74 



THE POLE. 



costume of white and black, imagined thcDi to be bands of children 

 in white aprons ! The stiffness of their small arms — one can scarcely 

 call them wings in these rudimentary birds — their awkwardness on 

 land, their difficulty of movement, prove that they belong to the 

 ocean, wdiere they swim with wonderful ease, and which is their 

 natural and legitimate element. One might speak of them as its 

 emancipated eldest sons, as ambitious fishes, candidates for the char- 

 actei-s of birds, which had already progressed so far as to transform 

 their fins into scaly pinions. The metamorphosis was not attended 

 with complete success; as birds powerless and clumsy, they remain 

 skilful fishes. 



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Or again, w^ith tlieir large feet attached so near to the body, with 

 their neck short or poised on a great cylindrical trunk, with their 

 flattened head, one might judge them to be near relations of their 

 neighbours the seals, whose kindly nature they possess, but not their 

 intelligence. 



These eldest sons of nature, eye-witnesses of the ancient ages of 

 transformation, appeared like so many strange hieroglyphics to those 

 who first beheld them. With eyes mild, but sad and pale as the 

 face of ocean, they seemed to regard man, the last-born of the planet, 

 from the depths of their antiquity. 



