MODERN PERIOD 
And forms there are in warm and shallow sea 
Tellens, Tridacna's, and Veneridae 
Aglow with colour gay. See them around 
With yellows, pinks, and purples hued and bound, 100 
Blues, greens and reds, as might lie rainbows drowned. 
" Lampshells," that in Silurian years their prime 
Attained, and then in whirligigs of Time 
Oft suffered much, have weathered all their storms, 
And some still live unchanged from Cambrian forms. 105 
Though Belemnites, from mighty rise and fall, 
Have gone long since, some forms collateral 
Squids and the like the vanished hosts recall. 
Nautili, that back to times Silurian date, 
Survive, in spite of buffetings of Fate, 1 10 
As though with rare elixir animate. 
The fish and fish-like life, whose orders new 
Burst as an apparition on our view 
In Eocene times, has now within its pale 
An endless stock, from tiny sprat to whale. 115 
And what of insects, present everywhere, 
Through sea and land, and flitting in the air ? 
Why half the matter charged with life on land, 
These little creatures, countless, must command. 
See how in orders, legions filled, they rise, 120 
Living alone, and in communities ; 
211 
