Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/306

294 as well. A cross in the core of Auvergne in each case; the Rhine shown in the northeast; the location of Paris, Lyons, Belfort, etc., will enable the reader to keep them all in line at once.

Earlier in our work we have seen that the several physical traits which betoken race vary considerably in their power of resistance to environmental influences. This resistant power is greatest in the-head form; less so in the pigmentation and stature. As we are now studying races, let us turn to our most competent witness first. It will be remembered, from a preceding pa per, that we measure the proportions of New England.

For the farmer, it is more suited to the cultivation of religious propensities than to products of a more material kind. It is the least capable of defense of the three areas of isolation; but it redeems its reputation by its peninsular position. It is off the main line. It is its remoteness from the pathways of invasion by land which has been its ethnic salvation.

In order to show the effect which this varied environment, above described, has exerted upon the racial character of the French people, we have arranged a series of three parallel maps in the following pages, showing the exact distribution of the main physical traits. For purposes of comparison certain cities are located upon them all alike, including even the map of physical geography