed as broad-headed. Dr. Collignon 

 regards the type, therefore, as more or less a variation of the 

 Mediterranean variety, accentuated in the isolation which this 

 tribe has always enjoyed. It approaches in stature and in gen- 

 eral proportions much nearer also to the Mediterranean than to 

 the Alpine stock in France. 



That the Basque facial type that which is recognized as the 

 essential characteristic of the people, both in France and Spain 

 is a result of artificial selection, is rendered probable by another 

 bit of evidence. The Basques, especially in France where the 

 type is least disturbed by ethnic intermixture as we have seen, 

 are distinguishable from their Bearnais neighbors by reason of 

 theif relatively greater bodily height. This appears upon our 

 map of stature on page 632. The lighter tints denoting taller 

 statures are quite closely confined within the linguistic boundary. 

 This is not due to any favorable influence of environment ; for 

 the Basque foothills are rather below the average in fertility. 

 The case is not analogous to that of the tall populations of 

 Gironde, farther to the north, light tinted upon the map. They, 

 as we took occasion to point out in the preceding paper, are above 

 the average either in Dordogne on the north or in Landes on the 

 south. The contrasted tints show this clearly. These differences 

 are in great measure due to the surpassing fertility of the valley 

 of the Garonne, as compared with the sterile country upon either 

 flank. No such material explanation is applicable to the Basque 

 stature. Some other cause must be adduced. Ought not arti- 

 ficial selection, if indeed it once became operative in a given 

 ethnic group, to work in this direction ? Goodly stature is earth- 



