FAR AND NEAR 



Unable to rise, they would glance behind them in a 

 fri<j^htened manner, tJien plunge beneath the waves 

 until they thought the danger had passed. At all 

 hours of the night and day one could hear this impa- 

 tient flapping of the frightened murres. The bird 

 is a species of diver, nearly as large as a black 

 duck. Its tail is so short that in flying the two 

 webbed feet stretched behind do the duty of a tail. 

 It is amusing to see it spread or contract them 

 in turning or changing its course, as the case re- 

 quires. After we had taken our fill of gazing upon 

 the murres came the ramble away from the cliffs, in 

 the long twilight, through that mossy and flowery 

 solitude. Such patterns and suggestions for rugs and 

 carpets as we walked over for hours ; such a blend- 

 ing of grays, drabs, browns, greens, and other delicate 

 neutral tints, all dashed with masses of many-colored 

 flowers, it had never before been my fortune to be- 

 hold, much less to walk upon. Drifting over this 

 marvelous carpet, or dropping down upon it from 

 the air above, was the h}^erborean snowbird, w hite 

 as a snowflake and with a song of great sweetness 

 and power. With lifted wings the bird would drop 

 through the air to the earth, pouring out its joyous, 

 ecstatic strain. Out of the deep twilight came also 

 the song of the longspur, delivered on the wing, and 

 touching the wild solitude like the voices of children 

 at play. Then there was the large Aleutian sand- 

 piper, that ran before me and uttered its curious wild 



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