NEBULA TO MAN 
Lower and lower the sinking lands subside, 
Deepening the mighty waters far and wide ; 
Till lands, that in Jurassic days were dry, 
Beneath the brine some scores of fathoms lie. 125 
And as along the Atlantic's watery way, 
A chalky ooze is being formed to-day ; 
Made up, at lower depths, of shell remains 
Of rhizopods, that dying fall as rains. 
So on the beds of this Cretaceous sea, 1 30 
That once were breadths of fertile territory, 
Like countless shelly mites, by Death brought low, 
Innumerous loads of chalky ooze bestow : 
An ooze that Earth's for ever shrinking crust 
In time as limestone lands will slow upthrust. 135 
Sponges in beds collected add in time 
Their flinty substance to the forming lime : 
And Man, in time will come upon the scene, 
When long at work has chemic action been ; 
And in the buried sponge-beds will he find 140 
Nodules of flint in neat array aligned : 
And from them forge his weapons for the chase, 
Till these to bronze and iron yield their place. 
Corals that in Jurassic days had spread 
Their reefs and isles upon the Mid-sea bed, 145 
From these old haunts are well nigh wholly gone, 
Though still they spread within the Equator zone : 
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