Part of the traffic is diverted into the Irish Sea to Liverpool, or into the Bay of Biscay to Bordeaux, hut far the larger part crowds into the English Channel and passes the Straits of Dover.
From eastern and southern Asia, from Australia, the East Indies, and the east coast of Africa, the traffic is drawn as by a magnet toward the intense commercial and industrial activity of the North Sea region.
Passing through the Suez Canal, the traffic finds it easier to make a detour by water to the west through the Straits of Gibraltar rather than travel overland; most of it keeps steadily on its way to the North Sea region. A small side stream flows up the Adriatic Sea to Trieste and Fiume where the low mountains allow it to pass over to Vienn on the outer edge of the region of greatest activity. A somewhat large portion stops in Italy. At Marseilles another portion seeks the land but part of even this moves up the Rhone Valley, another of the natura channels which lead to the North Sea region.
Inland waterways as well as land routes and ocean waterway converge upon the regions near the North Sea. The Seine and Marne, the Rhine, Elbe, and Vistula all flow in general toward the North Sea center. The more directly they flow in this direction, the heavier their traffic. The Rhine in proportion to its size is the greatest hing distance carrier of traffic among the rivers of the world. Thus the topography of Europe, more than that of any other continent, invites traffic toward the regions of greatest activity.
(4) The Good Fortune of Europe in its Mineral Deposits.—The parts of Europe near the North Sea are among the most favored regions of the world in mineral resources as well as in climate, oceanic relations, and topography. Scattered here and there on the borders of the British plain with outliers in southern Scotland and northern Ireland, are deposits of fine coal. The formations which contain this coal appear to extend eastward under the North Sea, for they reappear in Belgium, northern France, the Saar Basin and the German Ruhr coal field near Dortmund and Essen. Farther east the great manufacturing centers of Chemnitz, Breslau and others depend on neighboring coal fields, while in upper Silesia, where Germany joins Poland and Czecho-Slovakia, lies another coal region. Still farther east, in the Donetz Basin north of the Sea of Azov the same general formation reappears. Aside from this interrupted band extending roughly from Wales to southern Russia there is little good coal in Europe, that near Moscow for exam ple being of a poor quality. Not far from the coal, especially in Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, lie deposits of iron. This combination of i the two most valuable minerals in the very region where the other main geographical conditions are most favorable has been an extraordinary stimulus to manufacturing and transportation.
Although Europe is relatively poor in mineral resources aside from coal and iron, those which it possesses are well exploited. The north western mountains seem to contain practically no ores except the fine iron of northern Sweden. The southern peninsulas contain the iron of northern Spain and a great variety of other minerals. These other
minerals have been so well developed that Europe, including the Ural Mountains, provides about 90 per cent of the world's platinum, potash, and magnesite, about 80 per cent of the mercury, 60 per cent of the graphite, and not far from half of the salt, bauxite, saltpetre, and zinc. These, however, are of small importance compared with the fact that normally Europe produces about half the world's coal and more than half the iron. No other region of similar size has so fortunate a com bination of a fine supply of coal and iron, a climate good for both man and agriculture, abundant level lands of high fertility, a relief which concentrates the lines of transportation upon the very region where the climate, relief, and minerals are most favorable, and wonderful facilities for ocean transportation which bring the trade of the world to the area where the other geographical advantages are concentrated.
i (5) The Commingling of Races in Europe.—To the physical ad vantages of Europe must be added those of race. Most people think their own race the best. They also suppose that racial inheritance can overcome the effects of a bad environment indefinitely. How far this is true is not yet know ii, hut one or two things are clear. The European or white races almost certainly inherit greater mental capacity than the aboriginal red race of the Americas, or than the black races of southern Asia, and Australia. How the inherited capacity of the white races compares with that of what are sometimes called the brown races including the Arabs and Hindus, and of the yellow races including the Chinese and Japanese has not definitely been determined. This much, however, seems fairly certain; the European races have now for a long time had the advantage of a better physical environment than any others except perhaps the Japanese. This environment has played a part in giving them the advantage of unusual racial energy and alertness. Nevertheless there are marked racial differences in different parts of Europe. Fair-haired, aggressive Nordics, the kind of people who seem to have the strongest tendency to make inventions and plan great schemes, predominate in Scandinavia and all the regions bordering the North and Baltic Seas. Broadheaded Alpines, a people who are generally regarded as patient, persistent, and relatively sub missive occupy most of Russia, the Balkan regions, and the highlands of central Europe. They are the kind of people who, when once an idea has been proposed or a plan of operations has been started, have special capacity to carry out its details and to stick to the often tiresome repetition and regulations which are necessary to bring an idea to its perfect fruit. Farther south the three peninsulas and also the western parts of France and Britain are predominantly occupied by dark Mediterranean people among whom the poetic and artistic temperament is unusually common. To a high degree they have the capacity for enthusiasm and for making friends.