Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/459

Rh dolichocephaly; for two very light-colored areas surround each city, the two being separated by a narrow strip of darker tint upon our map. Along this latter line the cephalic index rises appreciably. Thus, for example, while only 78 about Limoges, and 76 or 77 in Dordogne, it rises on this boundary line to 80 and 81. In other words, a bridge of relative broad headedness cuts across the map, setting apart the descendants of the Lemovices, at Limoges, from those of their contemporaries, the Petrocorii, about Périgueux. This means that we have to do with two distinct spots of long-headedness—a small one about Limoges, and a major



one extending all about Périgueux and Angouléme. There can be no doubt about this division. The boundary is a purely natural one, and deserves a moment's attention.

This frontier between Haute-Vienne and Dordogne lies along the crest of the so-called "hills of Limousin," made familiar to us already in another connection. It marks the watershed between the two great river systems of western France, the Garonne and the Loire. Our stature map of Limousin indicates the courses of these streams. Here is a true parting of the waters; for the Charente flows directly to the sea on the west; the affluents of the Loire run to the north; and the Vézère, part of the system of the Garonne, to the south. These hills of Limousin are the western outposts of the granitic area of Auvergne; and just here