658 THE ANCIENT LAKES OF WESTERN AMERICA: 
one, more attractive and interesting than could be drawn 
from its present aspects. Then a warm and genial climate 
prevailed from the Gulf to the Arctic Sea; the Canadian 
highlands were higher, but the Rocky Mountains lower and 
less broad. Most of the continent exhibited an undulating 
surface ; rounded hills and broad valleys covered with forests 
grander than any of the present day, or wide expanses of 
rich savannah over which roamed countless herds of animals, 
many of gigantic size, of which our present meagre fauna 
retains but a few dwarfed representatives. Noble rivers 
flowed through plains and valleys, and sea-like lakes broader 
and more numerous than those the continent now bears di- 
versified the scenery. Through unnumbered ages the sea- 
sons ran their ceaseless course, the sun rose and set, moons 
waxed and waned over this fair land, but no human eye was 
there to mark its beauty or human intellect to control and 
use its exuberant fertility. Flowers opened their many- 
colored petals on meadow and hill-side, and filled the air 
with their fragrance, but only for the delectation of the wan- 
dering bee. Fruits ripened in the sun, but there was no 
hand there to pluck, nor any speaking tongue to taste. 
Birds sang in the trees, but for no ears but their own. The 
surface of lake or river was whitened by no sail, nor fur- 
rowed by any prow but the breast of the water fowl; and 
the far-reaching shores echoed no sound but the dash of the 
waves, and the lowing of the herds that slaked their thirst 
in the crystal waters. 
Life and beauty were everywhere; and man, the great 
destroyer, had not yet come, but not all was peace and har- 
mony in this Arcadia. The forces of nature are always at 
war, and redundant life compels abundant death. The in- 
numerable species of animals and plants had each its hered- 
itary enemy, and the struggle of life was so sharp and bitter 
that in the lapse of ages many genera and species were 
blotted out forever. 
The herds of herbivores — which included nearly all the 
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