228 THE BIRD WATCHER 
like a deep and gagyng bite. These wounds are 
mostly on the belly, but the tail of one seal is bloody 
all round, as though another had seized it in its 
mouth and severely bitten it. No doubt it is all due 
to fighting, and the claws, I think, must have played 
as great a part as the teeth. Two other seals lie on a 
smaller rock, raised similarly above high-water mark, 
and a third on one that has only just become un- 
covered. Altogether, then, there are fifteen of them, 
making me think of Virgil’s description of the Protean 
herds, written in those happy days before the accursed 
gun had thinned, as it now has, almost to the verge of 
extinction, the brave, honest, animal world. Surely 
the lower thing rules on earth for ever. Those who 
love living animals, with souls inside them, must see 
this world made dead and empty by those who love 
only their skins, stuffed with straw. They conquer, 
these Philistines, and the finer-touched spirit lies 
bleeding and suffering beneath them. How grossly 
we deceive ourselves! ... I say that the “pale 
Galilean ” has zot conquered here, but that Thor has, 
though often in his rival’s name. 
The modern Christian poet speaks truth as though 
it were falsehood, and falsehood as though it were 
truth. Hear Longfellow, for instance— 
Force rules the world still, 
Has ruled it, shall rule it, 
Meekness is weakness, 
Strength is triumphant, 
Over the whole earth 
Still is it Thor’s-Day ! 
