204 
THE TERTIARY AGE, AND 
convulsions. The Pyrenees, the Apennines, the 
Alps, and with them the whole range of the Cau- 
casus and Himalayas, were raised either immedi- 
ately after the Cretaceous epoch, or in the course 
of the Tertiaries. Indeed, with this most signifi- 
cant passage in her history, Europe acquired all 
her essential characters. There remained, it is 
true, much to be done in what is called by geolo- 
gists “ modern times.” The work of the artist is 
not yet finished when his statue is blocked out 
and the grand outline of his conception stands 
complete ; and there still remained, after the 
earth was rescued from the water, after her 
framework of mountains was erected, after her 
soil was clothed with field and forest, processes 
by which her valleys were to be made more fruit- 
ful, her gulfs to be filled with the rich detritus 
poured into them by the rivers, her whole surface 
to he rendered more habitable for the higher 
races who were to possess it. 
We left America at the close of the Carbonifer- 
ous epoch. A glance at the geological map will 
show the reader that during the Permian, Trias- 
sic, and Jurassic epochs little was added to the 
United States, though here and there deposits be- 
longing to each of them crop out. In the Creta- 
ceous epoch, however, large tracts of land were 
accumulated, chiefly in the South and West ; and 
during the Tertiaries the continent was very 
