THE GROWTH OF CONTINENTS. 143 
us now give a glance at Europe in those early 
days, and see how far her physical history has 
advanced. What European countries loom up 
for us out of the Azoic sea, corresponding in 
time and character to the low range of hills 
which first defined the northern boundary of the 
United States ? what did the Silurian and Devo- 
nian epochs add to these earliest tracts of dry 
land in the Old W orld ? and where do we find 
the coal basins which show us the sites of her 
Carboniferous forests? Since the relation be- 
tween the epochs of comparative tranquillity and 
the successive upheavals has been so carefully 
traced in Europe, I will endeavor, while giving a 
sketch of that early European world, to point out, 
at the same time, the connection of the different 
systems of upheaval with the successive stratified 
deposits, without, however, entering into such 
details as must necessarily become technical and 
tedious. 
In the European ocean of the Azoic epoch wo 
find five islands of considerable size. The largest 
of these is at the North. Scandinavia had even 
then almost her present outlines ; for Norway, 
Sweden, Finland, and Lapland, all of which are 
chiefly granitic in character, were among the first 
lands to be raised. Between Sweden and Nor- 
way there is, however, still a large tract of land 
under water, forming an extensive lake or a large 
