Excerpt from The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1875

Malpropret� extreme. Hommes petite, maigres; teint brun, jaunatre; air maladif. Enfants ch�tifs, as d veloppant tout-ap coup de 16 a 20 ans; vieux a 40, d�passant rarement 50 ans. (the average of life in the Basses Pyrenees is 45 years.) Fievre intermittente end�mique; type tierce ls plus frequent; rate hypertrophi�e a nu degr� monstrueux, pesant que quefois 15 lnlog., sans d�g�n�rescance, &c. All this results from malaria, and from drinking the water of the marshes, which cover almost the whole department. Surely no fair comparison can be made between a' population under these abnormal conditions and others under normal and healthy ones. Thus, then, we have the fact that the departments from which, according to theory, the Basques must have last retired, and the department, part of which they actually inhabit, classed, not among the noirs, but among the d�partements gris. What, then, becomes of the theory that a dark complexion, with its accompanying lowness of stature, is derived from the Basques alone P N ext let us examine whether the Basques are lower in stature and darker than the rest of the population of their own de art ment, the Basses Pyrenees. First we observe that the northern frontier of this department is conterminous with that of the Landes, and that the geological formation of this department extends for a few miles into the Basses Pyrenees; consequently, we should be prepared to find the population of that part of the department as dark as that of the Landes, and, therefore, to bring the whole department under the range of gris, the southern portion must be more than usually fair. As to one of the three divisions - Labourd, Basse Navarre, and La Soule into which the Pays B ue is divided, the testimony is unani mous. Every observer ows that the Souletins are fair and tall. A trustworthy informant assures us that at a astorale layed at Licq all the actors were up to, or approac �ng six geet, and these would all belong to the village or commune alone. This district, La Soule, is the one most remote from the sea, and from the great roads. In the other two districts, though the difference in height is not so marked in them, there can be no doubt that both Labourdin and Bas Nayarrais are somewhat taller both than the average F renchman and than the inhabitants of the adj acent plains.' N owhere could this be better seen than at the assembling of the Mobiles at Bayonne.

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