268 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



From the careful examination of Europe, as it now 

 exists, we also learn that the elevation was most con- 

 siderable in the middle of Europe, extending thence 

 to the western part of England along what is now its 

 southern coast ; marked by a parallel movement in 

 the line of the Pyrenees, the corresponding range on 

 the east coast of the Adriatic, and the Caucasus, and 

 producing land inclosing lakes of fresh water in what 

 is now the Grecian Archipelago. 



It appears, also, that these disturbances were conti- 

 nued until the close of the middle tertiary period in cen- 

 tral Europe, and probably much later in the Caucasus, 

 while they have, perhaps, scarcely yet ceased in the 

 central parts of Asia. They were, however, much 

 earlier concluded in England, and were there suc- 

 ceeded by a long period of tranquillity, our own 

 island being elevated above the sea, and receiving 

 very slow additions, chiefly on its eastern coast. 



In examining the Geology of the tertiary period 

 we are fortunate enough to find a chain of evidence 

 informing us not only of the existence of land, but of 

 the nature of the vegetation that clothed it, and the 

 animals that inhabited it. This evidence commences 

 even before the beginning of the great disruption 

 which brought up the Weald, and it lasts not only 

 through the period of that disturbance, but afterwards 

 to much later times. Owing, however, to the pre- 

 valence of causes which did not permit the preserva- 

 tion of organic remains, we have less evidence with 

 regard to some of the later periods than to those of 

 earlier date. There seems no doubt that the marine 



of England, was north-east and south-west. The Alps form the central or 

 culminating point, and are transverse to the main direction of the period. 



