lis THE BCrrOM OF THE SEA. 



forests of the New World ? And what of the joys and 

 griefs, the struggles and massacres, of which, if the 

 faint conceptions of our imagination can be trusted, 

 these vast wildernesses may be the scene ? 



If you desire an illustration, see there, among the 

 rank herbage and flags at the embouchure of that 

 great river, an animal which measures anything under 

 eighteen feet from the head to the extremity of the 

 tail. His form recalls that of a pentagonal column 

 or a log of w^ood. He is squatting there, silent, im- 

 moveable. His tremendous jaws have an almost 

 benignant expression, and all around float barbillons, 

 looking like little worms. What a prey for any little 

 fish that may be swimming in the neighbourhood ! 

 But these worms are under the guard of a great 

 monster. The little fish advances in haste to seize 

 them. The benign jaws separate, and in a moment he 

 is swallowed. Perchance he makes a silent vow that 

 lie will never again hunt this kind of prey ; but if he 

 has been this time the sport of an illusion, has he not 

 often given chase to worms as supple and as frisky ? 



The worm floats in the water, or hollows out for 

 itself some abode in the fine sand, far from all agita- 

 tion. It nourishes itself with the infinitely little, 

 but sometimes it attaches itself to great animals, at 

 whose expense it lives, as we see in the case of ter- 

 restrial creatures. Certain species attain a consider- 



