TRIASSIC PERIOD 
Which one amongst them did a promise hold 
That Mammal life might issue from its fold ? 
Not Icthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs betaking 355 
To fish-like life, the higher life forsaking. 
Nor yet Amphibians, once first in the race, 
But long deposed from that exalted place. 
For not from forms surpassed would one expect 
This higher, mammal, life to come direct. 360 
Nor to this state would Dinosaurians rise, 
Marked as they were with strong affinities 
To Crocodiles and Birds. Nor yet, late started, 
Could Turtle types have thus so wide departed. 
Of all the reptiles, Theromorphs alone 365 
Had in their frames strong beast-like feature shewn : 
And may we not to that old stock assign 
The founding of the mighty Mammal line ? 
Had not those widespread reptile forms long since, 
In Permian days, borne early evidence, 370 
In tooth and skull, that they in time might pass 
To forms of life above the Reptile class? 
Not that the bigger members of the band 
Would be the first to lift up life on land. 
But in the ranks small members must have been, 375 
Whose movements nimbler, and whose wits more keen 
Would bring them on ; and to the life ahead 
These were the ones that doubtless took the lead. 
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