NEBULA TO MAN 
A strait they seem through which has Life to pass 
Up from the Reptile to the Mammal class. 
Strange group it is, of which to-day alone 
Duck-bills, and Spiny Ant-eaters are known. 330 
Marsupials too are here, a higher order 
And well across are these the Reptile border. 
For they, unlike the Monotremes, bring forth 
Alive their young, although of tiniest growth. 
And though no forms, exactly such as they, 335 
Are found on earth in any place to-day ; 
Australia's Banded Ant-eaters maybe 
Retain with them a close affinity. 
Here then they are, these Prototheria called, 
And moving freely where their fathers crawled : 340 
Great is their future are not such the sires 
Of higher mammals of the coming years ? 
The very bed and channel through which flows 
Nature's main life-stream, as it onward goes ? 
Here in these Prototheria then is found 345 
The great main stream ; though up from underground 
It seems to come ; as might a stream that wears 
A subterranean course, and reappears. 
And where amid the earlier Trias throng 
Did Nature's main life-current flow along ? 350 
Which of the " creeping " groups held in its veins 
The blood that, fitter, in the struggle gains ? 
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