THE MEMORABLE. 



ble to disturb the perfect solitude and silence with 

 which he was surrounded. Suddenty, a soft and 

 winnowing sound in the air attracted his atten- 

 tion, and, looking up, with involuntary thoughts 

 of angels and spiritual visitants, he saw two 

 white-winged beings hovering in the air, who 

 presently descended and alighted close to his feet. 

 They were storks! attracted, doubtless, to the 

 moist and rank herbage by the expectation of a 

 plentiful repast on insects and slugs which the 

 dews had drawn abroad. To have found a living 

 man, where they had been accustomed to find 

 only the dead, seemed to disturb them, however; 

 for they presently spread their ample wings, and 

 mounted to the spire, where, perched, they gave 

 utterance to their wild and singularly plaintive 

 cries, which added greatly to those impressions of 

 loneliness and seclusion that the incident had al- 

 ready inspired. No wonder that the naturalist 

 could never afterwards behold a stork without 

 having presented to his imagination, in vivid 

 force, that startling rencontre in the graveyard of 

 Delft.* 



Very few persons capable of appreciating the 

 interest of the spectacle have ever beheld the gor- 

 geous bird of paradise in his remote equatorial 

 forests. The land in which it dwells is still a terra 

 incognita to science. Nearly all the world has 

 been laid open to the perseverance of modern ex- 

 plorers ; but the sullen ferocity of the savages of 

 New Guinea, and their hostility to strangers, keep 

 us to this day in ignorance of the largest island 

 of the world. A few glances at the coast, ob- 

 tained by adventurous travellers, who, well 

 armed, have penetrated a mile or two from the 

 sea, have only served to whet curiosity, and to 



* Hamilton's M Memoirs of Wilson," p. 33. 

 175 



