PLIOCENE PERIOD 
Plump dinothers, in pride before their fall, 
Feast with the threat of " Mene " on the wall. 
And mastodons, in this their eastern home, 200 
Are passing, like old fashions, to their doom. 
(And though old fashions be revived by men, 
In Nature gone, they never come again.) 
Yet from their ranks have Stegodons come forth, 
That in resource and strength have proved their worth ; 205 
And that in tooth at least can show advance, 
That brings them more in line with elephants. 
Yet destined are they to decline and fall, 
Being indeed but forms transitional ; 
And are as one by birth of low degree 210 
Who garners wealth to found a family, 
And is himself lost in obscurity. 
And now from these rough diamonds of the past 
Are shining forth true elephants at last. 
Some lordly forms about the land we see, 215 
A self-made Nabob aristocracy, 
Sprung from the ranks by merits of its own, 
The Mastodon above, and Stegodon. 
Some forms amongst them, higher skulled, must be 
Of India's breed to-day the ancestry. 220 
Whilst some with skulls less high pitched seem as they 
Were of the breed in Afric found to-day. 
