HUMAN PERIOD. 



forced up to its present elevation (220), which, according to 

 M. D'Orbigny, was simultaneous with that which forced up the 

 Chilian Andes, a chain which extends over a length of 3000 

 miles of the Western Continent, terminated the Tertiary age, and 

 preceded immediately the creation of the human race and its 

 concomitant tribes. The waters of the seas and oceans, lifted 

 from their heds by this immense perturbation, swept over the 

 continents with irresistible force, destroying instantaneously the 

 entire fauna aiid flora of the last Tertiary period, and burying its 

 ruins in the sedimentary deposits which ensued. 



553. By this dislocation, Europe underwent a complete change 

 of form. Among the most remarkable effects were the separation 

 of the British Isles from the mainland by the subsidence of the 

 land between Brittany and Normandy on the one side, and Corn- 

 wall and Devon on the other, and the consequent irruption of the 

 sea. The Mediterranean, separated from the ocean, enlarged its 

 limits by submerging a tract south of Marseille, which had 

 remained dry since the commencement of the Tertiary age. 

 Europe in general took its present form and relief, with the ex- 

 ception of some alluvial tracts, which at a more recent period 

 were raised above the waters, either by the disruption which 

 produced the system of Tsenarus (221) and raised Etna, Vesuvius, 

 and Santorini, or by other local disturbances of less importance, 

 such as partial earthquakes. 



554. Secondary effects followed, which have left their traces on 

 every part of the earth's surface. Rivers of immense magnitude 

 poured their streams from all the elevated summits over the sub- 

 jacent plains, spreading out from point to point of their course into 

 extensive lakes, on the bottoms of which they deposited those 

 alluvial strata of which so many examples are presented in the 

 valleys, plains, and provinces of all the great continents. In 

 Europe such deposits are seen in the valleys of the Rhine, the 

 Rhone, and other great rivers, on the great plain of Crau, in the 

 south of France, having an extent of fifty square leagues, on the 

 plain of Bavaria, and that which spreads itself out at the foot of 

 the Alps over the state of Lombardy and Venice. 



555. When the seas had settled into their new beds, and the 

 outlines of the land were permanently defined, the latest and 

 greatest act of creation was accomplished by clothing the earth 

 with the vegetation which now covers it, peopling the land and 

 water with the animal tribes which now exist, and calling into 

 being the human race, appointed to preside over all living things, 

 and to manifest the glory of the Creator by the development of 

 attributes so exalted, as to be described by the inspired author of 

 Genesis as rendering man in a certain sense the image of his Maker. 



153 



