EPOCH OF GREAT GLACIATION 
Down to the rocky coast it travels on, 
And even there its journey is not done : 
But out to sea it glides, as it might creep 
And makes its own the basin of the deep. 100 
Yet as it boldly leaves its rugged coast, 
Needs must it reckon with its ocean host. 
(The host that had the fiords in time past held, 
And from these ports had rudely been expelled). 
And as to sea it moves, soon does it find 105 
Itself in depths where it is undermined ; 
And where by deepening waters upward pressed, 
No more on solid sea-floor can it rest. 
And now appears old Neptune's mighty hand 
To smite and smash this venturer from the land. no 
Hard falls his pounding wrath, and soon around 
With grating floes and bergs the coasts resound. 
At points indeed, as if they saw their fate, 
Their coming doom some blocks anticipate : 
And from their lofty coast-line mass are breaking, 1 1 5 
And straightway into sea great leaps are taking. 
Weird is the scene. Ice shattered great and small 
Of varied shapes lies off" the littoral. 
And throng it is that well may call to mind 
A roadstead filled with craft of every kind. 1 20 
Big battle-ships, big liners, as it were, 
Barques, brigs, and yawls, rafts, row-boats, all are here. 
M 177 
