NEBULA TO MAN 
That after trial of a life on land 27 5 
Where maybe power failed them to withstand 
Competing life with all its stress and strife 
Have now descended to aquatic life. 
These curious creatures Plesiosaurians named 
As tortoises in some respects are framed ; 280 
Though necks they have, long as their bodies are, 
And on their backs no carapace they bear. 
Indeed, afloat, as emeus look they more, 
Gone out to bathe, their feathers left on shore. 
And prosperous is the race : for here and there 285 
Some lanky creatures ten feet long appear. 
But though on watery life they all are bent, 
A difference have they in development. 
For whilst the limbs of some appear to be 
Of use on land as well as on the sea : 290 
The limbs of some true paddle form have taken, 
As life on land had wholly been forsaken. 
But howe'er formed the creatures plough their way, 
Keen hunters are they after finny prey. 
" Fish-lizard " forms are also off the shores 295 
Icthyosaurians named whose ancestors 
Once trod dry ground. But blood of land-bred sires 
No longer now their line of life inspires. 
Far are they fallen from the old estate, 
And more than plesiosaurs, degenerate : 300 
54 
