SOARING OF BIRDS 45 



hardly have been swans, unless the black swan 

 has ceased to be a rara avis. There were only 

 two when I first remarked them, but several 

 others joined them afterwards. They were flying 

 at some height, and apparently were about to 

 cross over to France, but all at once they stopped 

 and wheeled round and round over the sea, ascend- 

 ing higher every time, as if they wished to get a 

 sight of some distant destination. They did not, 

 however, go off in any direction, but mounted 

 higher and higher, on the wings of the wind as 

 it seemed, for their own were outspread in almost 

 motionless majesty, till they were nearly out of 

 sight. The clouds stretched in a long perspective 

 of ever-nearing lines to within a short distance 

 of the horizon, where they terminated in curtains 

 of purple and gold, through which some splendid 

 mystery seemed trying to break. The sea was 

 grand and gloomy, and corresponded well with the 

 spectacle of these large, black, long-necked birds 

 with arched and pointed wings, whose magnificent 

 and ever-ascending gyrations seemed to symbolise 

 the human soul, for ever striving upwards to- 

 wards a canopy of clouds ! 



Birds of passage assemble here before crossing 

 the Channel. I have often watched them making 

 use of the wind by flying against it to raise them- 

 selves to the necessary height, as a kite is raised. 



