MIOCENE PERIOD 
Creatures to Sloths and Ant-eaters akin, 
And Armadillos, haunt the busy scene : 
And poor in teeth must on their claws rely, 
When fortune drives them to hostility. 255 
Nature has marked this western hemisphere 
To have, in time, its native breeds of deer ; 
Forms antlered, skulled, and forelimbed different 
From those of any "Old World " continent. 
And of peculiar breeds that will appear 260 
(Brockets, Virginian, Musk, and other deer), 
The parent stock would seem already here. 
The forms with Camel points of days gone by 
Quaint Fox^sized beasts have here posterity 
Of larger build : but long must strive the race 265 
Ere it attain in life more sure a place. 
Indeed the Lama seems in these to blend 
And these a stock may be, whence will descend 
Camels and Lamas : for still is Nature rife 
With many vague and general forms of life. 270 
Some bulky mastodons are here freebooting 
About the woods ; and shrubs and trees uprooting 
With tusky zeal. But prosperous though they fare, 
They too of carnive risks must take their share. 
For weight, and trunks, and tusks, and good sized brains 275 
Will not immune them in these fierce domains. 
* 145 
