CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD 
Now are " Sea-lilies " at their height of pride, 
Vast areas holding in the flowing tide ; 
And with the kindred Blastoids, now thick swarming, 
Pay constant tribute to the limestone forming. 
And as high rise the slowly thickening stores, 25 
Seas locked by land are shallowed to their shores. 
And is not infant marble lying here, 
Compacting close, and destined to appear 
In polished pride in many a stately home, 
And pillared fane, in times far off to come ? 30 
Molluskan groups, to goodly numbers grown, 
Are haunting lands the sea now calls her own ; 
And mussels, whelks, and such-like find a home, 
Where millepedes and scorpions used to roam. 
Amongst the Ammonoids no more we see 35 
The Clymenite Devonian family : 
But grander shelled the Goniatites appear, 
And at their highest fortune are they here. 
The Nautiloid forms straight shelled, of earlier time, 
Though still abroad, are now long past their prime ; 40 
And in the forms, in spiral shells enclosed, 
The fortunes of the race are now reposed. 
Though from the scene some families have fled, 
In countless legions still the " Lamp-shells " spread ; 
Boasting some forms that have attained a size 45 
As large as that their race will e'er comprise. 
3' 
