BRITISH FERTILITY. 



IN crossing the Atlantic from the New World to the 

 Old, one of the first intimations the traveler has that 

 he is nearing a strange shore, and an old and populous 

 one, is the greater boldness and familiarity of the 

 swarms of sea-gulls that begin to hover in the wake 

 of the ship, and dive and contend with each other for 

 the fragments and parings thrown overboard from the 

 pantry. They have at once a different air and man- 

 ner from those we left behind. How bold and tire- 

 less they are, pursuing the vessel from dawn to dark, 

 and coming almost near enough to take the food out 

 of your hand as you lean over the bulwarks. It is a 

 sign in the air ; it tells the whole story of the hungry 

 and populous countries you are approaching ; it is 

 swarming and omnivorous Europe come out to meet 

 you. You are near the sea-marge of a land teeming 

 with life, a land where the prevailing forms are in- 

 deed few, but these on the most copious and vehement 

 scale ; where the birds and animals are not only more 

 numerous than at home, but more dominating and 

 aggressive, more closely associated with man, con- 

 tending with him for the fruits of the soil, learned in 

 his ways, full of resources, prolific, tenacious of life, 

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