NEBULA TO MAN 
Indeed that little race would seem to be 
Shut up between these monsters and the sea : 
And well for such as in retreat have found 
Haunts more secure than on Europa's ground. 280 
But dinosaurs abound that peaceful roam, 
With vegetarian tastes. Well armed are some, 
Though meek disposed. See Polacanthus here, 
With dorsal shield, and rows of spiky gear. 
Winged lizards, large and small, fly o'er the flood, 285 
To seek their flesh, and fowl, and finny food. 
And Gull-like birds, well suited to the days, 
Are busy diving in the creeks and bays. 
The while across the eastern hemisphere 
The briny waters o'er sunk lands career, 290 
Columbia's now subsiding territory 
An entrance gives to onward pressing sea. 
Along the east, and on the southern coast, 
Large tracts of land beneath the brine are lost : 
And then, as time goes on, her western shore 295 
Is driven back to lines it held of yore. 
But banks and isles, that far to west away 
Had long bespoke her breadth of later day, 
Are looming now far larger through the main, 
Though still wide separate from the east terrain. 300 
And far to north the briny waters flow, 
O'er thrice the land the Gulf of Mexico 
88 
