188 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



ears. Visions of that ecstatic hour hover before him 

 in his lair, accompany his moonlight marches through 

 the mountain-gorge, thrill him with retrospective fla- 

 vours as he laps the moonlit lake, and fill with a certain 

 blissful torment all his leisure moments. These visions, 

 like the after-glow of sunset on the Alps, tinge his 

 mental horizon, and create a gustatory after-glow which 

 warms his- whole frame. Haunted by such recollec- 

 tions, tormented by the appetites they develop, his 

 nature undergoes mysterious, modif}dng influences ; 

 new and grander ferocities are awakened, which, in turn, 

 develop fiercer daring, and render him ten times more 

 formidable. Hitherto he has wanted somethino; of the 

 darino^ commensurate with his strenoth. He has al- 

 ways avoided personal combat with an European, when 

 honourably the challenge could be ignored. But now 

 the case is very difl'erent ; now, the scent of human 

 blood thrills along every fibre ; and when sight reveals 

 the proximity of his noble foe, then flashes the tawny 

 eye with sombre fire, the terrible talons tear up the 

 earth, he dresses his mighty mane, and prepares for the 

 fight in slow, solemn, concentrated wrath, clearly fore- 

 seeing that two issues, and only two, remain open for 

 him — man-beef, or a tomb. 



Not less profound, although not quite so terrible to 

 his enemies, is the diff'erence between the man who has 

 once tasted of a noble sea-side passion, once lived with 

 his microscope for a few months on the wealthy shores 

 of some secluded spot, indulging in a new pursuit — 



