120 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



and that the all-devouring sea is a fabricator of new 

 lands, and an easy pathway round the globe, — I am 

 informed, nay, more, I see a purpose in it, — the 

 working of a Power mightier than that of man. 

 My thoughts ascend from mountains to masses 

 wheeling freely in absolute space. I look for the 

 boundary. I dare not even imagine it: I cannot 

 resist the conclusion — ' This is the building of 

 God.' " We shall now extract a few passages from 

 the work, and we shall begin with the monarch 

 of the mountain-top, the Golden Eagle, (Aqaila 

 aurea) — "On the summits of those cliffy mountains, 

 there are generally large masses of loose stone, and 

 it is- no uncommon feat to send these booming and 

 bounding down the slope, or thundering over the 

 precipice. In the former case, how they dance, 

 dash, and loosen others, till the whole mountain side 

 is in motion ! In the latter, 'the stone is not seen, 

 but the peals, as it dashes from one projecting point 

 to another, are loud ; they are caught up in echoes, 

 and reverberated from cliff to cliff, till the whole 

 wilderness is in mimic thunder, — rendered the more 

 awfully solemn, that there is not a living thing visi- 

 ble, save one small, pale butterfly, and the wind has 

 carried it away before the species could be known. 



" Ah ! the soimd of wings in the abyss, together 

 with a cherup, which again awakens the echoes, 

 and mocks the thundering of the stone. The bird 

 appears more than a thousand feet distant, and yet 

 she is gigantic. AVhat grace of attitude, what 



