NEBULA TO MAN 
And far, as Time rolls on, will they surpass 225 
In form and number all the gristly class. 
Here then in Creta seas we see unrolled 
That higher life in Jura forms foretold ; 
And finny life its new foundations lay 
Of families, that crowd its world to-day. 230 
See wriggling eels, aroused from muddy beds, 
Like sprouting bulbs are poking up their heads. 
See here a shoal of silver herring sweep 
From some unknown recesses of the deep ; 
Lo, there as if from instant death to fly 235 
A flying fish uprises suddenly. 
The perch-like Beryx here pursues his way, 
Much like his scions in tropic seas to-day. 
Resembling forms that haunt West Indian seas, 
Grim barracudas swim, no friends to peace. 240 
Some forms of sea-bream now abroad appear : 
And early gobies wander here and there. 
Forms, spiny-finned, are in the watery way, 
Resembling Chromids in the Nile to-day. 
Horse-mackerel too are in the flowing tide ; 245 
And fishes that to salmon seem allied. 
In such new forms is finny life recast, 
Slow breaking from its moorings of the past : 
And giving promise, fitful though it be, 
Of all the coming wonders of the sea. 250 
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