The Alpine race is a reduced Upper Palaeolithic survivor; Alpines are as a rule of but medium stature, and lateral in bodily build; their heads of moderate size and globular; their faces characteristically round and their facial features slightly infantile. Their pigmentation ranges from blond to brunet, but is usually intermediate. The Alpines represent a reëmergence of a brachycephalized and partially foetalized Palaeolithic survival in the central highland and forest zone of Europe and Asia, all the way from the Pyrenees to the Pamirs. Alpines are at the root of all or nearly all the brachycephalic racial types throughout this entire expanse of territory. The Alpine territorial distribution is not the result of an invasion or expansion, but of a parallel set of emergences. In Europe, southern Germany is the seat of one of the greatest Alpine concentrations in the continent. The best place in the world to find Alpines is in a Bavarian restaurant; that is where all four individuals on this plate were photographed and measured.

FIG. 1 (3 views). A metrically and morphologically perfect Alpine, from Brandenburg.

FIG. 2 (3 views). A tall, curly-haired, and portly Alpine from the Hirschenberg, near Miesbach, Upper Bavaria; this individual might be considered the quintessence of a Bavarian.

FIG. 3 (3 views). An Alpine from the Black Forest, Baden.

FIG. 4 (3 views). An Alpine from the Spreewald, of German, not Wendish, origin. The low brachycephalic index, and the relative fineness of the facial features indicate a tendency in a Nordic direction.