The last part of the Tertiary, the Pliocene, opens with a slight
return of the sea. The upheaval is once more suspended, and the
waters are eating into the land. There is some foundering of land
at the south-western tip of Europe; the "Straits of Gibraltar"
begin to connect the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, and the
Balearic Islands, Corsica, and Sardinia remain as the mountain
summits of a submerged land. Then the upheaval is resumed, in
nearly every part of the earth.
Nearly every great mountain chain that the geologist has studied
shared in this remarkable movement at the end of the Tertiary
Era. The Pyrenees, Alps, Himalaya, etc., made their last ascent,
and attained their present elevation. And as the land rose, the
aspect of Europe and America slowly altered. The palms, figs,
bamboos, and magnolias disappeared; the turtles, crocodiles,
flamingoes, and hippopotamuses retreated toward the equator. The
snow began to gather thick on the rising heights; then the
glaciers began to glitter on their flanks. As the cold increased,
the rivers of ice which flowed down the hills of Switzerland,
Spain, Scotland, or Scandinavia advanced farther and farther over
the plains.
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