The A1 and A, blood groups were discovered by Thomsen, Freidenreich and Worsaae in 1930. BOYD (1950) has emphasized the anthropological importance of the A2 subgroup and points out that it seems to be present mainly in European and African populations. The A,-gene is evidently absent in many American and Asiatic populations. In his serological race classification, BOYD (1950), with some hesitation defines the Early European race as characterized, among other things, by a high A,-frequency. He also believes the Basques to be modern descendants of the Early European population; however, at that time only a small sample from the Basques was available. Later investigations (CHALMERS et al. 1949, NIJENHUIS 1956 and ALBERDI 1957, quoted by Mourant 1958) have shown that the A,-frequencies of the Basques are not remarkably high. A sample by Laughlin (1956, quoted by MOURANT 1958) shows a rather high Asfrequency, but this series shows a significant internal inconsistency. In 1952 ALLISON et al. demonstrated an amazingly high A2-frequency in Norwegian Lapps. The same condition was revealed in the Swedish Lapps (ALLISON et al. 1956). High A2-frequencies (exceeding seventeen per cent) have been found in the non-Lappish population of North Sweden (BECKMAN 1959). A fairly good picture of the variation of the A,-gene has been obtained