FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 197 



new element. Their old, old aquatic memories 

 helped them not at all, and the penguins had to 

 re-stiffen their feathers into scales, and to encase 

 their wings in immobile mittens cut after the fash- 

 ion of sharks' fins. And the seals ceased the run- 

 ning about upon the land and became completely 

 readapted to a sea life. 



So let us return, at least mentally, to the Sea, 

 for there is no happening on land which cannot 

 there be duplicated and often bettered. But to 

 appreciate these similarities to the full, one must 

 become amphibious. As well live in Kansas or 

 Switzerland and know the ocean only in the ency- 

 clopedia volume MUN to ODE, as sit in a deck 

 chair and watch it pass or scan its waves with 

 binoculars. To such a watcher no real secret is 

 ever confided — he thinks in terms of waves and 

 swells, and his eye is held by the horizon beyond 

 which is the dry earth for which he longs. But 

 to the aquatic devotee, the oceanic fan, surprise 

 after surprise is vouchsafed, for to him the three 

 elements are not phenomena wholly apart. 



We are grateful to the dry land for standing 

 room, to the air for the breath of life. But any 

 glance askance at the watery depths is but a piti- 

 ful or a comic gesture when we remember that 

 85% of our brain is water, and much more akin 

 to salt than to fresh. To be sure we cannot drink 

 salt water and live, but when necessary it is an 

 admirable temporary substitute for blood itself, 

 whereas sweet water would be a fair poison in our 

 veins. Take the man who shudders at the thought 



