Modern Geography

Europe, but before proceeding to discuss them in detail it is neces

ench race, no German race, even though the word Germanic is sometimes applied to one of the strains which occurs in the German Empire. We recognise this fact, of course, in our popular language, for the contrast between the Briton of Saxon race and the Briton of Celtic race is a favourite literary topic. Unfortunately for accuracy, the people within the British area who speak Celtic languages are not all of the same race, and there

certainly occurred, but nevertheless one race, that which we have called Mediterranean, enormously predominates. Yet in spite of this relative purity of race, the peninsula is divided between two nationalities and no less than three languages. Portugal forms a separate nation with its own language, while Spain, though forming one nation, has two languages, Cas

to show the distribution of languages, and their in

political boundary of the Pyrenees separates at its eastern end two groups of Mediterranean man, speaking similar languages, Catalan or Proven?al, the latter of

me origin. Differences of culture produced fierce warfare between the incoming and the old established race, and led temporarily to the triumph of the invaders, known to history as Saracens and Moors. The original Iberians, like the people of the same stock in Wales and parts of the Scottish Highlands, were pushed back to the mountains of Galicia, to the hill country of Castile, to the hills of Aragon and round and over the Pyrenees to Languedoc and the south of France generally. Ultimately they reasserted themselves, and drove the Moors out

to the discussion of what is known, or surmised, a

perhaps made his existence impossible. Not much is known of this early race, but it seems to have been long-headed, and was probably dark. It is no longer believed that there was a complete rupture between the culture of the Pal?olithic period, with its unpolished stone implements, and that of the Neolithic age, w

th of the skull between the ears and its length from front to back. The ratio is expressed as a percentage, the length being taken as 100, and the breadth stated as a fraction of it. When the index rises above 80, the skull is said to be brachycephalic, or

ight, which has some racial significance. A third character, of much importance, is the colouring of the skin, eyes and hair. This can onl

ose of a dolichocephalic people. "Long barrows, long skulls" is an anthropological rule for England and Scotland, no less than for the other parts of Europe in which these tumuli occur. The skeletons within the barrows show no marks of fire, so that inhumation not cremation was practised, and a very curious feature found in Scotland, in Sicily, in Egypt and els

in Scandinavia, in Germany, in the Mediterranean basin, and elsewhere. There seems reason to believe that they prove that in Neolithic times the Mediterranean race was widely distributed, es

ters:-The skull is markedly dolichocephalic, the skin tends to be brown, the eyes and h

ee stocks invaded Europe, entering by the three natural routes which present themselves, that is, by the three regions where the sea is most easily crossed. The most western group, the Iberians, crossed, as we have seen, via Gibral

till had peopled Europe with Pal?olithic man, who, on this theory, would belong also to the Mediterranean race, or whether the immigrant African race displaced some earlier

his environment. Later he spread northwards, being no doubt especially attracted by the relatively mild cli

Europe, round barrows or cairns are found side by side with the long ones. These are of later origin, as is shown by the nature of the pottery, by the occurrence of ornaments, and especially by the presence of bronze weapons-a great advance

anean man. Though generally resembling him in the coloration of hair and eyes, they are lighter in tint, the hair tending to be chestnut-coloured, and the eyes hazel grey, instead of both being very dark as in the former race. The nose, t

f the old. The use of bronze must have given its members an enormous advantage in the struggle for existence, and

ought with it the use of bronze, and was therefore at a higher level than Mediterranean man, but Prof. Sergi believes that the appearance of bronze and of the new race simultaneously was a mere coincidence, and that the Mediterranean race itself originated the use of metals. Meantime there is no means of deciding this questi

the race in North Africa, Mediterranean man kept his hold, and the brachycephalic forms did not succeed in obtaining much foothold. But they are strongly represented in parts of southern France. In southern Italy, in Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia

but we are met with the difficulty that here a third race supervened later, so

ave left little trace on the existing population. We thus see the absurdity of talking about British Celts, for Celts in the true sense are almost extinct in Britain though their language remains and is spoken by types of Mediterranean man as well as by others. In Scandinavia Alpine man was more successful, for he has left traces in various parts, especially on the coast of Norway.

for their long skulls and face, for their blue eyes and fair hair, their light complexions, and their narrow aquiline noses. The resemblance in skull form leads many anthropologists to regard them as derived from a common stock with the Mediterranean race, but the race seems to have originated in

c man. Between the two, along the great wedge of uplands, is the land of Alpine man, which widens to the east, his original home. Just as Mediterranean man in the days of his prime pushed north wherever conditions permitted, so Nordic man has pushed south, across the Alpine barrier, both in the literal and anthropological sense, and has left traces of his

at political organisations would arise early in the Mediterranean. We can hardly doubt that these two facts had some bearing on the survival rate of the two races. The Nordic race with their strong family life, and with their abundant pasturage, had doubtless a relatively low death-rate among the children, though, as Prof. Myres points out, the struggle in adult life must have been keen. In the Mediterranean, as he also notes, the dry summer means difficulties with the water supply, difficulties in sanitation, and the risk of pestilence, which, with the abundant supply of fruit and the absence or scarcity of milk, has probably always meant a very high death-rate among the chi

of life, we must remember that the fact that coal is chiefly found in the territory of the former, has

Aryans preceded in time the disentanglement of the complex problems presented by European races. But with all deductions made, the incoming Asiatic race which we have called Alpine presents many curious problems. It seems probable that the languages of Europe are largely due to the grafting of Alpine or Eurasian tongues upon

ndigenous people, after having long dominated them. That is, it was as if we might suppose that the British population in India was cut off from the mother country, and

the same races as in Britain; and, second, the position of the Alpine race in western Europe generally, its virtual limitation to relatively infertile land, seems inconsistent with the notion that it ever formed an aristocracy, apart from and above the

beyond his own region, with the result that he reached a region markedly different in climate and vegetation from his own, to which his adaptation was never very perfect. Where, as in Ireland

diterranean man to withstand cold. He filled the spaces which Mediterranean man could not fill, and pressed him hard in many places. Ultimately the forest region of Europe evolved its own type, perhaps from some aberrant strain of Medite

pes of Asia, Nordic man can no longer compete successfully

ort, darker broadheads of the south, further to the east this same broad-headed race, under the ba

onditions, which have produced the various types of man, no less than of

ng negro element in the southern United States, a remnant of the original Indian population, and an infusion of eastern races, it is obvious that t

aces in the pure sense. But, at the same time, it may be noted that in the western nati

tradition, the one is predominantly Mediterranean, and the other predominantly Teutonic. In the Iberian peninsula, as we have seen, the