26 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



like shape. Here is nothing flat or straight to the 

 eye. The curve of the gull's wing is as remarkable 

 as its taper. 



By the curve and twist, then, of the flexible body 

 and tail of the fish and the wings of the bird the 

 curve which is constantly describing an unseen series 

 of loops or waves strength and speed of motion 

 can alone be secured. The virtue of the curve, its 

 service in action, can hardly be put too high. Nor 

 is it only used in Nature for rapid action in flying 

 or darting creatures. We cannot notice the growth 

 of plants of various kinds without being struck by 

 the repetition of the curve and wavy line here too. 

 The spiral growth of climbers is to the point. In 

 the stems and tendrils of a thousand clambering 

 plants appears the smooth, snaky line which we 

 see in the action of a fish beginning to plunge 

 swiftly through the water. In rest and in action 

 equally, the curve has a great place in the system 

 of Nature, in still life and in quick ; and nothing 

 is more remarkable about it than its smoothness 

 and regularity, a bend in one direction always being 

 compensated for by a bend in the other. It reminds 

 me of that dualism of Nature on which Emerson 

 dwelt in his noble essay "Compensation." 



To see the cutting style of flight we have to leave 

 the wood and visit the Hampshire islet in winter or 

 early spring where the little waders gather. Here 

 springing from the beach, a flock of a hundred dunlins 



