FINAL RETREAT OF THE ICE 
High skulls are theirs, and of a different mould 
From such ape skulls, as had the men of old. 
What, then, of those first hunters that had found 125 
Europa's scene a happy hunting ground, 
When for a time the ice had been undone, 
And buried lands again had felt the sun ? 
Live here some scions of their lowly race, 
To follow in Europa still the chase ? 1 30 
Not so it seems ; no trace of them is here, 
Whatever fortune may be theirs elsewhere. 
Perchance the monstrous ice their knell had tolled, 
And savage beasts as merciless as the cold. 
Though some indeed, when ice again outspread, 135 
To other lands in safety may have fled. 
And even here some few may hunt about, 
And on some chilly northlands still eke out 
Precarious lives. But if such still there be, 
Not theirs it is to lead humanity. 140 
Time rolls along. The sun is shining forth 
On verdant scenes, long ice-bound in the north. 
Shrunk has the sheet to lines far north away, 
And clime around grows more as that to-day. 
Willow and birch for long by ice-fields kept 145 
From Scandinavia's scene have thither crept 
To thrive again. There too are aspens, pines, 
Hazels and oaks, with far pushed frontier lines. 
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