582 



CENOZOIC TIME. 



the Caucasus. The now extinct Bos primigenius is supposed to be the same with the 

 Urus (Ure-Ox, or Bos Urus, described by Caesar in his Commentaries, and stated to 

 abound in the Gallic forests, ) and is a distinct species from the Aurochs, with which it 

 has been confounded. It is said to have continued in Switzerland into the sixteenth 

 century. 



The American Buffalo {Bos Americanus Gm.) formerly covered the eastern part of 

 the continent, to the Atlantic, and extended south into Florida, Texas, and Mexico ; but 

 now it is never seen east of the Missouri, excepting its northern portion ; and its main 

 range is between the Upper Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, and from northern 

 Texas and New Mexico to Great Martin Lake in latitude 64° N. (Baird.) 



The spread of the farms and settlements of civilization is gradually limiting, all over 

 the globe, the range of the wild animals, especially those of large size, and must end in 

 the extermination of many now existing. 



Dr. Asa Gray says that the giant Sequoia or Redwood of California is sure to become 

 extinct as a native plant, and adds: "Few and evil are the days of all the forest likely 

 to be, while Man, both barbarian and civilized, torments them with fires, fatal at once 

 to seedlings, and at length to the aged also." 



3. Changes of level in the Earth's surface. — Although the earth 

 has now reached a state of comparative stability, changes of level in 

 the land are still taking place. The movements are of two kinds : — 



1. Secular, or movements progressing slowly by the century. 



2. Paroxysmal, — taking place suddenly, in connection usually with 

 earthquakes. 



1. Secular. — The secular movements which have been observed 

 are confined to the middle and higher temperate latitudes, and are 

 evidently a continuation of the series which characterized the earlier 

 part of the Quaternary age. 



The coasts of Sweden and Finland, on the Baltic, have been proved, 

 by marks made under the direction of the Swedish government, to be 

 slowly rising. The change is slight at Stockholm, but increases 

 northward, and is felt even at the North Cape, — an extent, north and 

 south, of one thousand miles. Lyell, in 1834, estimated the rise, at 

 Uddevalla, at nearly or quite four feet in a century, and made it still 

 greater to the north. The fact of the slow elevation was first sus- 

 pected a century and a half since. Here, then, is slow movement by 

 the century, such as characterized the great changes of level in past 

 ages. 



Beds of recent shells are found along the coast at many places, 

 at heights from 100 to 700 feet. Part of these are of Quaternary 

 date. Two miles north of Uddevalla, Lyell found barnacles on the 

 rocks, over 100 feet above the sea ; and there are shell-beds at a height 

 of 400 feet. The former, at least, belong probably to the present era. 

 Southwest of Stockholm, other beds of shells occur, and of the same 

 dwarfish species that now live in the partly-freshened waters of the 

 Bothnian Gulf. 



There are also, near Stockholm, proofs of a former subsidence, 



