EXTINCT ANIMALS 



land. Even the smaller change would make Eng- 

 land part of the Continent of Europe. 



The study of extinct animals found in the 

 various strata of the earth enables one to 

 arrive at a notion of the distribution of land 

 and water in past time. Here is an arrange- 

 ment of land and water which we are able 

 to conclude must have existed in Europe in 

 what is called the Middle Tertiary period (Fig. 

 27). All this darker part is the sea, and the 

 pale part land : in fact, the distribution is 

 quite different from what it is at the present 

 time. The whole surface of the earth has 

 been shifting and changing all through time. 

 During the millions and millions of years of 

 past ages, different seas have arisen, different 

 continents, different dry land and different 

 animals, — changed by the various influences of 

 the land and climate. And all this movement 

 is accomplished by the slow cracking and " curl- 

 ing " of the earth's crust, by the continual wash- 

 ing of the surface of the land by rain and rivers, 

 by the eating away of the edge of the land by the 

 waves of the sea. This " eating away " of the 

 land by the sea — quite apart from any sinking 

 of the land-level — has caused and is yearly 



42 



