Permian and Triassic epochs were unimportant in the
physical and organic history of Europe. A glance at any geological map
of Europe will show the reader how the Belgian island stretched
gradually in a southwesterly direction during the Permian epoch,
approaching the coast of France by slowly increasing accumulations, and
thus filling the Burgundian channel; a wide border of Permian deposits
around the coal-field of Great Britain marks the increase of this region
also during the same time, and a very extensive tract of a like
character is to be seen in Russia. The latter is, however, still under
doubt and discussion among geologists, and more recent investigations
tend to show that this Russian region, supposed at first to be
exclusively Permian, is at least in part Triassic.

With the coming in of the Triassic epoch began the great deposits of Red
Sandstone, Muschel-Kalk, and Keuper, in Central Europe. They united the
Belgian island to the region of the Vosges and the Black Forest, while
they also filled to a great extent the channel between Belgium and the
Bohemian island. Thus the land slowly gained upon the Triassic ocean,
shutting it within ever-narrowing limits, and preparing the large inland
seas so characteristic of the later Secondary times. The character of
the organic world still retained a general resemblance to that of the
Carboniferous epoch. Among Radiates, the Corals were more nearly allied
to those of the earlier ages than to those of modern times, and Crinoids
abounded still, though some of the higher Echinoderm types were already
introduced. Among Mollusks, the lower Bivalves, that is, the Brachiopods
and Bryozoa, still prevailed, while Ammonites continued to be very
numerous, differing from the earlier ones chiefly in the ever-increasing
complications of their inner partitions, which become so deeply
involuted and cut upon their margins, before the type disappears, as to
make an intricate tracery of very various patterns on the surface of
these shells. The most conspicuous type of Articulates continues as
before to be that of Crustacea; but Trilobites have finished their
career, and the Lobster-like Crustacea make their appearance for the
first time. It does not seem that the class of Insects has greatly
increased since the Carboniferous epoch; and Worms are still as
difficult to trace as ever, being chiefly known by the cases in which
they sheltered themselves. Among Vertebrates, the Fishes still res