The ancient ice once covered all New England

And rubbed New Hampshire's mountains to a mound;

Ten million years and great glaciers

Broke off and fell into Long Island Sound.

The Russians re-surveyed Alaska

And the ice had moved back twenty feet.

The first stakes, driven a hundred years ago,

Were proof of scarce perceptible retreat.

They find Canadian copper, left behind

By ice-sheets, in Kentucky gravel -

A trace - a slight but eloquent souvenir

Of leisurely Pleistocenic travel.

The Middle West has broad foundations,

Full one hundred and fifty feet below,

Of limestone made of ocean animals

Perished and pressed to hardness long ago.

How many million years are necessary

For seaweed to become Ohio lime... ?

Henry dear, dinner is on the table.

It's half past six. For once please be on time."