SWIMMING BIEDS. 267 



from a volcanic jet in the act of being drowned and quenched 

 by the tide just at it nears the surface. But the scene will 

 not admit of description : those who love nature in her 

 mightier modes, should see it. 



One ocean scene, to give it breadth, one sea bird, to give it 

 wing, would require a volume. There are about four score 

 species of these swimming birds, we have but a few pages to 

 spare, and, therefore, we can give little else than a mere cata- 

 logue. Indeed, the manners of sea birds remain in a great 

 measure unknown -, though the sea, if deprived of its feathered 

 tribes, would be to human observation much more desolate 

 than the land, as the other multitudes of its animals which 

 inhabit, race under race, to a greater depth, perhaps, than 

 any line can fathom, are all for the most part concealed under 

 the surface. 



The productive powers of the ocean are, though concealed 

 from our common observation, utterly astonishing. In the 

 notice of the avocet, occasion was taken to instance the rate 

 at which even the least fertile of our river fishes could mul- 

 tiply; and though the result there was reduced to a very 

 small fraction of the reality, it was abundantly great. But it 

 is nothing to the fertility of the tribes in the sea. One brood 

 of the cod fish is between four or five millions ; so that ten 

 of these fishes would in the course of one year furnish a fish 

 a-piece to every man, woman, and child, in the three king- 

 doms. The smaller races are equally prolific ; and thus 

 when we come to think of the matter, we can easily perceive 

 not only that there is abundance for the countless multitudes 

 of sea birds that are scattered over the ocean, but that the 

 millions which often resort to the same islet or single rock in 

 the breeding season, can easily find in the near vicinity of 

 that a plentiful supply for themselves and their broods. 

 Further, when we bear in mind that the sea birds congregate 

 to breed, and the greater part of the land birds disperse, we 



