EGYPTIAN GEESE IX A SWAMP. 



V 

 Sport and Nature in Germany 



NOT by far-away Lake Xakuro alone has "the Spell 

 of the Elelescho" lived. It has lived, and still lives, 

 all over the world ; only that it goes by other names, and 

 is linked with other symbols. 



In the brief summer of the Polar regions, battling 

 with the snow and ice and the long Arctic night, it lives 

 in the few stunted willows and the scanty reindeer-moss. 

 It can only be fully understood where the ungainly walrus, 

 the mighty Polar bear, coloured like his own snowfields, 

 and the herds of fur-adorned musk oxen and reindeer give 

 life to the wilderness, and millions of sea-birds cover the 

 cliffs, or wheel shrieking through the air. To all these 



o o 



creatures the appearance of man in these wide regions is so 

 strange and unaccustomed that they show no fear of him, 

 and even come hurrying up from all sides to look curiously 



at this strange new being. 



179 



