198 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



enlarged experience proved the case not to be quite so bad 

 as it seemed at first. After all, I came not here for sumptu- 

 ous larders, but for zoological delights ; and those were not 

 wanting. Was not the mere aspect of the sea a banquet ? 

 Xenophon tells us that, when the Ten Thousand saw the 

 sea again, they shouted. No wonder. After their weary 

 eyes had wandered forlorn over weary parasangs of flat earth, 

 and that earth an enemy's, wistfully yearning for the gleams 

 of the old familiar blue, they came upon it at last, and the 

 heart-shaking sight was saluted by a shout still more heart- 

 shakino;. At the first flash of it there must have been a 

 general hush, an universal catching of the breath, and the 

 next moment, like thunder leaping from liill to hill, the 

 loosened burst of gladness ran along the ranks, reverberating 

 from company to company, swelling into a mighty symphony 

 of rejoicing. What a sight, and what a sound ! There was 

 more than safety in that blue expanse, there was more than 

 loosened fear in their joy at once again seeing the dear 

 familiar face. The sea was a passion to the Greeks ; they 

 took naturally to the water, like ducks, or Englishmen, who 

 are, if we truly consider it, fonder of water than the ducks. We 

 are sea-dogs from our birth. It is in our race — bred in the 

 blood. Even the most inland and bucolic youth takes spon- 

 taneously to the water, as an element he is born to rule. 

 The winds carry ocean murmurs far into the inland valleys, 

 and awaken the old pirate instincts of the Norsemen. Boys 

 hear them, and although they never saw a ship in their lives, 

 these murmurs make their hearts unquiet ; antl to run away 

 from home, " to go to sea," is the inevitable result. Place a 



