File:Evolution and its relation to religious thought (1888) (14577159870).jpg

Identifier: evolutionitsrela00leco (find matches)
Title: Evolution and its relation to religious thought
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: LeConte, Joseph, 1823-1901
Subjects: Evolution Religion and science
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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separatio7i.Madagascar, for example, has been long separated fromits parent continent, and by a wide and deep channel.Its fauna, therefore, differs greatly from that of Africa,although resembling it more than that of any othercountry. The separation of JVciv Zealand from Aus-tralia has been not quite so long, and the divergence,therefore, is not so great. These two will be sufficientillustrative examples of long separation, and thereforeof great differentiation of forms. On the other hand, the British Isles are an excellentexample of comparatively recent separation. These isleshave probably been several times united and separatedfrom Europe, but we are here concerned only with themore recent. They are now separated from the conti-nent and from one another only by shallow seas. An PROOFS FROM GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 191 elevation of less than six hundred feet—geologically ayerv small chaiis^e—would bare the bottoms of the Irishand English Channels and the North Sea, and connect
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Fig. 67.—Map of outline of coast of Western Europe, if elevated 600 feet (after Ljcll). 192 EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF EVOLUTION. these islands with one another and with the continent(Fig. 67). Now, it is well known that there were dur-ing the Glacial epoch, and subsequently, several oscilla-tions of level sufficient to connect and separate theseislands. In the mid-Glacial ei:»och the British Islands,by submergence, were nearly obliterated, being reducedto an archipelago of small islets representing the highmountains of Wales and Scotland. The Pliocene faunaand flora were, therefore, largely exterminated. Duringthe close of that epoch they were elevated above thepresent condition and broadly connected with the con-tinent (Fig. 67), and the newly-exposed land was takenpossession of by European species, man among the num-ber. Still later—i. e., at the beginning of the presentepoch—the islands by subsidence were again separated,but not widely, from the continent. This is the condi-

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