414 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



poles, the crew is liable to be hemmed in, and fortunate 

 if, after sis months' bumping, 'nipping,' and crushing, 

 they bring her off at last, and manage to escape white 

 bears, famine, and an icy grave. Besides these liabilities to 

 mischief, the wants of those on board compel frequent 

 forced halts ; here for coal, there for water : and then 

 there are sundry runnings into harbour ia dirty weather, 

 to the further delay of the ship's voyage; all which 

 ' touchings,' in order to ' go,' must often sadly retard a 

 sigh ia its passage from Indus to the Pole. 



In birds, wings supply the place and greatly exceed 

 the efficiency of sails ; but even wings have their limita- 

 tions of action, and are also subject to many mishaps. 

 Birds can neither soar heavenward nor skim far across 

 the waters without being made sensible of this ; the 

 stoutest pinion cannot long beat the frosty air of high al- 

 titudes, and remain unnimibed ; thus high and no higher 

 may the eagle aeronaut mount ; whilst of birds of passage, 

 how many thousands, trusting, like Icarus, to uncertain 

 wings, drop and die in the transit to another continent, 

 and cover whole roods of ocean with their feathery car- 

 cases ! 



Quadrupeds, again, are yet more restricted in their 

 wanderings over the earth; natural obstacles are con- 

 tinually presenting so many bars to their progress ; the 

 dry and thirsty desert where no water is, iuaccessible 

 snow-capped mountain-ridges, the impenetrable screen 

 of forest-trees, the broad lake, the unfordable and rapid 

 river, the impassable line of a sea-girt shore ; any of these 

 impediments are enough to keep beasts within an area 

 of no very wide range. Thus it fares with aU creatures, 

 denizens either of earth or air ; but none of these obstacles 

 impede the activity of fish. They may swim anywhere 

 and everywhere through the boundless expanse of waters; 

 and, in defiance alike of trade-wind or storm, may tra- 

 verse the open seas at every season, surrounded on all 



