JURASSIC PERIOD 
EUROPA'S shores are now in full retreat, 
As o'er old lines the Midland waters beat ; 
But still in parts Germania holds her own, 
And not as yet is Muscovy o'errun : 
And lands where Lesser Asia lies to-day 5 
Are standing high to bar the waters' way. 
But still to west and north the sea increases, 
And with a widening path through Francia presses ; 
And Britain's land, that ere the Trias ended, 
Was left, by slow subsidence, ill defended, 10 
Has bowed to Fate ; and now a shallow sea 
O'erspreads her mid and western territory. 
Great times are these for sea-life, large and small ; 
Or in the depths or on the littoral : 
For sharks and ganoids, mollusk species, 1 5 
Icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and water- fleas ; 
For shrimps, prawns, lobsters, sponges, snaily forms, 
"Sea-lilies," crabs and building coral swarms. 
The finny life, wide different though it be 
From what to-day swims up and down the sea, 20 
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