NEBULA TO MAN 
Indeed some new strange beasts are now in sight 
That are assuming features definite, 
And who, in this developed state, may be 
Rhinoceros fathers. Here too we see 
Small Pig-like creatures through the forests roam, 75 
Fathers maybe of Peccaries to come. 
Palaeotheria that in the (< new dawn " days, 
In goodly herds were wont the plains to graze, 
Are dwindling now, by other life outdone. 
Indeed they are as on some down path gone, 80 
Where Fate, ere long, will crush them every one. 
The trunky race that had foreshadowed been, 
In early Eocene times, on Egypt's scene, 
Has hither come the woodlands to explore, 
And formed less vague, than Egypt's brutes of yore. 85 
Indeed a skull these Mastodons display, 
That scarce is changed with Elephants to-day : 
And well it bears the burden on it thrown 
Of lengthening trunk, and tusks much longer grown. 
Four tusked the creatures are, as foretypes were, 90 
But more outcurved the upper tusks appear ; 
And further out the lower jaw has spread, 
With foremost part scooped out as channel bed ; 
To take what food the trunk, that now has gained 
An increased grasping power, has obtained. 95 
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