114 THE STORY OP THE EARTH AND MAN. 



creeks swarmed with, fishes. A few sluggish reptiles 

 crept along the muddy or sandy shores, and out sea- 

 ward were great banks and reefs of coral and shells 

 in the clear blue sea. The whole aspect of nature, 

 taken in a general view, in the Older Carboniferous 

 period, must have much resembled that at present 

 seen among the islands of the southern hemisphere. 

 And the plants and animals, though different, were 

 more like those of the modern South Pacific than any 

 others now living. 



As the age wore on, the continents were slowly 

 lifted out of the water, and the great continental 

 plateaus were changed from coral seas into swampy 

 flats or low uplands, studded in many places with 

 shallow lakes, and penetrated with numerous creeks 

 and sluggish streams. In the eastern continent these 

 land surfaces prevailed extensively, more especially 

 in the west ; and in America they spread both east- 

 ward and westward from the Appalachian ridge, until 

 only a long north and south Mediterranean, running 

 parallel to the Eocky Mountains, remained of the 

 former wide internal ocean. On this new and low 

 land, comparable with the " Sylvas " of the South 

 American continent, flourished the wondrous vegeta- 

 tion of the Coal period, and were introduced the new 

 land animals, whose presence distinguishes the close 

 of the Palaeozoic. 



After a vast lapse of time, in which only slow and 

 gradual subsidence occurred, a more rapid settlement 

 of the continental areas brought the greater part of 



