The Land of Yesterday (also known as the Kingdom of Yesterday) is a country where every animal who lives there has gone extinct. It is ruled by the King of Yesterday.
It is located at the edge of the Dark Country's forest in a rough field of weeds. Past the weed field is a straggling hawthorn edge and a half-broken fence. Down the fence is a gap in the hedge to a very still river. A path leads to the king's courtyard.
Tales from Watership Down[]
The Sense of Smell[]
El-ahrairah sets toward the court and slips through the gate. A creature about the same size as him but with long ears and a long tail was there. He asked him to find the King of Yesterday. He is a potoroo and leaves him in the big courtyard. The potoroo spoke quietly to a heron with brown plumage and told him he was only an English rabbit, taking him to the King. Arriving at the courtyard, all animals were unknown to El-ahrairah. In the center is a great horned beast, cow-like but unkempt and shaggy. The potoroo tells El-ahrairah that the horned beast was the King as he was trembling, lying flat on the ground as the beast nuzzled him with a hot breath until he was wet.
A deep and unfriendly voice tells him to stand up and tell him who he is. He tells him he’s an English rabbit. In question, the king asked if they had gone extinct. El-ahrairah replies there is numerous and tells him he made a long and dangerous journey for his kind. It was revealed in the Kingdom of Yesterday, every animal is extinct. He also explains he got there by riding on an Ilip, and they didn’t kill him due to his astral collar. The king is an Oregon bison who ruled the country appointed by Lord Frith.
Sitting off from the courtyard to the fields beyond, there were hundreds of different animals, and a bunch of species spoke and hung around the king. Not one rabbit was extinct, and El-ahrairah tells the king about the thousand enemies story all because of the humans, they’re all extinct. men shot, trapped, and poisoned, but many vanished as men destroyed natural habitats.
The King of Yesterday explains coming across a forest canopying the sky, vast grows daily, and going in is easy to get lost. It consists of forests destroyed by human beings. It's growing so fast that even Frith thinks he should appoint another king to rule it. On the stroll back, the king tells him there's an assembly at sunset, and he promises to help then. They walked back into the river as he showed him extinct fish. By sunset, the king announced El-ahrairah had come to the Court of Yesterday to beg for a favor to benefit the rabbits as chief. El-ahrairah spoke about the rabbits, cunning strength, and speed but liked the sense of smell. When done talking, all extinct animals were eager to help. The king tells him he is a good friend, the most brave, worthy rabbit, and granted his request. However, many years ago, when the Ilips gave up the sense of smell many years ago, they themselves couldn't put it to use, so an emissary gazelle lended it but never returned. The smell was useless to them, so they forgot about it. He told him it might be at the court of the King of Tomorrow and apologized for disappointing him.
As it's too far and dangerous for a rabbit, a kanai wolf in the crowd offered to take him on his back at night. They traveled for three nights through the darkness. The wolf tells him they want the biggest of his kind at the Kenai Peninsula in a bitterly cold faraway country and hunt moose. Humans killed them all. As dawn was about to break, the wolf put him down and became extinct, so he couldn't take him to the Land of Tomorrow and wished him luck.