EOCENE PERIOD 
For fishes Whale-like through the deep are speeding, 
Big lengthy giants, sixty feet exceeding. 
True Mammal forms they are, and to the breast 
With firm fore-limbs their little ones are pressed. 480 
From what old stock derived, what man can say ? 
Though surely must their sires in some gone day 
Have lived ashore ; and then their haunts have left. 
Perchance of food or peace they were bereft, 
And braved the sea, if haply there might life 485 
Give ampler food, or fewer fields of strife. 
Some unknown brutes amongst the Carnivores 
Must thus, as emigrants, have left the shores. 
And did their bodies swell to big extent 
To keep them up in their new element ? 490 
And then by raiding wide the well filled main, 
Did they in time to this vast size attain ? 
If thus these huge forms came, at least can we 
In Nature say as wondrous things we see. 
Nor to these seas is their horizon bound, 495 
But far and wide their kith and kin are found. 
And through Europa's and far Austral's seas, 
Push they their heads, and sniff the balmy breeze. 
Throughout the world abound the Mollusk hosts. 
Oysters and mussels hold long lines of coasts. 500 
Snail, Whelk, and Periwinkle tribes reside 
In streams, lakes, shoals, and depths beyond the tide. 
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