3<D PENIKESE. 



where, about our little pleasure-garden, until the 

 darkness closed about us and the sea sang of rest. 



Well do I remember that first night's stroll about 

 the island. I was alone. No, not alone, for all 

 Nature was with me, and I communed with her as 

 with a fellow being, ever by my side listening to my 

 youthful fancies, and, sage like, propounding at 

 every step questions which I might never fully an- 

 swer: Questions of the birds of the air or of their 

 nest, eggs, or young, close by; of the plants, lichens, 

 and mosses of the rocks and ground about me; of the 

 very sand, earth, rocks, boulders, and ledges, at my 

 feet; or of the fishes and marine life of great ocean 

 so bounteous, so mysterious before me. There was 

 no need for us to search long for "specimens;" for had 

 our school lasted two years instead of two short months, 

 I fancy that there still would have remained much 

 that was new to have been searched for, nay, to have 

 been found. I would that I could recall all the 

 weird fancies that came to my mind that first night, 

 as I wandered amongst the darkening shadows of 

 those rocky sentinels; as I peered over precipitous 

 crags, or mounted to the top of some rocky height 

 from which to view the fast dimming outlines of the 

 lapping wavelets of the bay; or as, in some cosy 

 corner, I reclined and listened to the murmur of the 

 waves, and peering into the surrounding darkness, 

 tried to distinguish something, where I knew there 

 was nothing, in the vast beyond. Halcyon days, in- 

 deed! Halcyon summer evening, were they! Do 

 you wonder that I look back upon them with 

 pleasure? 



As to our daily work, the routine for one day was 

 much the same as for each successive day that we 

 were upon the island, and we soon learned about 

 what to expect. There was the breakfast horn, the 

 breakfast, and the lectures, which all or part might 

 attend, occupying that part of the forenoon not de- 

 voted to exploring, collecting, or dissecting; and then 

 dinner time. After dinner a similar routine occupied 



