THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE JUNK O' PORK. 37 



wings above their backs and dropping their long, thin legs. 

 They hold themselves stationary by fluttering their wings and 

 pattering with their webbed feet, much as a boy balances him- 

 self on a barrel by keeping both feet and hands in motion. 

 The name " petrel," or little Peter, is an allusion to St. Peter's 

 attempt to walk upon the water. The Germans call them 

 " Petersvogel," or Peter's birds, from the same pretty conceit. 



Can we understand the life of these petrels ? The glimpse 

 we have had of them is their one visit to the land in all the 

 year. After their little chick is out of the shell and able to 

 go to sea, the petrel never comes to shore again unless driven 

 in by storms. No birds are so near to the sailor in all his 

 voyages nor so remote from the landsman's travels as the 

 petrels and their near relatives. Their peculiar odor gives us 

 a hint and a strong one of train oil, and whaling voyages, 

 and long months out of sight of land. Day after day, month 

 after month, they are alone upon the ocean. 



Picture to yourself the solemn loneliness of such a life. All 

 they eat must come by fishing, or from the ocean drift, and 

 when they drink it must be salt water. They can never alight 

 on anything more stable than the rocking billows. Does it 

 storm ? There is no protection to them from rain or cold un- 

 less they fly above the storm or beyond it. They sleep on the 

 wing or on the wave, homeless wanderers, driven up and down 

 the sea with no rest except in motion. What a solitary life, 

 fit only for a savage bird that hates man and his own kind ! 

 Yet these houseless and homeless creatures are more sociable 

 than solitary, more confiding than morose; they seek the 

 neighborhood of ships, are easily caught, readily tamed; and 

 the smaller kinds are gentle in disposition, if not affectionate. 

 It is one of the mysteries of the great ocean, what makes its 

 loneliness and immensity so dear to these little sailor birds 



