The horse, the elephant, the
camel, the pig, the deer, the rhinoceros gradually emerge out of
the chaos of evolving forms. Behind them, hastening the course of
their evolution, improving their speed, arms, and armour, is the
inevitable carnivore. He, too, in the abundance of food, grows
into a vast population, and branches out toward familiar types.
We will devote a chapter presently to this remarkable phase of
the story of evolution.
But the golden age closes, as all golden ages had done before it,
and for the same reason. The land begins to rise, and cast the
warm shallow seas from its face. The expansion of life has been
more rapid and remarkable than it had ever been before, in
corresponding periods of abundant food and easy conditions; the
contraction comes more quickly than it had ever done before.
Mountain masses begin to rise in nearly all parts of the world.
The advance is slow and not continuous, but as time goes on the
Atlas, Alps, Pyrenees, Apennines, Caucasus, Himalaya, Rocky
Mountains, and Andes rise higher and higher. When the geologist
looks to-day for the floor of the Eocene ocean, which he
recognises by the shells of the Nummulites, he finds it 10,000
feet above the sea-level in the Alps, 16,000 feet above the
sea-level in the Himalaya, and 20,000 feet above the sea-level in
Thibet.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350