Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/301



EVERAL reasons combine to make France the most interesting country of Europe from the anthropological point of view. More is known of it in detail than of any other part of the continent save Italy. Its surface presents the greatest diversity of climate, soil, and fertility. Its population, consequently, is exposed to the most varied influences of environment. It alone among the other countries of central Europe is neither cis- nor trans-alpine. It is open to invasion from all sides alike. Lying on the extreme west coast of Europe, it is a place of last resort for all the westward-driven peoples of the Old World. All these causes combine to render its population the most heterogeneous to be found on the continent. It comprises all three of the great ethnic types described in our last paper, while most countries are content with two. Nay more, it still includes a goodly living representation of a prehistoric race which has disappeared almost everywhere else in Europe.