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PEAK, O man, less recent! Fragmentary fossil!

Primal pioneer of pliocene formation,

Hid in lowest drifts below the earliest stratum

Of volcanic tufa!

Older than the beasts, the oldest Palæotherium;

Older than the trees, the oldest Cryptogamia;

Older than the hills, those infantile eruptions

Of earth's epidermis!

Eo—Mio—Plio—whatsoe'er the "cene" was

That those vacant sockets filled with awe and wonder—