OF CREATION. 345 



The Himalayas, and the mountains which now 

 connect that chain with Persia, were, however, it is 

 probable, even then indicated by a chain of islands, 

 and did not till a much later period become elevated 

 into a mountain range. The sands and other rocks, 

 which, by slight undulations of the surface, had been 

 deposited in great thickness on what are now the 

 flanks of this range, and which received and buried 

 vast multitudes of the bones and other remains of the 

 inhabitants of the land, were then lifted up, and par- 

 took both of the main elevatory movement which 

 lifted the plains of India, and of the local disruption 

 which produced the mountain chain. 



The elevation which commenced in the Himalayan 

 region did not at once disturb the formation of de- 

 posits a little further to the south. These seem to 

 have been continued without interruption far into 

 what may be considered the modern period ; and yet, 

 after these, there occurred changes in this part of 

 the world of the most gigantic nature, resulting in the 

 outpouring of vast quantities of lava, and the eleva- 

 tion of the singular chain of the western Ghauts of 

 India. Scarcely any distinctly marine deposits of a 

 late tertiary period have yet been recognized in this 

 part of the world. 



These movements, described in so few words, were 

 doubtless going on for many thousands and tens of 

 thousands of revolutions of our planet. They were 

 accompanied also by vast but slow changes of other 

 kinds. The great plains of Tartary, the whole of 

 Siberia, and many parts of north-western Europe, 

 were then undergoing elevation. The inhabitants of 

 a tropical or warm temperate continent extended into 



Q5 



