AQUATIC BIRDS. 



73 



Hence these tribes possess a character of innocence which moves us 

 infinitely, fills us with sympathy, and also, we must confess, with envy. 

 Thrice blessed, thrice fortunate that world where life renews and 

 repairs itself without the cost of death that world which is generally 

 free from pain, which ever finds in its nourishing waters the sea 

 of milk, has no need of cruelty, and still clings to Nature's kindly 

 breast ! 



Before man's appearance, profound was the peace of these soli- 

 tudes and their amphibious races. From the bear and the blue fox, 

 the two tyrants of that region, they found an easy shelter in the ever- 

 open bosom of the sea, their bountiful nurse. 



When our mariners first landed there, their only difficulty was to 

 pierce through the mass of curious and kindly-natured phocae which 

 came to gaze upon them. The penguins of Australian lands, the auks 

 and razor-bills of the Arctic shores, peaceable and more active, made no 

 movement. The wild geese, whose fine down, of incomparable softness, 

 furnishes the much-prized eider, readily permitted the spoilers to 

 approach and seize them with their hands. 



The attitude of these novel creatures was the cause of pleasant 

 mistakes on the part of our navigators. Those who from afar first 

 saw the islands thronged with penguins, standing upright, in their 



