Ch. XI.] FLIGHT OF BIRDS IX STORMS. 201 



against the mast, have I seen the albatross, the petrel, 

 and the Cape-pigeon resting on the water, or rising with 

 difficulty, and only by the constant motion of their long 

 wings able to fly at all. But when a breeze sprang up 

 they were all life and motion, wheeling in graceful 

 circles, now presenting one side, now the other, to view, 

 descending rapidly with the wind, and so gaining velocity 

 to turn and rise up again against it. Then, as the breeze 

 freshened to a gale, the petrels darted about, playing 

 round and round the scudding ship, at home on the 

 wings of the storm, poising themselves upon the wind as 

 instinctively and with as little effort as a man balances 



*/ 



himself on his feet. How the old times came up again 

 as I rode over the savannah, and the soaring vultures 

 brought back to my mind the wheeling stormy petrels 

 that darted about whilst under close-reefed topsails we 

 scudded before the gale, rounding the stormy southern 

 cape ; when great blue seas, " green glimmering towards 

 the summit/ 3 towered on every side, or struck our 

 gallant ship like a sledge, making it shiver with the 

 blow, and sending a driving cloud of spray from stem 

 to stern. Then the petrels were in their element ; 

 then they darted about, now on one side, now on 

 the other above, below, now here, now there all 

 life and motion ; as if their greatest pleasure was, like 

 Ariel, " to ride on the curled cloud ' and " point the 

 tempest." 



We were travelling nearly parallel with the edge of 

 the great forest which was two or three miles away on 

 our right ; in all other directions the river was bounded 

 by ranges, some grassed to their tops, others with forests 

 climbing up their steep sides, excepting where white 



