"Time is measured in change

whether by the movement of

instruments or in the appearance

of our bodies. We often feel the 

need to escape to places where time 

will not follow. To the solitude of a 

cathedral or an untouched forest

floor. Here, as we contemplate the

scope of human existence, we

cannot forget that even cathedrals

crumble and forests die. The 

computations of astronomers bear

witness to the gradual alteration 

of the constellations as the stars

move across the firmament. The 

works of nature and man disintegrate

and are gone,  and nothing endures

on the vault of the sky of the surface

of the sea. Only the shapes of the

land seem eternal."

from A Vanished World, T

he Dinosaurs of Western Canada

by Dale A. Russell