"This was, indeed, for America, _the golden age_ of animals and
plants, and in all respects but one--the absence of man--the country
was more interesting and picturesque than now. We must imagine,
therefore, that the hills and valleys about the present site of New
York were covered with noble trees, and a dense undergrowth of
species, for the most part different from those now living there; and
that these were the homes and feeding-grounds of many kinds of
quadrupeds and birds, which have long since become extinct. The broad
plain which sloped gently seaward from the highlands must have been

{p. 44}

covered with a sub-tropical forest of-giant trees and tangled vines
teeming with animal life. This state of things doubtless continued
through many thousands of years, but ultimately a change came over
the fair face of Nature more complete and terrible than we have
language to describe."[1]

Another says:

"At the close of the Tertiary age, which ends the long series of
geological epochs previous to the Quaternary, the landscape of Europe
had, in the main, assumed its modern appearance. The middle era of
this age--the Miocene--was characterized by tropical plants, a varied
and imposing fauna, and a genial climate, so extended as to nourish
forests of beeches, maples, _walnuts_, poplars, and _magnolias in
Greenland and Spitzbergen_, while an exotic vegetation hid the
exuberant valleys of England."[2]

Dr. Dawson says: