Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/450

436 the Rhine, from the time of Attila to that of the Emperor William I. It is the strategic key to central Europe. The only other routes from France to Germany cut straight across the difficult Ardennes plateau, following either the valleys of the Meuse or the Moselle shown on our map. These valleys are both extremely fertile, but narrow and easy of defense. Sedancommands the one and Metz the other. This depression at Belfort has played quite a unique part in the natural history of Europe as well as in its military campaigns. It is the only route by which southern flora and fauna could penetrate to the north, since they could not traverse the Alpine highlands. The parallel is continued by the constant counter-migration of southern culture over the same way, evinced in archeeology and history. It is not surprising that in anthropology this Gap of Belfort should be equally important.

This Ardennes plateau is the core of a considerable population, which is primarily of the Alpine racial type. It is an anthropological table-land of broad-headedness, surrounded on every side except the south, where it touches the Alps, by more dolichocephalic populations. Turn for a moment to our map on page 440. Notice the wing of dark tint extending up to Luxemburg from Belfort. Observe how it is eroded on the east along the Rhine Valley, and toward Paris in the fertile plains of the Isle de France. In the recesses of the Vosges Mountains the cephalic index rises 87; in the valleys of the Meuse and the Moselle it falls to 83. The Germanic tribes in their ceaseless wanderings are the cause of that phenomenon beyond question. It is evident that for Teutonism to enter France, it must pass through the Gap of Belfort, around north through Flanders, or follow the valleys above mentioned. All three of these it has certainly done in the anthropological sense. It has overflowed along each of these channels, traversing the Alpine racial barrier. It has done even more. Its influence is manifest even in the nooks and byways. For the people of the whole region are well above the average French in stature. They are quite Teutonic in this respect. But the invaders have not been able to efface that most persistent trait of the primitive population—the broad, round head. Here, as in the Black Forest, just across the Rhine,