THE PACIFIC OCEAX. 31 9 



though so general a favourite, is the greedy devourer 

 of other fishes smaller than itself. Yet let us not 

 arraign the providence of God, as if it were cruel 

 and unkind : a sudden termination of existence is 

 the most merciful mode, as far as we can conceive, 

 by which the overflow of animal life could be 

 checked. 



"Harsh seems the ordinance, that life by life 

 Should be sustain'd; and yet when all must die, 

 And be like water spilt upon the ground, 

 Which none can gather up, — the speediest fate, 

 Though violent and terrible, is best. 

 0, with what horrors would creation groan, 

 What agonies would ever be before us, — 

 Famine and pestilence, disease, despair, 

 Anguish and pain in every hideous shape, 

 Had all to wait the slow decay of Xature ! 

 Life were a martyrdom of sympathy; 

 Death, lingering, raging, writhing, shrieking torture; 

 The grave would be abolished ; this gay world 

 A valley of dry bones, a Golgotha, 

 In which the living stumbled o'er the dead, 

 Till they could fall no more, and blind perdition 

 Swept frail mortality away forever. 

 'Twas wisdom, mercy, goodness that ordain'd 

 Life in such infinite profusion, — Death 

 So sure, so prompt, so multiform to those 

 That never sinn'd, that know not guilt, that fear 

 No wrath to come, and have no heaven to lose."* 



Before we leave these charming regions, we will 

 for a moment notice a few other of the various 

 tribes of living beings that make the sea their home. 

 A curious example of instinctive stratagem occurs 



in a little crab {Hyas ?) which is common upon 



the shore-reefs. It is about six inches in circum* 



* Pelican Island. 



