ANCIENT CONTINENTS. 



343 



Summary and Conclusion. 



Let us now briefly review the conclusions at wliich we 

 have arrived. If we look back to remote Tertiary times, 

 we shall probably find that all our great continents and 

 oceans were then in existence, and even bore a general 

 resemblance to the forms and outlines now so familiar 

 to us. But in many details, and especially in their 

 amount of communication with each other, we should 

 observe important changes. The first thing we should 

 notice would be a more complete separation of the 

 northern and the southern continents. Now, there is 

 only one completely detached southern land — Australia ; 

 but at that period Africa and South America were also 

 vast islands or archipelagos, completely separated from 

 their sister continents. Examining them more closely, 

 we should observe that the great Euro-Asiatic continent 

 had a considerable extension to the south-east, over what 

 are now the shallow seas of Japan, China, and Java. In 

 the south-west it would include Northern Africa, the 

 Mediterranean then forming two inland seas ; while to 

 the west and north-west it would include the British 

 Isles, and perhaps extend even to Iceland and Greenland. 

 As a balance to these extensions, much of Northern Siberia 

 and North -Western Asia may have been under water ; 

 the peninsula of India would be an island with a con- 

 siderable south-west extension over what are now the 

 Laccadive and Maldive coral-reefs. The Himalayas 

 would be a moderate range of hills ; the great desert 

 plateau of Central Asia a fertile plain ; the greater 

 part of the continent would enjoy a tropical or sub- 



