LAND AND WATER 25 



without a break from that part of Africa south of the Sahara 

 to South America on the one hand, and to India and the north 

 of Australia on the other ; this was the Equatorial or Gondwana 

 continent. The transversal sea covered all Europe except 

 Scandinavia and the north of Africa. In this vast channel 

 called the Central Mediterranean by Neumayer, the Mesogean 

 by M. Douville, and Tethys by Suess, a transversal island 

 emerged consisting of Italy, the Balkan countries, and Southern 

 Russia. This sea then became shallower and there emerged 1 

 Wales, Holland, Normandy and the Ardennes region, Morvan, 

 the southern part of the Central Plateau with the Vosges, 

 Franconia united to Bohemia, Italy, the Balkan countries, 

 the Caucasian region, comprising the south of Russia and the 

 Urals — all forming as many islands separated by shallow 

 channels. The straits between the Gallo-Dutch and the 

 Ardenno-Norman islands were occupied by warm and limpid 

 waters. Coral reefs x bordered the coasts already established, 

 though more to the west, during the Devonian period. These 

 limpid waters created the Dinantian or " mountain lime- 

 stones ". To the south of the Gallo-Dutch island there 

 was another strait separating it from Morvan and the Central 

 Plateau. The southern border of this strait was the seat of great 

 volcanic activity and was probably dominated by high 

 mountains, whose erosion products, mixed with carboniferous 

 substance, are found everywhere at their feet. Not long after, 

 these newly emerged islands became covered by magnificent 

 vegetation, the debris of which accumulated in the straits 

 and drove out the corals. It was at this time that the coal- 

 bearing areas of Scotland, the rich coalbeds of Lothian and 

 of Dalkeith, and those of northern France and Belgium were 

 successively laid down. Whereas in Silesia, where four arms of 

 the sea converged, a vast chain of mountains arose which was 

 at once subjected to intense erosion, which filled the geosyncline 

 situated at the base of the chain, and on the point of sinking 

 at the time, with debris to a depth of 14,000 metres. A similar 

 basin was formed in the neighbourhood of Moscow (Map III). 

 Mountains, however, continued to rise. The Hercynian 

 chain extended across Spain, the Central Plateau, Brittany, 

 the Vosges, the Black Forest, and Saxony. There were glaciers 



1 Dinantian. 



