200 VARIOUS REMARKS ON THE 



choked, by the mire which discoloured the emerald clear- 

 ness of the ocean for leagues. At last we reached our 

 allotted rivers ; but here new evils awaited us ; vast troops 

 of dog-fish, sharks, and seals awaited our coming, rushed 

 upon us, and devoured thousands before our eyes. But 

 our numbers were incalculable, and we pushed on. At 

 length I shot up my native stream, and on gliding into 

 the nook where I was born, felt some of the sensations 

 natural to home. As I was the largest and most powerful 

 tenant of the stream, I had no fear of rivalry ; I swept 

 through all its depths and recesses with the delight of 

 novelty, tasted its fresh herbage, sheltered myself from the 

 heat under the shade of its drooping willows, and at 

 will sported in the sun. But one day, as I was 

 darting with the speed of an arrow and the rapture of 

 full animation, through the centre of the stream that 

 rippled in silver under a breeze perfumed with the 

 fragrance of a thousand flowers, I was startled by the 

 sight of a monster such as I had never seen before. It 

 was of indescribable ugliness. Instead of the brilliant 

 sheating, the diamond scale, and the rainbow painting, to 

 which I had been accustomed in the tribes of the ocean, 

 its clothing was of the colour of the dingiest mire. 

 Instead of the lightning rapidity, ease and grace of the 

 fin, it rowed, or rather tottered, on two singularly shapeless 

 props ; its employment seemed as idiotic as its figure was 

 deformed. It stood sometimes gazing at the sun, some- 

 times at the water, stretching out its arms, alternately 



