BRITTANY: THE LAND OF THE SARDINE 541 



about 2,800 feet, and a peak on Fourch 

 Mountain, in the southern part of Scott 

 County, which has been determined as 

 2,800 feet. 



The precise locations and heights of 

 the highest points in Nebraska, Okla- 

 homa, Kansas, and North Dakota have 

 not been ascertained. A high ridge north 

 of Kenton, Oklahoma, rises to 4,700 feet 

 or higher. The highest point in Kansas 



is near where the west boundary is in- 

 tersected by the Greeley-Wallace County 

 line. Its altitude is about 4,135 feet. 

 The highest point in North Dakota is 

 in Bowman County, near the southern 

 boundary on the divide east of the Little 

 Missouri. The highest place in Nebraska 

 is on the plains near the southwest cor- 

 ner of the state, where an altitude of 

 about 5,300 feet is attained. 



BRITTANY: THE LAND OF THE SARDINE 



By Hugh M. Smith 



Deputy Commissioner, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 



OCCUPYING the large peninsula 

 at the northwestern corner of 

 France — washed by the Eng- 

 lish Channel and the Bay of Biscay — is 

 a rugged country, with rugged inhab- 

 itants, who are less French than any 

 other people of the Republic. Brittany 

 has no political existence, and is not 

 even represented on some modern maps, 

 because it terminated its individual 

 career in the closing years of the 

 eighteenth century ; but the Bretons, dif- 

 fering in ancestry, language, and tem- 

 perament from their neighbors, have 

 held aloof and maintained their racial 

 characters in a way almost unparalleled 

 in European history. Fierce wars have 

 left their scars, and the concomitants of 

 modern civilization have made their en- 

 during impress on people and country; 

 but so much of the ancient customs and 

 landmarks has survived that Brittany is 

 still a well-marked geographical and eth- 

 nological entity and bids fair to remain 

 such for many generations. 



This isolation of Brittany from the re- 

 mainder of France, while at the same 

 time the province is comparatively easy 

 to reach and traverse, has for many 

 years made it a popular holiday and va- 

 cation resort for Parisians and London- 

 ers, and has attracted the notice of reg- 

 ular travelers and tourists who, having 



"done" the Alps, the Rhine, the Nor- 

 wegian fjords, the Riviera, and the Eu- 

 ropean capitals, are seeking new worlds 

 to conquer. Artists of all lands have 

 likewise found this a most agreeable field 

 for work and recreation. The popular- 

 ity of the region is attested by a score of 

 modern books of travel, some written 

 and illustrated by clever artists, describ- 

 ing the quaint charm of country and 

 people and always giving the reader a 

 keen desire to go and see for himself. 



Some years ago I was privileged to 

 visit Brittany in the interest of the Bu- 

 reau of Fisheries, and the personal ob- 

 servations I then made incidentally to 

 the special inquiries in hand form the 

 basis for these necessarily desultory re- 

 marks. 



WHERE) THK BRETONS CAME EROM 



The original name of Brittany was 

 Armorica, which was changed in conse- 

 quence of extensive immigration from 

 Great Britain in the fifth and sixth cen- 

 turies. The Armorican tribes formed a 

 part of that race of which the Irish, 

 Highland Scotch, and Manx constitute 

 one division, and the Welsh, Cornish, 

 and Breton the other. The Celtic lan- 

 guage there spoken at the present time 

 is divided into three or four rather dis- 

 tinct dialects, and is understood, if not 



*An address to the National Geographic Society, March 26, 1909. 



