CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD 
And with thick jungled life wide scenes grow gay, 
Where for long years the sea had held her sway. 125 
On many a scene from farthest east to west 
Now comes a time of long and great unrest ; 
A time of ups and downs, of strange mutations 
Of land and flood, with endless complications. 
And breadths of land, that at low levels lie, 130 
Pass through a strange amphibious history, 
Amid conditions much as those to-day, 
Where mangrove swamps their jungled growths display. 
Great belts of shore nigh level with the sea, 
And banks piled up in bay and estuary, 135 
Thick-clad with leafy growths, are now subsiding, 
And o'er their site will waters soon be gliding. 
Fair forest scenes where land-snails find a home, 
Where millipedes and centipedes love to roam, 
Where may-flies flit, and crickets trip and sing, 140 
And plant-lice to the vegetation cling, 
Where beetles drone, and scorpions make their lairs, 
And spiders spin and stretch their webs and snares, 
Where stick-like looking insects feed and fight, 
And cockroaches take wing, as comes the night 145 
Aye many a scene thus filled will by degrees 
A haunt become of countless water-fleas, 
Of ganoids, sea-snails, wormy " lampshell " hosts, 
And Shrimp-like life that haunts the sandy coasts. 
35 
