ON THE MARCH 29 



deck, descended a steep sloping plank, and marched 

 along the lower deck into an enclosure, where they 

 remained during the crossing. At Harwich they 

 were driven up the plank to the upper deck, off the 

 ship and into pens, where it is to be feared most of 

 them were killed for market. This is only a survival 

 of the old system by which the Norfolk geese were 

 driven up to London in thousands without losing 

 condition. It paid better before the days of railways 

 to let the geese transport themselves. The largest 

 drove mentioned was one of nine thousand which 

 went from Suffolk, through Chelmsford, and on >to 

 London. As " a cart," not carts, was provided to 

 pick up the lame ones, the number who fell out must 

 have been surprisingly small. It may be doubted 

 whether nine thousand creatures of any other species 

 could have made the journey of a hundred miles 

 with so little trouble. They took their journey 

 easily, marching ten miles a day. The ordinary day's 

 march of the German army is thirteen miles only 

 three miles better than the geese. But these are the 

 champion pedestrians of all birds. When Lord 

 Oxford bet the Marquess of Queensberry that a drove 

 of Suffolk geese would beat an equal number of 

 turkeys in a walk to London, the geese won by forty- 

 eight hours. 



Possibly the marching powers of geese are a legacy 

 from ancestors which could not fly at all, and were 

 entirely dependent on their legs as a means of pro- 

 gression over land or water. For, judging by the very 

 late development of the wings in goslings as well as 



