258 



Physical Geography. 



during the Eocene epoch, when our land formed part of 

 a continent differing in many great details from modern 

 Europe, which, in its physical geography, underwent 

 most important modifications, both before and during 

 the deposition of the Miocene strata. Other great 

 local changes afterwards brought the Miocene epoch to 

 a close. I use such terms as these for want of better, 

 for since the beginning of geological time, no epoch had 

 either a definite beginning or a definite end, and, in a 

 world- wide scale, the various epochs merged into each 

 other like the colours in a rainbow, or the so-called 

 epochs of the history of nations, which have only a local 

 significance, when they are taken in connection with the 

 history of the whole human race. 



