ZOOLOGICAL YEARNINGS. " 191 



my lips at the prospect of man-beef. ^Yitll the Cyclops 

 I exclaimed : — 



" I am quite sick of the wild mountain-game ; 

 Of stags and lions I have gorged enough, 

 And I grow hungry for the flesh of men."* 



March was already come, the equinoctial gales were 

 near, and the Isles of Scilly beckoned like syrens from 

 their dangerous shores. The weather was intensely 

 unlike summer, the snow and hail freely falling ; so 

 that, on a first blush, there did seem a shadow of 

 reason for the astonishment of friends, who looked 

 upon departure at such a time, and for such a place, as 

 indicating something like insanity. But great wits to 

 madness nearly are allied, and this alliance with great 

 wits will perhaps be granted to me. At any rate there 

 was method in the madness, for unless I reached the 

 coast before the equinox, the passage would be more 

 than usually perilous ; and just after the equinox, as 

 everybody knows, the spring-tides recede to greater 

 depths, and offer the finest opportunities for rock-hunt- 

 ing ; moreover, the gales at this period throw welcome 

 treasures on the beach. The ] 5th of March, therefore, 

 was the very latest date I could afford for departure ; 

 and on that day the journey began. 



Why the Isles of Scilly were obstinately selected, 



* This is Shelley's translation. [The reader who has not quite forgot- 

 ten his Greek may like to have the original : — 



'Xls eK7rA.ec6s 76 Sairds et^t' opsaKSov 



'E\d(pcDy re, xpoyi-os 5' ei;U air avQpaTtuv fiopas. 



