" IN THE BEGINNING." 83 



and to trace them, as may frequently be done, above the 

 present sea-mark, into fossil-beds filled with the remains 

 of existing species. Following up these deposits further, 

 we gradually find, by the introduction of new forms, 

 which no longer exist in a living state on our shores, 

 that we are challenging the videttes which stand senti- 

 nel to another territory, inhabited by a different race of 

 beings. And thus we are led, step by step, and often 

 insensibly, far back into the dreamy regions of the early 

 history of our planet ; into times and seasons when the 

 sun looked down on no dwelling of man, but when his 

 beams gave life to countless tribes of creatures whose 

 race is now run, and whose half-told tale is found written 

 in the earth or the rock. If their race be extinct and 

 their glory departed, at least they live in marble, and 

 human greatness can often boast no more. Finally, we 

 reach a time when the waves of a primeval sea sounded 

 hollow on a naked shore, and no ear listened to their 

 music. 



" Sky, sun, and sea, were all the universe ; 

 The sky, one blue interminable arch, 

 Without a breeze, a wing, a cloud ; the sun 

 Sole in the firmament, but in the deep 

 Redoubled ; where the circle of the sea, 

 Invisible with calmness, seemed to lie, 

 Within the hollow of a lower heaven." 



MONTGOMERY. 



