2 THE FOREST AGES 



human child. It only remains for man to 

 shut this creature up in a box, and then cut 

 off his tail. 



Horse Ancestors. — ^To find the origin of 

 the horse, one must trace back to the Sixth 

 Day of the Creation, a period known to science 

 as the Dawn of Times Present. The lands 

 and seas were not arranged as in our maps, for 

 there was a Continent on the site of the North 

 Atlantic, and broad seas rolled over the areas 

 now filled by Europe and North America. The 

 cHmate, too, was different, for except along 

 the Equator, the skies were rarely clear, but 

 very cloudy, with enormous rains. The air 

 was that of a hot-house, and, even at the poles, 

 trees such as the magnolia slept through the 

 winter night, and flowered in the warmth of 

 the summer day. Except to leeward of big 

 continents and mountains the lands of the 

 whole earth were a continuous forest. 



That was the closing phase of the long Age 

 of Dragons. The principal beasts of the sea, 

 the land and the air were reptiles who laid 

 and hatched eggs instead of giving birth to 

 living children. Few of them were so large 

 as the elephants and whales of our own time, 

 the greatest were already extinct, but still 

 there were enough uncouth and monstrous 



