4© In Touch with Nature. 



week and left its champion confounded. Not a 

 syllable could be uttered in defence of such con- 

 ditions. March may play fast and loose as it 

 chooses, but a murrain seize its black art that can 

 call midwinter back. Nevertheless, must the 

 rambler sit down in despair because of all this ? 

 We made for the river-shore in spite of the free 

 scope of the cutting wind, for if life was astir at 

 all it was likelier here than on the fields. It 

 proved so. My companion's question, "What's 

 that?" and my exclamation of "A seal!" were 

 uttered at the same instant, and straightway the 

 bad weather was forgiven and forgotten. 



To have this creature twice lift its head above 

 the water and then disappear proved the " presto, 

 change!" of the wonder-workers when I was 

 young. I could have welcomed the north pole 

 then and there. It is a matter of a single seal, 

 and at long intervals now, — thousands crowding 

 every rock and raft of ice a few thousands of years 

 ago. To-day, a civilized man gazing in wonder at 

 a solitary creature, — formerly here roamed savage 

 men that largely fed upon their oily carcasses. 

 Who can fathom the meaning of these changes of 



