SJVANS. 



595 



with an "All 's well" vociferation. When the leader of the party 

 becomes fatigued with his extra duty of cutting the air, he falls 

 into the rear, and his neighbour takes his place. When mounted, 

 as they sometimes are, several thousand feet above the earth, with 

 their diminished and delicate outline hardly perceptible against 

 the clear blue of heaven, this harsh sound, softened and modulated 

 by distance, and issuing from the immense void above, assumes a 

 supernatural character of tone. — Franklin. 



Fig. 195. — The Swan {Cygmts Olor). 



" In flying, these birds make a strange appearance : their long 

 necks protrude, and resemble at a distance long lines with black 

 points, their heavy bodies and triangular wings seeming mere 

 appendages to the prolonged neck. When thus in motion, their 

 wings pass through so few degrees of a circle, that, unless seen 

 horizontally, they appear almost quiescent, their movements being 

 widely different from the semicircular sweep of the goose. The 

 swan, when migrating with a moderate wind in his favour, and 

 mounted high in the air, travels at the rate of a hundred miles or 

 more in an hour. I have often ^imcd the flight of the goose, and 

 found one mile a minute a common rapidity ; and when the two 



