20 THE DIVEE. 



fall in witli it, by its very sliort wing-cases, which 

 do not half cover its enormous distended, body. I 

 took it np gently in my fingers, when it helplessly 

 crumpled up its legs, as if it had learned the lesson 

 divinely taught, but which Christians find it so hard 

 to practise — " Resist not evil," — and lay passively in 

 my hand, weeping at every joint of every limb a 

 tear of orange-coloured fluid, that has conferred the 

 name of Oil-beetle upon it. This liquor, which had a 

 rank odour, stained the skin of my hand ; and I soon 

 put down my captive, who was glad to disappear 

 among the stalks of the grass. 



Swimming in the sea not far from the shore, I saw 

 a bird that was evidently larger than a goose ; with the 

 aid of a pocket telescope I made out that it was a 

 Loon, or Great Northern Diver [Colymhus glacialis), 

 a very fine sea-fowl, and not uncommon on the Dorset 

 coast in winter. The rocky beach below was destitute 

 of anything that could alarm the wary bird, and he 

 gradually swam in nearer and nearer, till at length he 

 was not a stone's throw from the shore ; and I, from 

 my lofty lookout, had a fair view of him, now swim- 

 ming leisurely, turning hither and thither, now diving 

 with grace, disappearing with rapidity, and coming 

 up after many seconds, a long distance fr'om the spot. 



A fisherman passing by told me a curious circum- 

 stance connected with the tides in this Bay, which by 

 experience I afterwards found to be correct. Instead 

 of alternately ebbing for six hom'S and flowing for the 

 same period, as usual, the tide here remains at its 

 lowest for four hours before it begins to flow ; or, as 

 the customary expression is, there are four hours' 



