Vi PEEFACE. 



of a poet's heart, though destitute of a poet's genius. As 

 Wordsworth so beautifully says, — 



" To me the meanest flower that blows can give 

 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 



Now, this book is an attempt to present natural history 

 in this aesthetic fashion. Not that I have presumed con- 

 stantly to indicate — like the stage-directions in a play, or 

 the " hear, hear \" in a speech — the actual emotion to be 

 elicited ; this would have been obtrusive and impertinent ; 

 but I have sought to paint a series of pictures, the reflec- 

 tions of scenes and aspects in nature, which in my own 

 mind awaken poetic interest, leaving them to do their 

 proper work. 



If I may venture to point out one subject on which I 

 have bestowed more than usual pains, and which I my- 

 self regard with more than common interest, it is that of 

 the last chapter in this volume. An amount of evidence 

 is adduced for the existence of the sub-mythic monster 

 popularly known as " the sea-serpent," such as has never 

 been brought together before, and such as ought almost 

 to set doubt at rest. But the cloudy uncertainty which 

 has invested the very being of this creature ; its home on 

 the lone ocean ; the fitful way in which it is seen and lost 

 in its vast solitudes ; its dimensions, vaguely gigantic ; its 

 dragon-like form ; and the possibility of its association 

 with beings considered to be lost in an obsolete antiquity ; 



