headed department of Yonne on the east. This latter district lies on the direct route over to Dijon and the Rhone Valley. Teutonic peoples have here penetrated toward the southeast, following the path of least resistance as always. Why, you will ask, is the Loiret about Orleans so much less Teutonic in type? The answer would appear were the country mapped in detail. The great forest of Orleans, a bit still being left at Fontainebleau, used to cover this little upland between the Seine and the Loire, east of Orleans. It was even until recently so thinly settled that it was known as the Gatinais, or wilderness. Its insular position is for this reason not at all strange. The Teutons have simply passed it by on either side. Those who did not go up the Seine and Yonne followed the course of the Loire. Here, then, is a parting of the ways down either side of Auvergne.
Another one of the best local examples illustrating this law that the Alpine stock is segregated in areas of isolation and of economic