DIVERS. 285 



The eagle can keep her place on the rock during any storm ; 

 but there are states of the atmosphere in which she is not 

 able to keep the sky ; and if those states were to continue, 

 the eagle, notwithstanding the extent to which she can en- 

 dure want, would at last die of starvation. There have been 

 instances of eagles being reduced to such extremities, that 

 they have gnawed a portion, not only of the feathers, but of 

 the flesh and bones of their own wings. The tempest, too, 

 sweeps the swallows and swifts from the sky, and the far- 

 ranging petrels from the face of the ocean ; and the dabbling 

 sea-fowl at those times huddle together in the sheltered 

 creeks ; and even the gull and the cormorant are fain to take 

 their passage inland. 



But when all else that breathes the free air of heaven are 

 quailing before the tempest, and in some way or other con- 

 fessing, by their subdued action, the commotion of that ele- 

 ment upon which they so immediately depend for life, the 

 divers are in the full tide of enjoyment ; and the only effort 

 that they have to make, is to keep themselves at sea : for if 

 they drift to land, they are as helpless as a rudderless vessel 

 on a lee-shore. 



In those times of elemental anarchy, the waters- of the 

 ocean, to the mean depth of the swell of the waves, that is, 

 about as far below the " trough of the sea" as the ridge 

 rises above it, are in turmoil and agitation, and all the 

 fishes, and other small marine animals that are caught in that 

 swelling surface, soon lose command of themselves. The 

 fishes have but one grand swimming instrument, the tail ; 

 and though their fins and scales hold on, and assist the action 

 of that up to a certain point of agitation in the water, they 

 are at last overcome, and driven at the mercy of the surge. 

 This is proved by the fact, that after violent gales, when the 

 fry of any particular species of fish are numerous in the 

 offing, they are cast to the depth of one or two feet in 



