RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST AROUND KANSAS CITY.—IIL 651 



ing, hissing, and startling screams as if all the menageries of the world had been 

 turned loose in this place, and, as the mist cleared away I saw a wonderful scene. 

 Eefore me lay a vast lake, or inland sea, stretching far away to the north, bor- 

 dered by a rolling country of rich savannahs and tropical forests, watered by many 

 streams and rivulets, all teeming with animal Hfe. Over the broad valleys roamed 

 herds of elephants, the strange-tusked and triple-horned Dinoceras, and many 

 other equally wonderful forms. In the forests monstrous beasts, the Hadrosaurs, 

 half-bird, half-serpent, moved sluggishly, feeding on the lofty tree-tops. On the 

 waters of the lake great turtles lay like floating islets ; on the rocky reefs sea-ser- 

 pents an hundred feet in length reared their crested heads and hissed at each 

 other in horrid combat. In the shallows waded gigantic toothed birds like Hesper- 

 ornis^ while overhead the leathery-winged Pterodactyls — veritable flying dragons — 

 fought in mid-air over their prey, uttering those piercing screams I had heard. 

 By the water-side is feeding a herd of the peaceful Oreodon — that curious com- 

 pound of the hog, deer and camel, — when a pair of ferocious Drepanodon or 

 saber-toothed tiger dashes upon them, rending and slaying in the very wantonness 

 of their brutal strength and power, Man, if indeed he has yet appeared upon 

 the earth, has fled far from these savage scenes and sought refuge in the recesses 

 of the mountains whose cold, blue peaks glimmered faintly on the western hor- 

 izon. It was the Age of Monsters. 



' ' Another age had passed away when I returned to this place. How changed 

 the scene ! One vast sheet of ice covered all the land. Nor bird, nor beast 

 was to be seen; what few animals had survived the cold had fled far southward. 

 The sun hung low in the southern sky, giving forth a pale and sickly light desti- 

 tute of heat. An awful silence brooded over the scene, broken only by an occa- 

 sional moaning, creaking sound as if Mother Earth was groaning in agony under- 

 neath the great monster that lay upon her breast. It was the Age of Ice. 



"After another age, again I returned. As at the firsttimeit was early morn, 

 ing and the sun had not risen, but through the gloom I could see advancing 

 across the plain what appeared to be a monstrous serpent, roaring and hissing 

 as it dragged its jointed length along, a single eye blazing in its forehead, shed- 

 ding forth a baneful light. Surely, thought I, the Age of Monsters has returned 

 again, but what monster is this, more terrible than any I have yet seen, which 

 seems to devour the very earth before it ! But as the sun rose and the light 

 increased, I saw before me cultivated fields, happy homes, towns and cities, 

 churches and school houses, and railway trains — even as you see it now. It was 

 the Age of Man. ''^ 



'* Who are you ? " I exclaimed in astonishment, turning to look at my com- 

 panion again, but he had vanished, and I saw only in his place a bunch of the 

 tall wild Sun-flowers, their yellow heads nodding gracefully to the soft southern 

 wind which murmured musically through their leaves. I had been dreaming of 

 the past, the present, — What will the Future Age be when this has passed away ? 



