And, if you would learn a secret, even before man trod here, in the days when the dicynodont bent yearningly over her young, and the river-horse which you find now nowhere on earth's surface, save buried in stone, called with love to his mate; and the birds whose footprints are on the rocks flew in the sunshine calling joyfully to one another-even in those days when man was not, the fore-dawn of this kingdom had broken on the earth.
"Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland"
Olive Schreiner