AQUATIC BIRDS. 73 
Hence these tribes possess a character of innocence which moves us 
infinitely, fills us with sympathy, and also, we must confess, with envy. 
Thrice blessed, thrice fortunate that world where life renews and 
repairs itself without the cost of death—that world which is generally 
free from pain, which ever finds in its nourishing waters the sea 
of milk, has no need of cruelty, and still clings to Nature’s kindly 
breast ! 
Before man’s appearance, profound was the peace of these soli- 
tudes and their amphibious races. From the bear and the blue fox, 
the two tyrants of that region, they found an easy shelter in the ever- 
open bosom of the sea, their bountiful nurse. 
When our mariners first landed there, their only difficulty was to 
pierce through the mass of curious and kindly-natured phocz which 
came to gaze upon them. The penguins of Australian lands, the auks 
and razor-bills of the Arctic shores, peaceable and more active, made no 
movement. The wild geese, whose fine down, of incomparable softness, 
furnishes the much-prized eider, readily permitted the spoilers to 
approach and seize them with their hands. 
The attitude of these novel creatures was the cause of pleasant 
mistakes on the part of our navigators. Those who from afar first 
saw the islands thronged with penguins, standing upright, in their 
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