The Nummulites become smaller and less
abundant. There is also some upheaval in North America, and a
bridge of land begins to connect the north and south, and permit
an effective mingling of their populations. But the advance is,
as I said, suspended, and the Oligocene period maintains the
golden age. With the Miocene period the land resumes its rise. A
chill is felt along the American coast, showing a fall in the
temperature of the Atlantic. In Europe there is a similar chill,
and a more obvious reason for it. There is an ascending movement
of the whole series of mountains from Morocco and the Pyrenees,
through the Alps, the Caucasus, and the Carpathians, to India and
China. Large lakes still lie over Western Europe, but nearly the
whole of it emerges from the ocean. The Mediterranean still sends
an arm up France, and with another arm encircles the Alpine mass;
but the upheaval continues, and the great nummulitic sea is
reduced to a series of extensive lakes, cut off both from the
Atlantic and Pacific. The climate of Southern Europe is probably
still as genial as that of the Canaries to-day. Palms still
linger in the landscape in reduced numbers.
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