DISTRIBUTION OF INHERITABLE TRAITS 197 



of the hills and a human inertia that objects to raising the 

 weight of the body, the valley becomes an endogamous 

 center. Such a tendenvy is much exaggerated in the great 

 valleys of the Appalachian chain. The cradle of the Jukes, 

 however, was in a small valley hemmed in by steep hills 

 only 300 feet high. The valleys of the Taconic Range, of 

 the Catskills, of the Ramapo Mountains of New York are, 

 or have been, regions of much 

 inbreeding and not a little in- | 

 cest, and the product has been 

 much feeble-mindedness, crimi- 

 nality and albinism (Fig. 172). 

 As the mountains rise to the 

 southwestward so do inbreed- 

 ing, pauperism, and defect, 

 reaching their fullest fruition 

 in the mountain fastnesses of 

 western Virginia and eastern 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. But 



,, , - ,, PC ■ J. ,1 . FiG- 172. — A portion of the U. 



the story of the effect of this s. Geological Survey topographic 



mountain range and its valleys °^^p ^^ the region on the border 



of the center of the home of the 

 upon COnsangumeoUS matmgS, Jukes, showing long, well watered 



defect, and crime in America ^^"^^f ^ji^,5^^'^ti:^«'>; «^^^P f"f^«' 



scale 1: 62,500. Contour interval, 



has still to be written. 20 feet. 



In other countries, longer settled, the influence of moun- 

 tain barriers is better appreciated. Very famous are the 

 cretins and the imbeciles of the Alps. And from the Chin 

 Hills of Burmah, the Rev. H. East writes about that place as 

 follows (American Naturalist, 1909): "Rau Vau village has 

 been isolated for about seven generations. It contains about 

 sixty houses and possibly two hundred inhabitants. Of 

 these, ten are idiots, many are dwarfs and some hydroce- 

 phalic. A number of cases of syndactyUsm and brachy- 

 dactylism occur." 



