BRITTANY, or BRETAGNE, bre•tfl'ny' (from the Bretons, its inhabitants). A penin sula of triangular form in the northwest of Frame, anciently a Roman province, subse quently a duchy, afterwards again a province, and now comprised in the departments of Finis tere, Cotes-du-Nord, Mo•bilutn. Loire-Inf6rieure, and Ille-et-Vilaine. It has the English Channel on the north, the Bay of Biscay on the south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The boundaries on the land side are the old provinces of Nor mandy, Maine. Anjou, and Poitou. The ancient duchy was diagonally divided from northwest to southeast into the Haute and Basse Bretagne (Upper and Lower Brittany), the capitals of which were respectively Rennes and Vannes. The coast generally rises in rugged and lofty cliffs, but is indented with numerous bays which afford ample commercial advantages. Saint-Malo, Saint Brieuc. Brest, Quimper, Lorient, and Nantes are important seaports. From the Montag,nes d'.Ar rk and the Montagnes Noires, masses of gran ite in the northwest, the modern designation of COtes-du-Nord —Northwest Hills—is derived. While not exceeding a height of 1280 feet, they give to the peninsula a bold and imposing appear ance. The centre of the country is formed chiefly of clay slate. The scenery is varied and beauti ful, and although the winter months are marked by fogs and violent wind-storms, the climate gen erally is dry, bracing, healthful, and favored with much sunshine.
Large tracts of land lie uncultivated; but in the well-watered valleys, along the numerous rivers, and especially in the northern parts, mod ern methods yield abundant crops of all kinds, railway and steamboat transportation facilities giving a great impetus to agriculture. In the
west and southwest agriculture is still in a primitive state, and there the tenacity with which the Breton clings to the customs and be liefs of his forefathers is especially apparent by his retention of the Celtic language rich in folk lore and an individual literature, and by his quaint, picturesque, and multi-colored costume of the Sixteenth Century, always in evidence on Sundays, and at festivals and fairs. The legends and traditions of the marvelous which still in fluence the simple. superstitious native nature. are enhanced by the stupendous megalithic monu ments of the paleolithie age which abound on the plains of Carnae, at Locmariaquer, Dol, and other localities throughout the region—relics of the pagan religion which existed as late as the Seventeenth Century, ritual traces of which se cretly survive in remote parts. The Bretons are an Alpine or Celtic people, classed by Deniker, Races of Europe (1900). as dark, very brachy cephalic, and short, and called by him the Western or C'venole race (cranial index. 82.7; height. 1.63 metres). They have brown or black hair, light or dark-brown eyes, rounded faces and thick-set figures. Traversed by railroads and fine highways, Brittany is a great resort for tourists—cyclists and automobilists especially being attracted by the combination of beautiful scenery and the archaic atmosphere of ancient monuments• castles, cathedrals, churches, and picturesque, if not particularly clean, villages.