THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



the dark pine forests of Scandinavia ; or the white 

 bear seated on a solitary iceberg in the Polar 

 Sea; or the whale spouting in the same frost- 

 bound waters, and pursued by the harpoon of his 

 relentless persecutors ; or the moose imprisoned in 

 the "yard" which he has himself formed by tread- 

 ing down the successive snows in the lofty woods 

 of America; or the chamois upon the peaks of the 

 Alps, with the eagle sweeping over him as he 

 gazes contemptuously down on the jiiger far be- 

 low; or the patient camel toiling along the un- 

 bounded waste of tawny sand ; or the kangaroo 

 bounding over the Australian scrub; or the seal 

 basking in his rocky cavern, while the surf is 

 dashing high on the cliffs around ; or the wild- 

 duck reposing at the margin of a smooth river, 

 when the red light of evening is reflected in the 

 line left by the tall and almost meeting trees over- 

 head ; or a group of snow-white egrets standing 

 motionless in the shallows of a reedy lake at 

 dawn of day; or the petrel careering over the 

 long waves in the midst of the wide ocean ; or the 

 tiny cyprides and cj^clopes disporting in the um- 

 brageous groves of their world, — a tiny tide-pool 

 hollowed out of a limestone rock by the action of 

 the waves. These and many more combinations 

 might be suggested ; and we shall surely see how 

 incomparably is the interest which attaches to 

 each form enhanced, by associating with it those 

 accompaniments and conditions of being, in which 

 alone it is at home. 



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