TRIASSIC PERIOD 
To rest slow sinks the spent volcanic rage 45 
Throughout the world ; till in some future age 
Like to a giant refreshed it will appear, 
And start again upon its mad career. 
Great change and stress has life been forced to brook, 
And now it rises with a different look 50 
From what it wore of old. New species, 
Sprung of the old, now haunt the lands and seas : 
Forms that, amid the changing scenes and climes, 
Displayed a power equal to the times. 
For in this changeful world in which we live, rr 
A slight adaptive power will often give 
Great steps in life to some ; whilst those, in whom 
Such power is not, sink slowly to their doom. 
The club-moss trees have now all died away, 
And broad-leaved cordaite shrubs no longer stray 60 
Amid the piny woods ; for sturdy grown 
Cycadean life has borne them slowly down. 
The reedy calamites, that rose of yore 
In dense plantations, too are seen no more. 
But some new forms, allied, keep up the line, 65 
And through all time to come will not resign 
Their hold of life ; and " horse-tail " growths to-day 
Attest their lasting, though diminished, sway. 
Old forms of ferns still spread in thickly growth, 
And from their ranks new species have come forth : 70 
45 
