EOCENE PERIOD 
Young Pyrenees their dimpled features show, 
Carpathians too no longer sleep below : 275 
And burly Balkans long clasped by the sea 
Will soon forsake their briny nursery. 
Afar and wide have spread on ocean plains 
The rhizopod and nummulite remains. 
Across the north ot Afric do they span, 280 
And Asia through to China and Japan. 
And as to-day we see them mock the sea 
In mountain chain and table territory, 
We needs must feel, their builder hosts recalling, 
That life was cheap, and time of length appalling. 285 
******** 
In southern seas, that wash Europa's coasts, 
New wealth of form the teeming fish-life boasts. 
And whilst on land strange creatures wend their way, 
Wide different from the forms that live to-day, 
No such unlikeness does finned life betray. 290 
Still here new forms as sudden seem to rise 
As did the mammal life that met our eyes 
When broke the " new dawn " days. A gorge is crossed 
But of the passage records all are lost. 
Well nigh has gone the gristly ganoid race, 295 
And bony offshoot types now hold their place. 
Mackerel, and tunny here their ways pursue, 
And wrasses wrought with iridescent hue. 
in 
