266 THE PETREL. 



and breed in burrows, and the number of burrows 

 required to lodge such a flock would not be far 

 short of seventy-six millions ; and allowing a square 

 yard for each burrow, the space covered would be 

 something more than twenty-four and a half square 

 miles, or nearly fifteen thousand six hundred and 

 eighty acres of ground ! 



And though in such cheerless solitudes, man 

 would soon perish for want of sustenance, living 

 food seems to be placed there by Providence to a 

 greater extent than in any other known parts of the 

 habitable globe. Countless as are the myriads of 

 these birds, still more countless, e by millions' and 

 millions of figures, are the lesser marine beings on 

 which they feed. Some idea may be formed of 

 their abundance, by calculating the length of time 

 that would be requisite for a certain number of 

 persons to count the quantity contained in one 

 square mile of sea-water. Allowing that one per- 

 son could count a million in seven days, which is 

 barely possible, it has been calculated that no less 

 than eighty thousand persons should have started at 

 the creation of the world, nearly six thousand years 

 ago, to complete the calculation to the present time ! 

 And, if passing beyond the consideration of the 

 actual numbers, we reflect that each of these minute 

 beings has not only life, but a body wonderfully 

 made, with instincts and senses peculiar to each, 

 how infinitely beyond the power of our imagination 

 to conceive, is that great and overruling Power, who 

 hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand> 

 and meted out the heavens with a span. 



