QUATERNARY AGE 
PLEISTOCENE PERIOD 
EPOCH OF GREAT GLACIATION 
GREAT cold has been, and sore has life been taxed, 
Though now and then the grip has been relaxed. 
But frigid clime, long fitful on the scene, 
Has now in deadly earnest settled in. 
Snow, snow, and snow : for ever it is falling, 5 
Bedding, drifting. Cries piteous and appalling 
From harassed life are rising to the sky, 
And snow, snow, snow alone comes in reply ! 
Notice indeed had sounded through the scene, 
And life migrations southward long had been. 10 
Much has escaped from these conditions hard, 
But what of those that find all outlet barred 
By mountains, drifts ; or torrent streams, and seas 
Not silenced yet beneath the icy breeze ? 
Looking around with " larger other eyes," 1 5 
Brute life, entrapped, forgets its rivalries ; 
And groups of divers creatures, here and there, 
Are herding close, held by a common fear. 
