A distant spectator at that time would have
observed the rise of a chain of mountains in Scotland and a
general emergence of land north-western Europe. A continent
stretched from Ireland to Scandinavia and North Russia, while
most of the rest of Europe, except large areas of Russia, France,
Germany, and Turkey, was under the sea. Where we now find our
Alps and Pyrenees towering up to the snow-line there were then
level stretches of ocean. Even the north-western continent was
scooped into great inland seas or lagoons, which stretched from
Ireland to Scandinavia, and, as we saw, fostered the development
of the fishes.
As the Devonian period progressed the sea gained on the land, and
must have restricted the growth of vegetation, but as the lake
deposits now preserve the remains of the plants which grow down
to their shores, or are washed into them, we are enabled to
restore the complexion of the landscape. Ferns, generally of a
primitive and generalised character, abound, and include the
ferns such as we find in warm countries to-day. Horsetails and
Club-mosses already grow into forest-trees. There are even
seed-bearing ferns, which give promise of the higher plants to
come, but as yet nothing approaching our flower and fruit-bearing
trees has appeared.
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